 ‘The Book of Koli’ opens MR Carey’s new post-apocalyptic trilogy I’ve read most of MR Carey’s recent fiction and although he has some outstanding novels, his output since the excellent Girl with all the Gifts from 2014 has been hit and miss. The loose sequel The Boy on the Bridge left me cold, Someone Like Me was also a drab affair, but I did thoroughly enjoy the supernatural prison drama Fellside. Carey’s strength lies is the unpredictability of his work; his range and ability to smoothly blend genre ideas with a very literary style of writing. However, I was unconvinced by this this latest effort, which takes a detour back into the post-apocalyptic area of fiction, minus the zombies of Girl with all the Gifts. Maybe I missed something in this book, but the publisher certainly has faith in The Book of Koli, as some online sources already have The Trials of Koli (2020) and The Fall of Koli (2021) listed for publication. To be brutal, although I finished it, there was absolutely nothing I have not read before or enough to drag me back for the sequel. I’m going to get my major gripe out of the way first, as this really tested my patience and almost resulted in me abandoning the novel. One of the core themes involves the rediscovery of old (almost forgotten) technology, such as hand-held computer consoles which are voice activated or controlled. Imagine having to explain what the internet is to an illiterate who has no knowledge of computers or the vaguest concept of what you are talking about. Because the readers already know what the internet is, this is rather tedious reading and way too much time of the book is spent on the main character, the narrator, Koli getting his head around technology after he comes across a talking gadget. This was boring and made even more irritating by the fact that the voice of the computer talks in the style of a Japanese machine which might teach you to dance. Have I already said it was irritating? Too much time was spent in conversation with this frustrating device and it dragged the book down like a lead balloon. The Book of Koli is set at some point in the future after a war which is mentioned later in the story and there are some interesting concepts which are seriously underused in comparison to the annoying computer. For example, everyone lives in very small villages and there is very little travel from place to place because the trees are dangerous. Due to genetic engineering going haywire at some point in the past, many trees are now carnivorous and for the most part it is dangerous to wander in the nearby forests. Perhaps we will see more of these trees in the second book, but for such a cool idea they were too far in the background. Occasionally a traveller appears, who might use old tech, and pass on news and gossip from other villages, everybody lives in isolation and news of other communities is few and far between. It’s almost like we’ve moved back into the Middle Ages and the vagueness of the time and place is excellently presented in a well-drawn community. The narrative style is a hugely watered-down version of the heavily copied cult classic Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban where language has been broken down, with speech patterns and syntax messed around slightly. It is not as phonetically extreme as Riddley Walker and readers should find it easy enough to get into the first person narrative, which is almost written like Koli is telling his life story, rather reflectively, around a campfire and is aware of his mistakes and shortcomings. Words have obviously disappeared from common use and this style reminded be slightly of Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden series, but the Beckett book has more sophisticated language alterations. For example, in that book the word ‘very’ does not exist, so to emphasise something you say it twice! “I Like you much, much” is a simple illustration.  As the age of Koli is never revealed, the story has a slight coming of age, Young Adult, feel to proceedings and that was one of the stronger elements of the book. One can guess Koli is around sixteen, beginning to fool around with girls, is already seen as an adult and about to have his position in the village hierarchy revealed through a mysterious ceremony, in which he has ideas which are perhaps above his station, because of his fascination with the old technology. Beyond Koli the other main characters were also very well drawn, the girl he has a crush on, his best friend and relationship with his mother all convince. But this good work is dragged down by his fascination with the computer console, which results in him doing something really dumb which has life changing consequences for him. This is the core of what the book is about, but is it enough to carry the story? I didn’t think so. Neither is building a novel around rediscovering technology anything new, and this book had some similarities to Walter Miller’s 1950s classic A Canticle for Leibowitz. Not enough happened in The Book of Koli to really suck me in, by the time it finished things were just warming up, but that’s the curse of the trilogy. There are lots of nice hints and clues where the story might be set, and the author develops a believable background involving the secrets which have been passed on down the generations to keep the village going. Even in the most primitive societies knowledge has power. It had its moments, but ultimately, I found it rather underwhelming, having said that I read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction and may be harder to please than most readers. Only time will tell whether there is any appetite for the sequels The Trials of Koli and The Fall of Koli. Tony Jones   the heart and soul of horror review websitesComments are closed.
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