With The Book of Koli, M.R. Carey (Fellside) launches an exciting post-apocalyptic coming-of-age trilogy. It is the distant future, and nature has become hostile to the point where even trees attack those who venture into the forest. Small human settlements remain within walled communities. The Ramparts who can "wake" the small amount of surviving technology make up the ruling class of teenage Koli's village. When Koli learns a secret that may allow him to master the tech and shake the Ramparts' control, he begins a journey that will take him far beyond the relative safety of his village.
Koli looks back on his story from a future distant enough that he expects his audience to be unfamiliar with the society of his youth, so he makes this strange world in which he lives accessible to readers. At the stage of his life when the action takes place, Koli is not an especially mature teenager, and the rash decisions he makes in pursuit of a changed life are both believable and extremely ill-considered, but his first-person narration makes it clear that his heart is good, and the deep bonds that he forms with his companions will win readers' hearts. He will evidently live long enough to tell his tale, but watching him grow and learn is a pleasure. One hopes he will not only survive but thrive. Readers will finish The Book of Koli eager to read the next installment. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library