What’s it all about?:
It began on New Year’s Eve.
The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed—and more than half of the world’s population was decimated.
Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river—or in the ones you know and love the most.
As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.
In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.
The end has come. The beginning comes next.
What did I think?:
First of all, thank you so much to Clara Diaz and Little Brown publishers who approached me to read a copy of Year One, the first book in The Chronicles of The One series in exchange for an honest review. I’ve now read a couple of things by this author – the first I came to very late and that’s the forty-fourth (!!) book in the In Death series called Echoes In Death which she writes under the pseudonym J.D. Robb. The second was under her own name called Come Sundown and was a romantic yet very surprising read for me. When I read the synopsis of Year One, I accepted a digital copy very willingly, I’ve recently had a bit of a hankering for apocalyptic type fiction and with the added fantastical elements I was intrigued to see what Nora Roberts would do with the narrative. By and large, this is definitely a series I want to continue with. The vast myriad of characters, a fast paced plot and of course, the magical components held my attention throughout and I can’t wait to see how the story develops in future books.
So, as with many other stories in this vein, the substance that wipes out almost an entire population of humans is a virus, at first thought to come from birds after the first victim is traced back to a farm in Scotland. However, doubts are rising about where exactly this virus has come from and why it seems to enhance magical abilities in a chosen few. Trying to survive in the world becomes a dangerous prospect with raiders hell-bent on looting and violence, mindless of the hurt they cause to others in their efforts. There is also one strain of the magical folk (elves, fairies, shapeshifters, telekenetics etc) that have embraced the dark side and cause murder and mayhem when they attack both regular humans and the “good” magical people. Especially when one of the individuals that they are hunting becomes very special to them for something she carries with her.
As I mentioned there are a multitude of characters to get to grips with in this novel and on one hand, I loved this and embraced all the different personalities but there were occasions when I had to think to myself: “Okay, who’s this again?.” My favourites were probably the ones we hear most from – Lana, Max, Eddie and his dog Joe, Arlys, Fred, Rachel and Jonah and I enjoyed how they all had definitive roles in the story, from a paramedic and a doctor to a journalist, witches and a fairy – there was a real mishmash and variety of individuals that kept me intrigued throughout the novel. The world-building is pretty fantastic, I especially loved the scenes when our characters were on the run and when they had to face difficult situations (physical or emotional) as I felt I could really see their personalities come across more vividly during their struggles.
I may have had to suspend my disbelief occasionally as at points, some wonderful things like land, animals, gas, food etc just almost fell into their laps and in a real apocalyptic situation I doubt it would be that easy to be honest. There’s also a situation near the end of the book that I can’t really talk about for fear of spoilers but it took me a little while to come round to the idea, I felt it all happened a little too quickly considering what the character involved had been through. Apart from these very slight things, I hugely enjoyed this novel. I’m still so curious to discover more about the virus, about the magical qualities of the chosen few and what’s going to happen to the characters I’ve become quite attached to in the next book in the series. Looking forward to it!
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
