This is excellent. With many ratings and reviews already out there, you only need to read those for more details. Recommended.

I really appreciate the free review copy!!

I absolutely loved this trilogy. The third installment was the best. It perfectly wrapped up the trilogy. Such a satisfying end. M.R. Carey does a fantastic job with world-building. His "tech' is ingenious, his characters compelling. I would love to revisit this world. There's both a strong male AND a strong female lead in the last book. All the stars.

4.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2021/04/01/the-fall-of-koli-rampart-trilogy-3-by-mr-carey/
My Five Word TL:DR Review : A Love Story in Disguise

Okay, that might not be totally correct but you’ll just have to trust me.

The Fall of Koli is the final instalment of the Rampart Trilogy and brings to an end the strangely satisfying, if somewhat bittersweet, adventures of the titular character.

I would just point out that being the third in series it’s quite likely that this review will contain spoilers for prior instalments. Also, I would also mention that this is not a series that you can dive into randomly. The books need to be read in order, not just to give the full weight to the character growth that takes place during the series but also because you need the background story.

The first book of Koli is really an introduction to the world and characters. Koli lives in a small village where each person must play their part in order to survive. The village is effectively run by one family, known as the Ramparts, who are in control of all the ‘old tech’. Each year the newest adults in the village undertake a trial to see if the tech will ‘wake’ for them. This is an exciting and hopeful time for the villagers although to date the ability remains within the one family. The first book is more about the revelations and truths that Koli uncovers that result in him being cast out of the village and see the start of his journey to seek lost London.

The second book breaks into two narratives that follows Koli and his little group of friends (and they are a really great bunch of characters) and also flits back to Koli’s village so that we can see what is happening there since he left. I enjoyed this book more than the first to be honest. I liked the split narrative, I enjoyed seeing more of the world and there were a couple of revelations. The villagers, for example, are starting to become more aware of the duplicity that surrounds them but at the same time still need to remain united in order to survive.

The third book is also a huge revelation. Koli and his group have found what they were looking for, at the same time, they’ve also discovered that the threat to the world might not yet be over.

There’s plenty of action in this instalment and both storylines seem to split in the way they feel. Koli’s storyline almost feels unreal, like we’ve stepped into a strange sci-fi nightmare. Meanwhile the village are facing a total wipe out that brings plenty of action and fighting to the story.

What I really liked about this series is that taken as a whole it’s much more than the sum of its parts. It’s not simply a post apocalyptic book about survival and the depths that people sink to in order to stay alive – although there is obviously still elements of that. This is more a story of hope to be honest. It highlights that there are still people who want to help others and will go to great lengths in order to do so. More than this it has to be the most unlikely love story you’ll ever read – and to be clear, this isn’t a romance in the typical sense of the word – I won’t say more on that. And, on top of this there’s the whole debate going on here about AI – can humans trust artificial intelligence or, perhaps on the flip side, can artificial intelligence trust humans.

I like a book that makes me think and the Fall of Koli certainly achieved that. Plus, all this food for thought is wrapped up in a tense story that highlights the struggles that the characters from both narratives are undertaking to not just survive but to stop a bigger threat. And I really appreciated that both storylines involved a fight to survive. On the face of it the village faced a dire threat with lots of fighting and strategy. Koli and Co seemed to be involved in a much smaller conflict on the face of it and with less dynamism involved in terms of action and war faring, but, in fact their storyline had the potential for much greater impact in the long term and certainly felt more sinister.

In terms of criticisms. Nothing much here except I felt a slight slowing down during the time Koli and his friends spent on board ship (trying not to give anything away here). To be fair, I think that might just be me though – I found myself enjoying the second narrative slightly more which is probably down to all the action. Again, though, there are moments during this part of Koli’s story that really made my jaw drop.

Overall, I think this was a very good conclusion. I’m tempted to say bittersweet but I’m not entirely sure that’s the most appropriate phrase. Having really thought about it I think Carey has given the most unusual, but perhaps strangely fitting, conclusion that you could imagine.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I see what everyone meant when they said this book will punch you right in the emotions now. What a fantastic conclusion to the trilogy! While this still isn’t quite a five star read for me (I was not weeping or uncontainably elated at the end) it was an impressive tale from beginning to end  and did tug on the heartstrings a bit.

Koli, Ursala, Cup, and Monono are in dire straits when they are pulled from the ocean by the folks aboard the Sword of Albion. Yes, the Sword is a massive, technologically advanced ship with a crew of three. It’s a strange situation, amongst a trilogy full of strange situations and events. Stanley Banner and his parents, Lorraine and Paul, are the only people aboard the ship and honestly, the only reason they rescued our band of misfits is because of Ursala’s Drudge. They want her to repair it so that she might treat Stanley for some unnamed genetic illness. Lorraine and Paul are oddities (and we soon find out why) and Stanley is at times a massive jerk and at others a fairly normal boy, almost as if he were two different people entirely. Unfortunately, it seems as if Koli, Ursala, Cup, and Monono are prisoners aboard the ship until Ursala completes her task.

On the other side of things, we have Spinner’s POV in Mythen Rood. She’s just returned triumphant from a raid by the Peacemaker’s people with a huge new piece of tech, though many of her people were killed or wounded. Spinner’s perspective has been my favorite. She’s tough yet vulnerable and we get to see how she balances her roles as leader, wife, and mother. Spinner’s chapters are definitely the more action packed of the two POVs, though Koli’s certainly don’t lack for tension. The village of Mythen Rood is constantly in a state of preparation for battle, knowing full well that the Peacemaker will make his move soon.

Eventually our characters reunite again after their long journeys and misadventures. The ending was fairly powerful, though I think perhaps it didn’t impact me as strongly as it did other readers. It was bittersweet, yet left me satisfied. This series wouldn’t have felt right with a truly happy, fairytale ending because it’s a post-apocalyptic world and things just don’t happen that way. This was an exciting read, and if you don’t mind the odd vernacular used by certain characters I would highly recommend it!

DNF. Did not enjoy the writing style/voice in the first three chapters and it would not be fair to continue with the book and negatively rate it at the end.

Approaching a series ender often brings contrasting emotions, particularly the concern that it might not live up to expectations: well, this was definitely NOT the case with The Fall of Koli, the amazing, adrenaline-infused final book in M.R. Carey’s Rampart series set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity hangs on to survival by its fingernails. As is my habit, I will try to refrain from spoilers as much as I can, but be aware that some details from previous books might be mentioned.

Young Koli Woodsmith was exiled from his native village of Mythen Rood in book 1: in this future, dystopian England, the few remaining - and functioning - items of tech from the old civilization are both weapons of defense and the way for the village’s ruling clan to keep hold of their power. Having stolen a piece of tech for himself, thus uncovering a long-guarded secret in Mythen Rood, Koli is forced to leave home and start a journey across the land, gathering two unlikely companions: Ursala from Elsewhere, a sort of traveling physician, and Cup, former member of a death cult. In book 2, the three companions undertake a voyage toward mythical London, where they might find a way to revive a dying civilization, and at the end of that second book we are left with a disturbing cliffhanger.

The Fall of Koli defies any expectation one might have entertained about the story’s progression, both in developing events and in the way the story is told: equal narrative space is given to Koli and his companions and to the situation in Mythen Rood, where Koli’s one-time friends Spinner and Jon, together with the other villagers, face a deadly threat from a nearby enclave, whose superior firepower and aggressive attitude might end in death and destruction. I have come to see this series’ storytelling as the expanding circles forming when one throws a stone in water: at first we learn about the small, confined world of Koli’s home village, then we see a little of the outside world and its many dangers, and once we reach this last installment we finally understand how the world as we know it ended, what remains of its former power and what threat that dormant power represents.

The regular shifts in narrative perspective turn the story into a compulsive read, and the raising stakes on both sides of the action keep the tension at high levels, making it clear that any kind of ending is possible, and that it might not contemplate a happily-ever-after for everyone. Where the situation in Mythen Rood might look like a classic post-apocalyptic scenario where the strongest and better armed always overpower the weakest, the sections concerning Koli & Co. become progressively more disturbing as the real nature of the Sword of Albion, whose recorded message prompted the group’s journey toward London, is revealed and the individuals the travelers meet look more sinister and threatening with every passing day.

Where the overall scenario is compelling, the characters’ journey is no less intriguing: Koli is probably the one who changes less than others, but the fact that he appears to remain true to himself throughout the story does not detract from his innate kindness, selflessness and capacity for compassion, which are the traits that best define him. Koli might not be the “hero” in the widely accepted definition of the word because his strength does not come from particular acts of bravery: what defines him and makes him so relatable is his capacity for connecting to people and understanding their worth, for seeing the possibilities of redemption and change as he did with Cup before and as he does here with Stanley Banner, a truly creepy character on the outside, whose tragic destiny comes to the fore thanks to Koli’s refusal to consider circumstances only in black and white.

Spinner, once Koli’s love interest and now a prominent figure in the hierarchy of Mythen Rood, enjoys a greatly transformative journey: from young girl set on obtaining through marriage a comfortable position in the village’s society, she moves on to the role of fiercely protective mother first and equally fierce defender of her small world once outside threats come knocking on the door. In a way, Spinner achieves what Koli had set out to do and failed at: by throwing a monkey wrench in the workings of Mythen Rood’s balance of power, she helps wake her people from a sort of complacent status quo that might ultimately have led them to extinction. Her growth is much more pronounced than Koli’s but still she tempers it with compassion and a fine understanding of her fellow citizens’ psychological traits, mixing it with a determination that belies her young age: I enjoyed Spinner’s chapters greatly and her journey was a very compelling counterpoint to Koli’s own adventures.

Last but not least Monono: Koli and Spinner are the story’s two main focuses, granted, but the Dream Sleeve’s AI personality is further explored in this third book, offering an enlightening view on her abilities and the true changes brought on by the software upload that took her to a different level of performance. Monono’s “voice” remains the same charmingly cute girl-analogue we have learned to know and love, but here - where she gets her own point of view chapters - we discover something else, a capacity for viciousness that belies the effervescent tone she employs in her dealings with humans. It’s true that at times Monono’s quips and pop-culture references provide some light relief to an increasingly tense situation - see when she mentions the Stepford Wives or the Boys from Brazil, or when she calls Morticia and Gomez the oh-so-creepy Lorraine and Paul Banner - but when she shows her true nature it’s impossible not to consider the threat other AIs have represented in fiction and to see Monono in a troublingly different light. The only factor keeping her from going down the same road as, for example, HAL 9000 or the more recent AIDAN, is Koli: the young man’s inherent kindness is indeed the balancing element conferring the human angle Monono needs to avoid that pitfall, as she says herself:

I’m not forgiving by nature, and every shit I give about your species is given – grudgingly – because I was stupid enough to get involved with a boy from the wrong side of tracks. A boy made of flesh and blood.

Be warned, The Fall of Koli does not tie up nicely the narrative threads explored throughout the trilogy since it reserves some space for tragedy and loss, but nonetheless the poignant ending of the series is both surprising and satisfactory and closes a compelling story-arc in the best possible way I could have asked for.

The Fall of Koli // by M. R. Carey

I have to be honest, it took me a while to figure out my feelings about this book. That isn't because it's a bad book. Not at all actually. It just wasn't what I was expecting at all. I always find it difficult to review books later in a series, especially when it is the very last one because there tend to be so many things I want to talk about but cannot due to the risk of spoiling it for a future reader. As someone that doesn't even like the tiniest spoilers herself, I try to take that possibility very seriously.

I do want to start out by saying this while the very end of The Fall of Koli felt a little abrupt at first, I now do realize that it is actually pretty well done. The built-up to it almost felt like a snowball that gained more and more momentum the bigger it got until it hit a tree at the bottom of the hill and came to an instant stop. I have always wondered about the two POVs in this series. I found both absolutely fascinating in quite different ways. You have the exiled wanderer of Ingland that is learning to think of the world as a whole rather than just himself but you also have the unexpected revolutionary that initially felt more like an opportunist that just wanted to have better for herself and her future. These childhood friends with their opposing views of each other have moved apart for so long now yet their fates never separated after all. The name of the book gave me a doomed feeling for our Koli-boo since I first heard it while reading The Book of Koli, the first installment of the Rampart trilogy. So it's difficult to say that the ending is necessarily wholly unexpected, but the way in which the author chose to wrap it up beyond that little detail is what felt so deserved and satisfying.

Now to the book as a whole. Before starting book 3, I had zero idea what The Sword of Albion could be. I'm not going to lie: the truth hit me hard. But even beyond that initial revelation about where this unlikely little crew ended up, the details you get to learn about this location and Ingland itself were fascinating. I had some seriously creepy suspicions throughout the book sometimes and while some of them came true and some of them did not, it was still fun to be able to solve the mysteries right alongside Koli and his friends. I already raved about the characters above but their development throughout the series as a whole is definitely one of my favorite parts. They started out as little more than children and turned into responsible adults that learned to care for more than just themselves. Technology and its lack is an important piece of the story, both in how it is wielded as well as how ownership of it affects your place in society.

Challenging a conventional setup is a theme that we see in many parts of our lives as well as in many genres in the book world, but I personally never tire of it and loved it just as much this time around. The author did an excellent job of showing the conflicting feelings, risks, and responsibilities that come with both upholding and overturning things as we know them and wove a fantastic story in a setting that to me at least was entirely new and fascinating. I definitely will be keeping this author in mind for my future reading and hope to see more SFF from them in the future.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.