The Book of Koli
The Rampart Trilogy, Book 1 (shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award)
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4.5 • 28 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'ASTONISHING' Locus, 'ENTHRALLING' Guardian, 'CAPTIVATING' Kirkus
***SHORTLISTED FOR THE PHILIP K. DICK AWARD***
The Book of Koli begins a breathtakingly original new trilogy set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.
Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognisable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, the Shunned men will.
Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls.
He's wrong.
'A CAPTIVATING START TO WHAT PROMISES TO BE AN EPIC POST-APOCALYPTIC FABLE' Kirkus
'KOLI EMBARKS UPON A JOURNEY AS PERILOUS AS IT IS ENLIGHTENING' Guardian
'THE BEST THING I'VE READ IN A LONG TIME. I LOVED IT' Joanne Harris
'INGENIOUS' Helen Marshall, World Fantasy Award-winning author
'DEEPLY ENGAGING' C. A. Fletcher, author of A Boy And His Dog at the End of the World
'ASTONISHING STORYTELLING POWER WITH PLAINSPOKEN LANGUAGE, HEARTBREAKING CHOICES, AND SINCERITY LIKE AN ARROW TO THE HEART' Locus
Look out for the next novels in the trilogy: The Trials of Koli and The Fall of Koli
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Carey (The Girl With All the Gifts) allows the promising premise of the first installment to his sci-fi Rampart Trilogy a postapocalyptic U.K. (stylized in this far-future as "Yewkay") in which human civilization has fallen to murderous, genetically modified plants to languish as he focuses on a shallow, self-centered protagonist. Teenage Koli Woodsmith wants nothing more than to become a protector of his village. Though Koli sees himself as a hero, he is more swayed by his own desires than by challenging the systems put in place by the power-hungry village elders, and he acts primarily for his own gains, whether the motivation be a girl or a piece of technology. After Koli is accused of stealing from the town's technological storeroom, he is exiled from the village and must learn to survive the hostile wilderness. The slogging plot is slowed even further by the narrator's awkwardly rendered dialect ("I opened my mouth but no word come out. Of course I knowed it."). From the barely explored setting to the strained ventriloquism of the narrative voice, Carey offers little to inspire confidence in future series entries. Sci-fi readers will be disappointed.
