Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable 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, one of the dangerous 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.

M. R. Carey is definitely no stranger to all things post-apocalyptic, having written one of my all-time favorite books OF EVER & a total classic in the genre, The Girl With All The Gifts. That is a book that just consumed me entirely when I read it, and was something I couldn’t stop thinking about for literally weeks & months on end.

Needless to say, when Orbit announced Carey’s new Rampart Trilogy was A WHOLE NEW POST-APOCALYPSE, I was thrilled. The Book of Koli isn’t out for a couple more weeks, but I was too excited and had to dive in immediately! And, oof…what a bold & brilliant start to a new trilogy this is!

Set in England, significantly far in the future, the human population is incredibly small, and the landscape is harsh & unforgiving. Thanks to earlier human fuckery, the world is now populated by, among other things, trees that grow at astronomical rates & also want to kill people. So, yeah.

Our narrator is Koli, a boy of about fifteen. He lives in a small, enclosed village called Mythen Rood. It’s really all he’s ever known, having only ever ventured outside the village’s protective walls on a few occasions. It’s more of a primitive lifestyle, and that’s reflected in both Koli’s speech & his limited understanding of the world gone by. Koli refers to places called “Briton,” “Yewkay,” and “Half-Ax,” and his overall pattern of speech (the book is first-person) is somewhat childish:

“I growed up a mite wild, it’s got to be said. Jud used to temper me somewhat, but after he was gone there wasn’t nobody else to take up that particular job.”

It can take some getting used to, for sure. But after a bit, Koli’s narration really begins to click, and it also beautifully encapsulates so much about the story.

In Koli’s world, old technology is as revered as it is scarce. Those that learn to wield it are given special roles in Mythen Rood. These so-called Ramparts are tasked with protecting the community. It’s Koli’s desire to have a piece of tech for his own that sets the story in motion, and sends Koli’s entire life into upheaval.

The Book of Koli is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and as always, I’m just blown away by Carey’s writing. I think he’s one of the most natural storytellers out there, and I’ve really loved everything of his that I’ve read.

Koli is such a unique narrator…he feels things very deeply, and he’s also really in the process of Figuring Shit Out. To that end, he makes some rather bone-headed decisions, which only makes him a more believable fifteen-year-old.

This is one of those books where it’s best to leave more unsaid…there are lots of surprises between the covers of this book, for both Koli & the reader. The Book of Koli has so many of the trappings of a great Book One. Carey really takes his time setting things into motion, leaning into character development, and making you stay up way too late turning pages to see what’ll happen to Koli next! I have no doubt the Rampart Trilogy is going to be something very special…this is the post-apocalyptic, coming-of-age trilogy WE NEED RIGHT NOW!!!

Mega thanks to Orbit for the copy! The Book of Koli releases April 14th!