I’ve not read anything from this author before this. So many great reviews from his series, The Girl With All The Gifts, and now I wanna get a hold of that series. Ok so The Book of Koli is a science fiction story of how anything tech/ weapon is something to be controlled. However not everyone can control it. I’ll stop there.

This is a pretty good tale of how the world looks like after so much has happened. It’s almost like having to start over. Koli is the protagonist in the story. He is the one who uncovers the truth about the tech. It was a pretty good read in my opinion. It has action, friendship, and some scenes makes you feel sorry for him. Moderate pace for me. Hmm come to think of it, I pretty much imagined this as a show lol. Maybe it could be 🤔 This the the first book of the series and I hope everyone will enjoy it.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Maybe I’ll talk about it some more once it’s out.

Great worldbuilding with an interesting cast of characters. Can’t wait to find out what happens next!

This has a slow start, but really works once it gets going. Interesting tech and premise, and well executed overall. I have another of the author's books on my list and this will motivate me to read it quickly. Not sure what else to say other than I recommend it.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been enjoying M.R. Cary for quite some time now and I jumped on the chance to review his new series through Netgalley.

So was it everything I might have hoped? Yes! And maybe.

At first, I realized, belatedly, that this had all the hallmarks of a YA novel. He's done some good YA in the past, so I settled into life in a dystopian future with ancient advanced tech, trees that like to hunt us, and provincial life that takes a major turn for the worse.

Standard fare, mostly, with some really fun and cool aspects that just BEG to be explored. And we do explore them. In fact, I had the best time when we got to *spoiler spoiler ipod-not-ipod spoiler*. From then on, I just chortled and had a great time. Of course, I had to get there first. Nothing too onerous. And I have to say I had a lot more time with this one than I've had with MOST of a long line of YA SF novels, so kudos!

Can't wait to read the next!

Interesting, not what you would expect but in a good way. I'll be thinking of this one for awhile... That ending is going to make the wait for book two unbearable. More to come closer to publication.

Just finished the Book of Koli and I am upset. Upset because it's over. The world is painted so well - subtle enough to feel real, but without leaving you wondering where you are. Koli is a character so finely developed I wondered if the author became Koli to write this. I loved the Girl with All the Gifts, and I haven't read any of his other books, worrying (probably in a silly way) that they wouldn't be as good. Well, this put my mind to ease. I am even more of a fan of Carey after this, and while I wait for the story to continue I'll be dusting off the other ones I have by him to keep myself occupied.

Excellent plot, realistically done, with some action, well developed main character, and a great world. Overall a winner.

Annihilation meets Black Mirror with Ashley O

*SPOILERS*

5 star read. This book was a little hard to get into at first bc it is written in Koli's pov and he is telling the story so the grammar is somewhat bad because he is uneducated, and lives in a world where they dont use words we use.

This book is set hundreds of years after the world ends thanks to climate change and drones, bombs. The worlds population is small, there are small villages with leaders and where Koli lives, there are many secrets.

Koli finds out about tech, how it works and how its set up for only certain people to use the tech, he never had a chance. He then makes it his business to steal some tech and try to make it work. One ends up waking to him which is not a weapon but some sort of iPod but better with a AI named Monono. He sends her on a "quest" to update and when she comes back she knows way more than she should about the world and what happened. Koli finds himself banished after showing everyone the tech and how it works when he calls to it.

There is seriously mote that im not saying but he ends up being reunited with Monono and Ursala a doctor of sorts who had told him secrets he wasnt supposed to know. They end up caught in some crazy cult and find a way to escape.

With the worlds small population becoming smaller bc people aren't able to make more babies, Ursula, Koli and monono set off to London to find more tech, see if there are any survivors. There are many dangers ahead and this was an amazing book to a series I cant wait to finish.

M.R Carey is such a great story teller. Once I got used to Kolis language and the world. I couldn't put it down. Thank you Netgalley and orbit for this earc. I loved it and look forward to the rest of the series.

I love M.R. Carey’s previous work – he is a truly exceptional post-apocalyptic fiction writer – and The Book of Koli was just as unique as I’ve come to expect from him, but unfortunately, I just couldn’t get on board with the writing style he chose for this book. It’s written in first person perspective, in the protagonist’s own words, poor grammar and limited vocabulary included. I can appreciate the stylistic choice, but it was not my cup of tea at all. I read books to immerse myself in beautiful language, revel in unexpected turns of phrase. The writing style took me right out of the story and made it impossible for me to immerse myself. I’m very disappointed I wasn’t able to enjoy this one, but I guess they can’t all be winners.

MR Carey, aka Mike Carey, has been one of my favorite writers for years. His <i>Lucifer</i> spinoff from Gaiman’s <i>Sandman</i> is incredible. His time writing <i>Hellblazer</i> was great. I consider the Felix Castor urban fantasy series to be every bit as good as Dresden, and <i>The Girl with all the Gifts</i> deserves all the praise it gets. Getting an ARC of Carey’s forthcoming book is without doubt the highlight of my book reviewing career. So a huge thank-you to Orbit for this book.

So, does this book live up to my expectations? Yes it does.

This is a post-apocalyptic book. Climate change and other environmental disasters have pretty much wrecked the human population, with the added fun that poorly conceived genetic experiments run amok have made trees carnivorous and in general turned nature hyperaggressive. “<i>The Fifth Season</i>, but with biology trying to kill everyone instead of geology” isn’t a bad description. Koli is from one small, primitive, isolated village (which describes how most of humanity is living), on the edge between childhood and adulthood. The time before everything fell apart is shrouded in myth and legend. Surviving functional technology is both priceless and completely-not-understood, and the leadership of the village is chosen due to their ability to use the tech the village depends on to survive.

The fact that the only people who can use the village’s technology come from one family is probably just a coincidence.

I don’t think it’s really a spoiler to say that Koli eventually manages to get his hands on a working piece of tech, and things don’t turn out the way he hopes. Normally I wouldn’t mention that (even though it’s really obvious where the story is going) but there was no way to avoid mentioning that without mentioning the greatest part of the book: the device’s user interface is modeled on that of a manufactured, hyper-peppy Japanese pop idol. Koli has no idea what to make of this girl (and as far as he’s aware, it’s not a UI, it’s some kind of a magical spirit girl living inside the old tech that keeps asking him what his favorite songs are). And it is awesome.

As far as critiques go, my only serious one is that the opening is slow. I enjoyed it, because Carey is a good writer, but the pacing is kind of sedate for the first half of the book or so (the second half makes up for it). And there were some parts (particularly involving the wise sage character, a.k.a. the only person in the book who actually knows anything real about the old world) where I thought Koli got answers far too easily.

But those (minor) complaints aside, this was a super interesting book, and a super fun one. I’m very much looking forward to the sequel.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

The book of Koli is the first book I've ever read by M. R. Carey, but I will definitely read more! The story is absolutely fantastic and the writing and the characters blew me away. Koli is an amazing, complex and well written main character and the story is full of plot twists and it made the reader think and reflect.

This was a drastic departure from this author’s usual style/genre. I’m not sure I would have chosen this, if not for enjoying the previous work. While not my usual thing, the story grew on me, and I will undoubtedly look for the next installment .

WOW, WOW, WOW! Firstly, I was not aware this was the same author as Girl with gifts, etc with I really like.
This blew me away, I don't know how I'll manage the wait until book 2!