The Trials of Koli; The Fall of Koli, by M. R. Carey
In book one, Koli discovers the key secret of his home village: the precious and rare tech does not choose its owners, but just needs to be turned on. One family, which figured out how to activate it and transfer ownership, set it up as this huge ritual mystery in order to maintain their own power as the tech conveniently only ever chooses them. (This isn't a spoiler; it's obvious to modern readers that something along those lines is happening, even if the exact details of how they're doing it aren't immediately clear.)
When Koli learns this, they railroad him and run him out of town before he can tell anyone. He leaves behind his mother and sisters, the woman he loves, his best friend, the village leader who fucked him over, and others with whom he had important connections. On his journey, he learns a lot of crucial things about the world and changes as a person. Meanwhile, back in the village, the people he cared about are having their own adventures and learning things with no idea of what's going on with him - and vice versa.
I thought this was all building up to a climax in which Koli returns to Mythen Rood and meets up with everyone he's been separated from for so long - some who he loves, some who he hates, some who he never understood. And in turn, the village would FINALLY find out that he's alive, their leader fucked him and everyone else over for power, he's not the terrible person he was accused of being, and have the emotionally powerful reunions and confrontations I'd been awaiting for the entire series.
Hahahahaha! How foolish of me!
I hated the ending of this so much that I regret paying for the second two books.
Big angry spoilers. ( Read more... )
I can't think of a less satisfying way to end the series.
Also, in the early parts of book one, any time anyone went outside the town walls, they got attacked by mutant flora and fauna every thirty seconds. There's a huge big deal made of how almost impossibly difficult it is to survive for even a single day outside, and this isn't a lie - we see that it's absolutely true. Once Koli gets booted out, the mutant flora and fauna attack only when convenient for the plot.
I wanted mutant plants and animals, and instead I got all these looooooong sequences where he gets imprisoned by cannibal cultists and robots raising evil clones, and interminable battle sequences against humans, and I kept reading because I wanted to see what happened when he finally came back to Mythen Rood, and I am very annoyed that I actually paid for these books.
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When Koli learns this, they railroad him and run him out of town before he can tell anyone. He leaves behind his mother and sisters, the woman he loves, his best friend, the village leader who fucked him over, and others with whom he had important connections. On his journey, he learns a lot of crucial things about the world and changes as a person. Meanwhile, back in the village, the people he cared about are having their own adventures and learning things with no idea of what's going on with him - and vice versa.
I thought this was all building up to a climax in which Koli returns to Mythen Rood and meets up with everyone he's been separated from for so long - some who he loves, some who he hates, some who he never understood. And in turn, the village would FINALLY find out that he's alive, their leader fucked him and everyone else over for power, he's not the terrible person he was accused of being, and have the emotionally powerful reunions and confrontations I'd been awaiting for the entire series.
Hahahahaha! How foolish of me!
I hated the ending of this so much that I regret paying for the second two books.
Big angry spoilers. ( Read more... )
I can't think of a less satisfying way to end the series.
Also, in the early parts of book one, any time anyone went outside the town walls, they got attacked by mutant flora and fauna every thirty seconds. There's a huge big deal made of how almost impossibly difficult it is to survive for even a single day outside, and this isn't a lie - we see that it's absolutely true. Once Koli gets booted out, the mutant flora and fauna attack only when convenient for the plot.
I wanted mutant plants and animals, and instead I got all these looooooong sequences where he gets imprisoned by cannibal cultists and robots raising evil clones, and interminable battle sequences against humans, and I kept reading because I wanted to see what happened when he finally came back to Mythen Rood, and I am very annoyed that I actually paid for these books.
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