The Book of Koli by M R Carey

 When the Ramparts trilogy was announced, I was beside myself with excitement! A full trilogy of MR Carey goodness. The description of the first book was mind-blowing - a full post-apocalyptic world where humans lived together in remote distant villages, hunted by moving trees and dangerous molesnakes, where the sun shining was an invitation for dangers myriad - and the people themselves are living within walled villages - scrapping together a measly living. 

The Book of Koli is the first book in the Ramparts trilogy and is centred around the adventures of young Koli - a teenager boy who's way too curious for his own good and ends up stumbling on secrets - about his own village and the 'lost' world before them - that pushes him out on breathtaking adventures in the wild. 

It's a great premise, yes but once I was through with the book, it didn't leave me with that wonderful yearning that you get about great stories. M R Carey is a storyteller, past excellence - as he is proved time and again, having given us gems like The Girl with the Gifts and many more. You get sucked into his stories - effortlessly. And before you know it, you are flipping past page number 100. It was the same way with The Book of Koli. 

Told from Koli's first person narrative - and Koli has a strange peculiar manner of narrating with certain words mangled up, you perhaps owe this to his lack of 'language skills' perhaps - the book traces his early childhood days and how the whole village is set up. He frequently talks about the dangers that lurk just outside the walls of his own village. The Sun coming out meant the Trees would hunt for food - and the genetically evolved trees are hunters par excellence, with more than one ways of trapping even humans and killing them brutally and efficiently. And there were myriad other lurking dangers that you needed to keep an eye out for. But the first parts of the book is where MR Carey really builds up this fascinating degenerate world - of Koli's village, his best friends, his first love - and this family called the Ramparts. Now Ramparts are special - people chosen by their affinity towards the old world technology left over in this village - things like a computer ( bound to Rampart Remember), a flamethrower (Rampart Fire), a laser-gun (Rampart Knife) and a bolt-gun (Rampart Arrow). And MR Carey builds in this coming-of-age ceremony where every teen girl and boy go through this "choosing" ceremony where they are allowed to check their affinity to these 'tech'. It is where the kids are 'named' for the profession they will be choosing up. Like Koli, buttery disappointed about his non-affinity to these tech, has to settle for Koli Woodsmith. 

The narrative is clever and builds up effortlessly as we go through these coming-of-age ceremonies and Koli's desires and dreams. However just past one-thirds of the book, is when the story takes a darker turn. When Koli's irrepressible curiosity leads him to commit a taboo - and him being a headstrong teenager, who fully believes in the 'right' of his own way - discovers this terrible secret about the Ramparts. From there on, we are thrown off the track with a lot of twists and turns in the life of young Koli as he learns to live with his punishment but discovers a larger world outside the village and is thrown headlong into a few mad adventures. 

Now that I have finished the Book of Koli, despite being set in the same mould of The Girl with Gifts, a young-adult novel set in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, the adventures of Koli didn't really seem as cool as the Girl with the Gifts. Well yes, apart from a distinct lack of 'zombies', Koli's world is also fraught with dangers manifold. There are thrilling moments interpreted within the narrative but for most parts, it's a lot of actual 'storytelling'. There are tons of 'tech' of the old that keeps surfacing up within the book (for example, the concept of 'drones' that fly out of nowhere as security measures was damn cool!) 

Koli meets up with a few interesting characters like Ursula - a 'traveling scientist' who travels between the villages and is like a doctor, who takes a keen interest in Koli's curiosity and fans his imagination with stories about the lost world, a destroyed land of Ingland and the world capital called London. Then there's Monono - and I will let you discover this delightful little pocket dynamo yourself within the book. But rest assured, a lot of the narratives zips forward because of what Monono does. 

I get what MR Carey is going for here - building up a quiet storm focused on what it means to be human amidst such harsh times, focused on the deep characterisation growth of young Koli and his companions. Absolutely lush world building - bizarre, strange and dangerous to the core. A few interesting characters who spice up the narrative and bring in the twists into the protected existence of Koli. MR Carey throws us slight curveballs, giving us truths about life - coloured by young Koli and told in a stammering, annoying country lilt, but profound all the same. But the first book, feels like an opener and while we imagine a great deal of things would go off-kilter, they still feel a bit underwhelming. 

Maybe because Orbit has decided to publish all three books of the Trilogy in quick succession, this part of my complaint is easily rectified - with the Trials of Koli releasing just around the corner. I will want in on this great journey as Koli discovers what happened to the Great World outside his village for sure. But the opening salvo seems just a bit underwhelming. It surely sets up the world and its buoyant characters for sure and I look forward to where MR Carey is taking this story to.