Year One

Year One
4.5 Stars

Forewarned is forearmed - this is NOT a romance!

In these days of a raging worldwide pandemic, Nora Roberts Chronicles of the One is exceedingly prophetic. From the rapid spread of the "Doom" via air travel to the hoarding of supplies to the conspiracy theories and the hope for a vaccine, Nora's descriptions evoke a profound sense of deja vu - the woman is a genius!

Year One follows the lives of a diverse group of people from different walks of life as they strive to survive the first awful days and weeks of the pandemic. At the heart of the story are Lana, a skilled chef and novice witch; Arlys, a journalist dedicated to revealing the truth about the government response to the Doom, and Jonah, a young EMT with the show more ability to "know" a person's fate.

These three are joined by numerous others, some honest and caring, others selfish and twisted. Nevertheless, each is well developed and contributes to the overall sense of a society attempting to cope not only with the ravages of the disease at it takes person after person, but also the threat of rampaging vigilantes called Raiders, cult-like extremists known as Purity Warriors, and survivors with supernatural abilities, the Uncanny, whose powers can be used for either the Dark or the Light.

Julia Whelan's narration of the audiobook is superb as she immerses the reader into the chaotic, post-apocalyptic world that Roberts has created with all of its dangers and threats, yet still manages to convey the utter humanity of each of the characters.

The twists and turns of the plot and the trials and tribulations of the characters kept me listening hour after hour, and I look forward to finding out how the story will evolve. show less

YEAR ONE: Chronicles of THE ONE by Nora Roberts (J D Robb)
I had never read either Nora Roberts (or J D Robb) so I was unsure what to expect when I received this advanced reader copy. I assumed she was a romance/chick lit author so was not expecting much. What I got was a science fiction novel with a detailed, tension filled plot, clear, well-developed characters and a great read. This is the first book of a proposed three book set so I was expecting lots of characters and that is what I got. I kept a running list and thumbnail sketch of the characters as I read. This was very helpful and I hope the author/publisher have a “cast of characters” in the finished novel to keep all the players straight.
There are three different sets of show more characters and situations as the story develops. These three sets do eventually come together after each meets challenging circumstances as a world-wide virus decimates the population. The virus unleashes death, but also exposes the remaining population to an assortment of human personnas – fairies, wizards, seers, etc. These beings are referred to as uncannies as opposed to the “only human” population, some of whom accept the uncannies and some who wish them only harm and death. This sets up the ongoing conflict between the various segments of the remaining population and also introduces the idea of “The ONE” who will save the world.
This book is a satisfying novel on its own and does have a logical and satisfying conclusion. The conflict set up for the remaining two books is similar to a race war, only between “human and Uncanny”. The writing is clear. The characters are well developed and interesting. The relationships are logical. The virus is believable as are the situations.
Altogether a rich and satisfying world has been set forth filled with interesting characters and a clear plot. I’m looking forward to reading the next installment.
5 of 5 stars show less

Initially this book was promising and involving, with the unfolding of a worldwide pandemic beginning with the infection of one man at a New Year celebration in Scotland. He returns to the USA and along the way infects dozens who go on to do likewise. Apart from a few who appear immune, the disease is unrelentingly fatal and the description of its effects harrowing.

The story is followed from the viewpoint of a number of people who appear immune. They face a new menace when rumours emerge of the government rounding up people like themselves for experimentation. So I anticipated a tense story of the struggle of the immune to survive and build a real life when they must perpetually look over their shoulders.

However it unfortunately show more developed into a cross between a soap opera and a young adult paranormal romance. For no known reason, some immune develop various superpowers or become faeries or elves. One of these characters then conceives the One and the book strayed into Buffy the Vampire Slayer territory but without the vampires. More and more impossible things were piled onto the increasingly top-heavy book, and it lost all credibility when a sort of Gandalf vibe was invoked at the end. The other characters which initially had been well developed dwindled into ciphers. From a possible 4 or even 5 stars, this plummeted to a barely scraped through 2 star rating. Disappointing. show less

When you are popular as Nora Roberts, there is not much incentive to stray from what made you successful. After all, when you release several novels in one year, all to great fanfare and sales, something must be working. For Ms. Roberts, that something has made her one of the most successful novelists of all time. Yet with Year One, she not only throws her story formulas out the window, she stomps them into pieces, then burns them to ashes, and then goes on to write one of the more compelling and infinitely darker stories she has ever produced.

Since Year One has elements of the supernatural in it and is the first in a trilogy, it would be all too easy to assume that we are going to get three pairs of romantic pairings, each person with show more a key role or power that will help them defeat the big baddie. We assume this because we have seen this in every one of her supernatural trilogies, and each time it works so well. Except this time, we get none of it. There are no romantic pairings. There are no real groups, and any that form are quickly torn asunder for various reasons. Only two of the main characters have any sort of power. What’s more, there is no safe outcome for the heroes. In fact, book one ends with no resolution and honestly very little hope that the good guys will win in the end. It is all a bit disconcerting for Nora fans.

For all this strangeness in a Nora novel though, what is there is so raw and so dark that it is like we are experiencing a brand-new author. While her characters are still as lively and as honest as ever, there is less focus on appearances and more on their intrinsic qualities. There is less worry about romance and more worry about survival. There is less forming of a cohesive unit and a whole lot more running scared. Plus, the evil is at a whole other level. Sure, we have faced wrathful gods and goddesses, witches and wizards, and every other form of baddie in her novels, but this unexplained evil that can reside in the ones we love most are the truly shocking. She holds nothing back in her baddies in Year One, and the story is better for it.

Neither does she hold back the gore. There are some seriously disturbing scenes throughout the novel that are just so unlike her that it is difficult to believe this is by the same person who writes about nature, horses, and dogs as if she were able to commune with them all. The scenes are sickening not only in their brutal depiction of bodily damage but also in the underlying story for they do more to explain the chaos of the world during the plague than any other scene in the novel. Without them, we lose not only the intensity of the story but also a large piece of the picture still forming.

As mentioned earlier, there is no pat resolution at the end of this first novel. There are few answers and a lot more questions at the story’s end. While this should be annoying, I find it strangely compelling. There is no cliffhanger demanding an immediate answer. Instead, there is a quiet insistence to wait and see how the rest of the story unfolds. Moreover, one gets the distinct impression that the rest of the story is going to be a bumpy ride with no character safe and plenty more shocking developments to come that will further confound Nora purists but which will enrich the story so much more thoroughly.

I love the fact that Ms. Roberts broke her mold wide open. I am even more impressed that she is not afraid to take a major chance with her latest story. She is so successful at what she writes that to deviate from that tried-and-true formula is quite a risk, yet she took that risk and, in my opinion, succeeds in so doing. It is not hyperbole to say that Year One is unlike anything else she has written to date, and it is because of these risks that she succeeds. The story fits with the general mood of the country and the tension that permeates society these days. It is gritty and raw, and I love it. I can only hope that Ms. Roberts continues to play with her craft because Year One shows her talent knows no bounds. show less

This is the nicest apocalypse I’ve ever seen.

It was advertised to me as a big epic story like The Stand, but with magic. It even has a mystery flu as the apocalypse-causing incident. But The Stand, this ain’t. Where’s the bleakness? Where’s the stakes? Where’s the beef?

The blurbs and reviews made it out like the next best thing since Patrick Rothfuss, but really it’s just a standard novel that feels like it belongs on mass market shelves at the grocery store. I was hoping for a unique twist, but it’s underdeveloped. And all you get are a bunch of nice people doing nice things in hard times. It reads more like the Katrina disaster than the end of the world.

For another thing, it has the problem of a big sludgy middle. It’s show more nothing like Swan Song or other apocalypse fiction I’ve read. Everyone’s too nice to each other. No one’s a hoarder. Everyone gives what they have willingly, like it’s a Meg Ryan apocalypse. Everyone trusts each other. And the weird part is how the build up around it is so unsatisfying. They create this big town called “New Hope” (eye roll), then it’s ransacked by bad guys and looters. But that’s not the end of the novel. You think it is, but it keeps going.

No one has a goal stronger than “survive”. No one has a character arc. If there are bad guys lurking, we don’t know anything about them. I’d call it “The Stand Lite“. I don’t think the author took time to think about what happens in a real worldwide disaster, as Stephen King and Robert McCammon did.

Some people said that it fell apart for them when the magic came in. I say it needed to have more magic. As such, there’s just a sprinkling of wiccan stuff and cliched prophecies going on. No one blasts each other with a spell. No one conjures up water. The fairies are human-sized and they actually have very little power. Don’t expect something like “the fae come to take over the ruined Earth”, because that’s a far cry from this.

I won’t be reading the next in the series. I probably won’t be reading any more Nora Roberts after this disappointment. Another case of an excellent idea executed poorly. show less

I've been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction lately. YEAR ONE reminded me a lot of Blake Crouch's RUN, which I read last month. This novel was, while similar in premise, much better executed. It's clear that Nora Roberts knows how to spin a darn good yarn. Her prose is vivid, her plots engaging, and her storytelling skills are top-notch.

However, I thought that the book was about 100 pages too long, though. The last third dragged on and became repetitive. I can't say I cared much for the sudden romance at the end, or the lack of closure. I understand that this is the first book in a series, but I liked to see a better wrap-up in novels I've invested my time and energy into reading.

I enjoyed the mix of paranormal, magic, and show more post-apocalyptic content. It gave a nice twist to some common tropes. I wasn't overly fond of any of the characters, though. Maybe because there were so many of them. I know Max and Lana were supposed to be the main characters (everyone else practically vanishes as the book rushes toward its climax, such as it is), but they both seemed one-dimensional to me. So purely... good. It just didn't make them very interesting. And, I guess, that's the only problem with the book as a whole: the bad guys are so very, very bad. And the good guys, by contrast, so very, very good, with none of the gray areas that make dynamic characters so interesting.

Having said all that, I will continue with the series. I'm curious to see where it goes. show less

“Year One” is a sort of urban fantasy twist on "The Stand". It tracks the path of groups of survivors of "The Doom", a virus which kills anyone who is not immune. As billions die, some of the immune discover latent magical powers and find themselves drawn to The Dark or The Light.

It's an easy to read entertainment that effortlessly manages the large number of characters and multiple initially parallel but eventually converging plot lines. The good guys are clearly drawn and instantly likeable. There are babies and a lab-cross dog. The bad guys are irredeemably evil and everyone else is either dead or consumed by fear.

Nora Roberts' accomplished writing kept me reading, in much the same way that high production standards make it easy show more to watch "Chicago Fire" or "Rookie Blue" but the good guys didn't become people I cared about and the bad guys seemed more like comic-book demons than people.

About halfway through, I realised that, although "Year One" was entertaining enough for me to stick with it to the end, something was preventing me from immersing myself in the story. It took me a while to isolate the cause: my lack of empathy with middle-class America. Most of the main good guy characters in this book come from privileged, sometimes very privileged, backgrounds. The Doom has destroyed their bright futures and now they have to adapt to survive.

It turns out that the secret to surviving the apocalypse is to band together with skilled people who embrace middle-class values, choose faith over fear, work together as a team and focus on "doing what comes next". Of course, emergent magical powers are also pretty useful.

There's nothing wrong with this. It might even turn out to be true. It's also not so far from the message of "The Stand". What spooked me about it in "Year One" is that Nora Roberts wraps such positive emotions around these values that they slid into my imagination already tagged as a Good Thing. Then I thought about the scale of loss, of the billions dead. Of cultures across the world extinguished, of losing everyone you ever loved, of having the value of your previous life challenged or eroded and it seemed to me that the main characters react almost as if they're on medication. Their ability to focus "on what needs doing" is certainly a survival skill but the ease with which they do it, the unthinking adoption of the "I'll protect Us against Them" mindset and the strong link Nora Robers makes between this stance and The Light made it difficult for me to empathise with or care about these people.

Later, I struggled with Nora Roberts' obsession with the idea that some things are "meant", that they're part of a "destiny", that it isn't enough for people to be attractive, privileged, educated and have magical gifts, they also have to have some kind of pintable-tilting agents of fate on their side. This began to feel like the dystopian urban fantasy version of meeting Mr Right.

At about the same time, we got the sex scene between the Alpha witch couple, Max and Lorna, the two "good guys" that I liked least, and it surfaced everything I disliked about the book: the sex was glossy, the sentiment was saccharine and the allegedly spontaneous vows that followed where so cliché filled and delivered with such self-absorbed seriousness that I felt I'd dropped into the middle of a romance novel. I have less trouble accepting a world-ending-virus and the emergence of latent magical powers than I do believing that people actually talk to each other like this when there's no camera crew present.

I liked the end section of the book well enough, setting aside the drumbeat message about "doing what needs to be done". I disliked that fact that not one of the bad guys was given any motivation other than fear, ignorance or just being born that way. The idea of a Messianic "One" sent to save the world doesn't do it for me so I won't be bothering with book two in this series.

If this book appeals to you, I recommend the audiobook version. It's skillfully narrated by Julia Whelan. You can hear her work on the SoundCloud link below.


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