#BlogTour: The Fall of Koli by M. R. Carey

The Fall of Koli by M.R. Carey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Fall of Koli is the third and final novel in the breathtakingly original Rampart trilogy – set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.

The world that is lost will come back to haunt us . . .

Koli has come a long way since being exiled from his small village of Mythen Rood. In his search for the fabled tech of the old times, he knew he’d be battling strange, terrible beasts and trees that move as fast as whips. But he has already encountered so much more than he bargained for.

Now that Koli and his companions have found the source of the signal they’ve been following – the mysterious “Sword of Albion” – there is hope that their perilous journey will finally be worth something.

Until they unearth terrifying truths about an ancient war . . . and realise that it may have never ended.

published by Orbit Books 

There is key scene in this, the concluding novel in M.R. Carey’s Rampart Trilogy - and to describe it, or even to hint at it in very abstract terms, would be an unforgivable spoiler - which in the hands of a less talented writer would simply not work, might even pull the reader right out of the story. It is a surprising, unexpected plot point which succeeds because Carey has planted seeds in the previous novels. Not that he drew attention to them but, when the moment arrives, the reader’s first reaction is “Wait, what?” immediately followed by “Of course...” To me it sums up what a good writer Carey is. He has introduced characters, made us care about them, built a whole world, our future world, with a backstory, a history of how we got here, of which he has drip fed details, and expands on greatly here; and he ties everything up in a highly satisfying manner in THE FALL OF KOLI.

We are thrust immediately into the action as Koli narrates his continuing journey, with Ursula-from-Elsewhere, Cup and Monono, following their departure from the village of Many Fishes. Straightaway, we discover where the signal they have been tracking is coming from, and exactly what Sword of Albion is.

As it was in THE TRIALS OF KOLI, sections of the novel alternate between Koli’s narration and that of Spinner, who relates contemporaneous events back in Mythen Rood. Spinner’s story is ramping up too, the peril escalating. It is breaktaking and, as Koli promised right at the start of THE BOOK OF KOLI, he eventually returns and the narratives crash together in a thrilling and entirely unexpected way.

The book, and the trilogy as a whole, is astonishingly good. THE FALL OF KOLI is a gripping conclusion to the series. The story resolves in a fulfilling and enjoyable way. The characters will live long in the memory.  But more than that, the threads which lead back from Koli’s Ingland to today’s headlines should lead to reflection.

M.R. Carey’s Rampart Trilogy can sit with the greats.

Thanks to M.R. Carey @michaelcarey191 Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n and Orbit Books @orbitbooks for the invitation to take part in the BlogTour

View all my reviews