As a long-time devotee of science fiction and dystopian tales, I leapt back into M. R. Carey’s overgrown, perilous future with the 2021 sequel The Trials of Koli. Released on 15 April 2021, it continues the story begun in The Book of Koli and carries our scrappy hero further into a world where ancient technology has teeth and the trees themselves have tempers. New challenges await—and Carey ensures they arrive with bite.
The Trials of Koli by M. R. Carey: New Challenges Await
M. R. Carey’s The Trials of Koli is the middle movement of the Rampart Trilogy, and it embraces that role with confidence. Picking up where The Book of Koli left off, it expands the map beyond the safety—such as it is—of Mythen Rood, inviting us to traverse a Britain that’s both eerily familiar and wildly hostile. The premise is simple enough: push outward into danger, follow the faint hum of old tech, and see whether there’s a future to salvage. The execution, however, is richly textured, measured, and never merely transitional.
Koli’s voice remains the engine of the book, colloquial yet piercing, with a warmth that makes the harsher beats land all the harder. Carey splits focus deftly between the road-quest—Koli, Ursula-from-Elsewhere, and Cup facing everything from predatory flora to weaponised relics—and the pressures mounting back home. Those Mythen Rood chapters are no afterthought; they deepen the stakes, showing how power, fear and scarcity re-sculpt communities far from any battlefield.
What most impressed me is how this sequel finds “new challenges” without resorting to louder set pieces. The dangers escalate, yes, but so do the ethical tangles: who controls what tech, who gets to decide for whom, and whether survival without connection is worth the price. Carey’s world-building is both imaginative and grounded—the sort that makes you half-believe you can smell the resin of the choker trees and hear the ghostly chatter of long-dead networks.
2021 dystopian sequel: quote and verdict 🍵🍵🍵🍵
A resonant thought from Koli (paraphrased to stay spoiler-light): hope isn’t something you stumble upon; it’s a choice you make when the way ahead is darkest. That, to me, is the heart of this book—resilience not as a mood but as a decision, renewed scene by scene. It’s a beautifully humane counterpoint to the world’s thorny hostility.
Prose-wise, Carey continues to balance lyric menace with character-first storytelling. The dialect remains a love-it feature for some readers and a speed-bump for others, but it’s inseparable from the series’ identity—and here it feels even more assured. Pacing is deliberate without ever turning slack; the alternation between wilderness odyssey and village politics creates a pleasing, breath-catching rhythm.
My verdict: four teacups out of five. 🍵🍵🍵🍵 The Trials of Koli is a generous, gripping sequel that broadens the world and digs deeper into its moral seams. If you liked The Book of Koli, this is essential; if you wanted bigger horizons and sharper dilemmas, this delivers them with care. Brew a pot, settle in, and let those new challenges find you before you go finding them.
The Trials of Koli proves the middle book can be both bridge and destination—widening the vista while tightening the emotional bonds that keep us reading. It’s a thoughtful, thorn-pricked journey that leaves just enough blood on the brambles to make the final volume impossible to resist. Four hot cups today, and a promise to pour a fifth if the trilogy’s landing is as sure as its stride.