The Fall of Koli

Title: The Fall of Koli

Author: M R Carey

Summary: M R Carey’s Rampart trilogy is set in a future where nature has turned against us. Now, in the thrilling final chapter, the world that was lost comes back to haunt those who survived–as Koli’s journey comes to its breathtaking close.

Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5

Review:

The third and final book of the Rampart trilogy. As you can tell my the rating, I loved it. I ended up taking a break from the book about halfway through, which I actually did during the first book as well. The break was no where near as long and for no reason in particular, but it’s a nice way to bookend the series.

This book felt, in structure, quite similar to the first book. I starts with some world building around Koli in a remote location, and moves on to him leaving, travelling, and meeting new people. It’s a small, unimportant detail but I liked it.

Where Koli is for the first half of the book, along with Monono, Cup, and Ursula, is the Sword of Albion. Which turns out to be a huge ship containing two robots masquerading as humans, a young boy with personality problems, and a belly full of weapons. Koli and his crew stumble their way into information and trouble in about equal measure, and I loved seeing them in a completely new environment trying to figure things out (even though some things here were a lot easier for me as a reader to pick up on and predict).

While Koli’s group are dealing with that, we also follow Spinner and Mythen Rood dealing with soldiers and attacks from the violently minded and tech-heavy Half-Ax. While it was initially strange seeing Spinner’s point of view in the second book, I immediately loved it in this one. She’s smart but not egotistical, she wants to help her town but doesn’t crave power.

I love so many characters in this book. All of them have their strengths and their flaws. I love how many strong women there are. I love that the male characters love and support the strength in them. I love that Koli’s strength is his passion. He’s not a fighter, but he has so much heart that he just cannot hide it away, and he’s driving this entire story with it. I love Cup’s no-fucks-okay-maybe-a-few-fucks attitude, how people need to earn her respect and how loyal she is once they have it. I love Spinner, and Catrin, and Jemiu, and Ursula.

And Monono. Mononooooooo. I lost my absolute shit (in the best way) when I got to the chapters from her point of view. It was such a contrast from Koli and Spinner, because Monono understands tech—she is tech. Seeing her go on a very swift journey from wanting freedom and autonomy to having an existential crisis and choosing what (who) is actually important to her was… fucking brilliant. Apparently books featuring sentient AI that dive into the philosophy around that really interest me (A Closed and Common Orbit being the other that immediately comes to mind).

Something I’ve realised since finishing the book is how much love there is in it. How much the characters come to love and care for each other. And, most importantly, how much of that is non-romantic love. Monono and Koli. Koli and Cup. Cup and Ursula. Koli and his family. Koli and Mythen Rood. Just so, so much love. The only romantic relationship we see much of is Spinner and Jon, and even that is not portrayed overly romantically, instead focusing on the respect and trust they have for each other. I just really appreciated that.

The last 100 pages or so, where the two storylines begin to converge, the book flips between Koli and Spinner pretty much every chapter and I couldn’t stop reading. Things did not happen the way I thought they would, and that is not at all a complaint. I love that I couldn’t predict what was going to happen. And the end end… I definitely did not see that coming. I had mixed feelings, but a good kind of mixed feelings. Sad, but kind of feelings.

If I had one criticism I would say after the climatic ending things felt a little rushed. Spinner spun us through the happenings of what characters did and where they ended up. Characters that I loved, that I would have liked to spend just a little more time with. A little more heart into the final notes of their stories. A few extra pages. But then maybe that’s because I really didn’t want to see their stories end at all.