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And so on and so on and so on.
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the first instalment of a trilogy that imagines a post-apocalyptic Britain where humans live in isolated villages surrounded by genetically modified trees and plants that can attack and kill you. The tiny village of Mythen Rood is run by the Ramparts – a small group of people who get their power by being able to “wake up” and operate old technology (in this case, mostly advanced weapons) that keep the village safe. Although every teenager takes a public test to see if they qualify to be a Rampart, the only ones who pass just happen to be from the same family.
The titular narrator Koli is a teenage boy in Mythen Rood who fails his Rampart test. After being given reason to believe the test is rigged, he steals some old tech from the Rampart stronghold to prove it. Naturally, this does not go as planned, and Koli finds himself faced with his worst nightmare – having to go it alone in the deadly wilderness.
MR Carey (a.k.a. Mike Carey) has generally never let me down with his work, and such is the case here, with a few caveats – the first of them being that this is clearly the first third of a massive story, so much of this novel is dedicated to character development and world-building, which slows the pace down. So does the fact that Koli narrates in his natural voice, which takes some getting used to (for me, anyway). But he’s likable enough, and the world he lives in is interesting to explore. It’s hard to fairly rate what is essentially an incomplete story – what I can say is that I liked it, and yet I’m also not in a grand hurry to read the other two books. I’m sure I will eventually, though.
Flaming Zeppelins: The Adventures of Ned the Seal by Joe R. Lansdale
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Back in 2001, Joe R. Lansdale went weird even by his standards and wrote a short illustrated pulp adventure for Subterranean Press called Zeppelins West – starring Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, Frankenstein’s monster, the head of Buffalo Bill Cody, Dr Moreau, Captain Nemo, and an educated literate seal named Ned. Four years later, he gave Ned the lead in a sequel, Flaming London, co-starring Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and HG Wells. You get the idea. Anyway, both novels were collected in this single volume in 2010, albeit sans illustrations. Both are set in an alt-history where Japan controls the Western US seaboard and Europe controls the Eastern one.
In Zeppelins West, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show is en route via zeppelin to Japan on what turns out to be a secret mission for the US govt. Things go awry when they rescue Frankenstein’s monster from a Japanese shogun, and after a series of events they end up on the island of “Dr Momo”. Cody hopes Momo can give him a new body, but Momo has other plans. In Flaming London, Twain goes to visit his friend Verne, whereupon they both encounter Ned the seal who survived the first book. A Martian spacecraft lands nearby and attacks Verne’s house. Meanwhile, HG Wells is having trouble with his time machine …
Etc and so on. The whole thing is basically Lansdale’s tribute to dime novels in general and every famous author / character here. Despite overstuffing both stories with famous characters, he weaves a comprehensible tale. And he has fun with it, which is the only way to approach something like this. On the other hand, this being Lansdale, his idea of fun includes famous literary characters making dick jokes, and extra helpings of gruesome and sometimes sadistic violence. The former I can handle. The latter makes it less fun for me – especially his horrifying revisionist take on the Wizard of Oz, which was just uncalled for.
View all my reviews
Shot down in flames,
This is dF
The Book of Koli by M.R. CareyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the first instalment of a trilogy that imagines a post-apocalyptic Britain where humans live in isolated villages surrounded by genetically modified trees and plants that can attack and kill you. The tiny village of Mythen Rood is run by the Ramparts – a small group of people who get their power by being able to “wake up” and operate old technology (in this case, mostly advanced weapons) that keep the village safe. Although every teenager takes a public test to see if they qualify to be a Rampart, the only ones who pass just happen to be from the same family.
The titular narrator Koli is a teenage boy in Mythen Rood who fails his Rampart test. After being given reason to believe the test is rigged, he steals some old tech from the Rampart stronghold to prove it. Naturally, this does not go as planned, and Koli finds himself faced with his worst nightmare – having to go it alone in the deadly wilderness.
MR Carey (a.k.a. Mike Carey) has generally never let me down with his work, and such is the case here, with a few caveats – the first of them being that this is clearly the first third of a massive story, so much of this novel is dedicated to character development and world-building, which slows the pace down. So does the fact that Koli narrates in his natural voice, which takes some getting used to (for me, anyway). But he’s likable enough, and the world he lives in is interesting to explore. It’s hard to fairly rate what is essentially an incomplete story – what I can say is that I liked it, and yet I’m also not in a grand hurry to read the other two books. I’m sure I will eventually, though.
Flaming Zeppelins: The Adventures of Ned the Seal by Joe R. LansdaleMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Back in 2001, Joe R. Lansdale went weird even by his standards and wrote a short illustrated pulp adventure for Subterranean Press called Zeppelins West – starring Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, Frankenstein’s monster, the head of Buffalo Bill Cody, Dr Moreau, Captain Nemo, and an educated literate seal named Ned. Four years later, he gave Ned the lead in a sequel, Flaming London, co-starring Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and HG Wells. You get the idea. Anyway, both novels were collected in this single volume in 2010, albeit sans illustrations. Both are set in an alt-history where Japan controls the Western US seaboard and Europe controls the Eastern one.
In Zeppelins West, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show is en route via zeppelin to Japan on what turns out to be a secret mission for the US govt. Things go awry when they rescue Frankenstein’s monster from a Japanese shogun, and after a series of events they end up on the island of “Dr Momo”. Cody hopes Momo can give him a new body, but Momo has other plans. In Flaming London, Twain goes to visit his friend Verne, whereupon they both encounter Ned the seal who survived the first book. A Martian spacecraft lands nearby and attacks Verne’s house. Meanwhile, HG Wells is having trouble with his time machine …
Etc and so on. The whole thing is basically Lansdale’s tribute to dime novels in general and every famous author / character here. Despite overstuffing both stories with famous characters, he weaves a comprehensible tale. And he has fun with it, which is the only way to approach something like this. On the other hand, this being Lansdale, his idea of fun includes famous literary characters making dick jokes, and extra helpings of gruesome and sometimes sadistic violence. The former I can handle. The latter makes it less fun for me – especially his horrifying revisionist take on the Wizard of Oz, which was just uncalled for.
View all my reviews
Shot down in flames,
This is dF
