The Book of Koli

Rampart Trilogy Book One by M R Carey

Wow I just loved this book. It’s just the type of book that I love to read, as it really got my imagination going. It’s fantasy, post apocalyptic and Sci fi all rolled in to one. I can’t wait for the rest of the trilogy to see what happens.

I have read that some people have struggled with some of the language used by the characters, for me it wasn’t a problem. The language that they sometimes speak is what I’d call English slang/local dialect, but please don’t let that put you off this book. If you don’t read this book I feel that you will be missing out on one of this years greatest books.

The world we live in today is not the world of the future.

Meet Koli he lives in a village called Mythen Rood, in the Calder Valley of West Yorkshire. Most of the big cities like London were bombed out during a war that happened hundreds of years ago. When man was starving and struggling to survive. The only things that are left over from this time are a few pieces of Tech that we take for granted now.

Outside the village walls it isn’t safe for people to wander as the plants prey on man. Due to man genetically changing plants, making them grow faster so they produced more crops in a shorter period of time. As there wasn’t enough food to feed everyone. What they did started a mutation that no one could have imagined. The plants and trees are man’s most lethal enemy along with genetically changed animals. Man is now the prey.

At Mythen Rood they have some very very old tech. Except that they don’t know how to make all of it work, but the few pieces that they do have is used to defend their village. From the mutated animals to the people they call “no names” these people are thieves, murders and people that have been cast out of their own villages due to wrong doings.

When any of the children of the village come of an age they are sent to stay in one of the houses in the village. Where they wait until they have their initiation tests to see if they can work the tech that protects the village. There is a big ceremony held where the whole of the village goes to watch. Each child that is due for initiation is asked which piece of tech they would like to try, as they only get one attempt to make it work.

All Koli wants is to become one of the elite, but non of the tech works for him. He’s jealous of his best friend because the tech he chose to try worked for him. So Koli hatches a plan to steal some of the old tech that doesn’t work and to see if he can get it to work. Out of the tech that he steals he does manage to get one piece to work and he plans to show the discovery to the whole village. Except things don’t turn out as he expected they take his name from him and they also make him leave the village.

This sets Koli on a huge adventure, where he finds out that the world outside is full of danger. He is captured and imprisoned and with the help of a friend they manage to escape. After their escape they plan to part ways, but Koli and his friends make a discovery which ends up putting them on a different course to what they were planning, which continues I guess in the next book.

This is a really great book and as I’ve already said I can’t wait to read the rest in this trilogy.

Pages: 416, Publication Date: 16 April 2020, My Rating: