The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

“So that was our life, and it seemed like nothing would ever happen to change it. But it’s when you think such thoughts that change is most like to come. You let your guard down, almost, and life comes running at you on your blind side. Because life is nothing but change, even when it seems to stand still. Standing still is a human thing, like a defiance we throw, but we can never do it for long.”

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

Every time I pick up another book by M.R. Carey (he also writes under Mike Carey), I am blown away, devastated and sitting on the edge of my seat. His books are insanely good. I read Someone Like Me a few months ago, which is hands down my favorite supernatural thriller (if you can classify such an amazing book like that into a genre). The Girl with All the Gifts is an incredible, stunning and moving book, too. Basically, I’ve come to learn that if I pick up a book by M.R. Carey, I’m not going to want to put it down, and it is going to shake my entire world. 

The Book of Koli, the first book in the Rampart trilogy, was a masterpiece in every possible sense. I can’t get over how brilliant this book is. 

It follows Koli, a young man living in the village Mythen Rood, who is trying to figure out how to make a name for himself in the confines of his small world. Outside of Mythen Rood is a dangerous place. Forests filled with rats the size of dogs, huge snakes and trees that will try to kill you. And that’s only a scratch on the surface of what’s out there. 

Koli wants to become a Rampart, someone who certain tools wake for. Flamethrowers, cutters, etc. But on his day of testing, the items don’t wake for Koli and he isn’t considered a Rampart. When the girl he wants to marry chooses someone else, Koli sees the entire future he imagined for himself slipping away, and he decides it won’t stand. He’s going to take the future he wants for himself. But then, he learns some truths about the Ramparts, ones that will change his life forever. 

I…I loved this book so much more than I can put into words. I can’t emphasize enough how brilliant of a writer M.R. Carey is. In every book I have read of his so far, he has these sentences, paragraphs that are so deep and profound, you just sit back and wait for the ribbons of emotions that just unraveled to spin back into you. And I feel like I always pick up his books at the exact moment I am meant to read them. 

The Book of Koli is an amazing post-apocalyptic novel that is frighteningly beautiful and tense. I loved everything about it, even when I was freaked out and worried about what would happen next. Also, I have about a million questions that I need answered, so I am so excited to read the next book in the trilogy. 

And I am leaving you with one more quote from this book. If you haven’t tried M.R. Carey yet, what’s stopping you?

“I think she enjoyed telling it to me. She forgot about how bad things was for us for awhile, and I guess I did too. It never stops amazing me how a story can deliver you out of your own self, even in the worst of times.”

-The Book of Koli, M.R. Carey