The Book of Koli

By: M. R. Carey

Narrated by: Theo Solomon

Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

"A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable" (Kirkus), The Book of Koli is the unforgettable story of a young boy struggling to find his place in a world where nature itself has turned against humanity.

Everything that lives hates us....

Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.

Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls.

He's wrong.

For more from M. R. Carey, check out:

• The Girl with All the Gifts
• Fellside
• The Boy on the Bridge
• Someone like Me

By the same author, writing as Mike Carey:

• The Devil You Know
• Vicious Circle
• Dead Men's Boots
• Thicker Than Water
• The Naming of the Beasts

©2020 M. R. Carey (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A thought-provoking and deeply engaging story...profoundly and doggedly humane." (C. A. Fletcher on The Book of Koli)

"[A] beautiful book. Gripping, engaging, and absolutely worth the time it takes to burrow yourself into its reality. I can't recommend it highly enough." (Seanan McGuire on The Book of Koli)

"The cadence and pacing of [Koli's] voice adds a depth and richness to the strange and malevolent world." (Booklist on The Book of Koli)

Interesting but flawed

Overall I enjoyed this story. The one major issue I had is with the narration. Solomon does a great job with the central character, Koli. But the narration of the AI character, Mono no aware and anything related to Japanese pronunciation is absolutely awful. It just makes the character impossible to believe and impossible to listen to. I’m surprised that audible allowed this. I mean really, would it be too much to ask that they confer with a native speaker of Japanese to check the pronunciation of names, places, and terms. This needs a redo.

We're killing trees? What if the opposite happens?

I usually just listen to my audiobooks on my long drive to and from work, but this one took over my cooking time, tv time, house cleaning time, and lunch hour.

I have enjoyed all of M. R. Carey's work so far, but this one really impressed me.

Just started second book in the series. So far, so good

1 of audibles best titles

i had this in my wish list for SO long. what a mistake. these 3 books are my favorite out of the hundreds and hundreds I've listened to here. i usually look for longer titles (who wants to waste a precious credit on a few short hours?) and this isnt even my genre preference. this book is SO WELL WRITTEN and well thought out and well performed on top of it all. what a gorgeous collection of words and characters and worlds! ive never used the bookmark feature before these books and very rarely write reviews. koli and friends will be in your heart long after you listen and im still talking like mynono. HIGHLY highly recommend.

Fantastic…highly recommend

Just finished Book 1 in this series and am purchasing the next one as soon as I complete this review. M.R. Carey’s writing is excellent and Theo Solomon’s narration perfectly captures the personalities of Koli, Ursula, et al. Highly recommend.

An Original Idea!

Yet another dystopian book (I thought). But no! Finally, some originality! It is definitely from the POV of a teenage boy, but it makes sense and it's different.

an oral history of a world yet to come

listening to this audiobook turns the saga of koli into a series of stories told round the fire, in a glorious way

post apocalyptic brilliance!

The English take on post apocalypse is vastly different than the usual American material I like to read. The Girl With All the Gifts was a fun scify jaunt and the zombies twist was fantastic! From my understanding, THIS is set in the same world but didn't include zombies. The hint (outside of story) that they may still be here is tantalizing, though after finishing The Book of Koli, and there being no hint (unless they're the Reavers?) of zombies/hungries, maybe they don't have a place in Koli's world? Anyway, the mystery and intrigue and the suggestion that there's a great big world out there of scattered civilizations with the potential of rebuilding society as "the world that was lost" vs a whole new world filled with promise and potential is what makes this story so great. And it's what gives it some literary prestige because the sad truth about humanity is that even given an opportunity to rebuild, and thus time to do it right, it might just be that it is in our humanity, our nature, to screw things up!

Slow start to longer story line

I feel that this book had a slow start, but it picked up 1/4th the way in and I think it could be a start to a decent series. At first I didn’t think I’d be likely to want to continue onto the next book, but my interest in hearing more had increased by the end.

Highly recommended

I put off purchasing this because of the description of choker trees and shunned men. That really isn't the focus. Highly recommend this series. I will re-listen again, something I don't do often.

Great Performance

The narrator of this book was perfect for the story. It was a fantastic choice and the man did an amazing job.

As for the story. The world is fascinating even if some of the content was cliche. As the story progresses I'm sure we will see more archetypal governments and their pitfalls. I'm on board. Fun listen