Year One

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

YEAR ONE by Nora Roberts is the first book in her new paranormal trilogy, Chronicles of the One. IT IS NOT ROMANCE. It blends classic Roberts paranormal, apocalyptic horror, and epic fantasy into something I’ve never experienced from the Queen of Romance. Of course there are minor romance plots within the story but it is not the focus. Be ready for freaky magic, a few awws, and a lot of sobbing.

“Now between the birth and the death of time, power rises from the long slumber. Now begins the blood-soaked battle between them. And with the lightning and a mother’s birth pangs comes The One who wields the sword.”
The MacLeod men had no way of knowing hunting pheasants for their Scottish New Years Eve party would unleash the Doom, a show more deadly virus destined to wipe out billions. As government and technology collapse, magic reigns. People without a lick of magic are changed forever while a few who were already touched by it find their powers have grown. Many blame the Uncanny, those “blessed” with magic for the destruction, and no one is safe—from the authorities rounding up survivors or from the Raiders pillaging and destroying anything and everything.

YEAR ONE is reminiscent of NR’s The Circle Trilogy but with an epic twist and a whole new direction. I know I have repeatedly warned y’all about this, but I find it very important for long time Nora Roberts fans to know that it is not a romance story, no matter what romance arcs it sports. Main characters die in YEAR ONE and Roberts is not as kind to the survivors as she is when readers know each book will at least sport a happy for now ending.

I am happy with the ending, but even with the hopeful ending of YEAR ONE I know the end of the pain and suffering for the remaining characters is far away. In any case, I loved this new direction Roberts takes in this novel. I am eagerly anticipating the next thrilling yet heartbreaking installment of this dark epic fantasy.

For the full review, click HERE 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

“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.


[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/378462590" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%" height="300" iframe="true" /] show less

Man, Nora Roberts knows how to start things off with a bang. I’ve never read any of her paranormal books before, only contemporary romance and romantic thrillers, and this was absolutely fabulous. A deadly outbreak spreading across the globe. The world thrust in a sort of post-apocalyptic nightmare that brings out the rawest aspects of human nature, for better and worse. And for some special abilities.

One thing I love about the way NR writes is her ability to ask all the right “what if” questions and answer them in deliciously thrilling ways. This was impossible to put down. The characters, like in every one of her books I’ve enjoyed, are the heart of the story, an interesting collection of personalities that drive the story show more forward as you’re left afraid to wonder what comes next.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

I have been reading Nora Roberts’ books for many years now. They seldom let me down. I only discovered her “In Death” series a few years ago. I guess that was her first journey into sci-fi/romance. Now in “Year One” she did not disappoint.

I would compare “Year One” to Stephen King’s “The Stand” and Robert McCammon’s “Swan Song”. Now take those books and throw in some witches, elves, and faeries and you have Nora Roberts’ latest book. It definitely took me on a ride – very suspenseful.

A virus has killed off one-third of the planet’s population in less than a month. Those who are immune soon divide into the Light versus the Dark – the ever popular good versus evil. Some of the survivors discover they have show more new powers. (Probably the new trend for 2018 – out with the vampires and zombies, in with the super heroes.) Ms. Roberts developed the characters so beautifully. I adore Fred (a faerie); she reminds me of Zip in Rue’s “Hawthorn Chronicles” series. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but she took her time in letting us get to know them so the number is manageable. The relationships formed among the characters are very believable. There is a lot of dialogue versus narrative which keeps the story moving at a quick pace.

Through her descriptions I could easily envision the destruction and devastation the characters encountered. I was immediately pulled into the story. First paragraph – “When Ross MacLeod pulled the trigger and brought down the pheasant, he had no way of knowing he’d killed himself. And billions of others.” At the end I still felt some hope for their survival. But this is a trilogy so I know there will be more bad times to come. Now I have to wait until late 2018 for the next volume. show less

With one drop of blood, the old world is gone for ever. And in its place, something extraordinary begins…

THE OLD WORLD IS OVER, AND YEAR ONE HAS BEGUN.

This is the first Nora Roberts book I have read but I think I will defiantly be trying some of her other books now!

This book completely absorbed me and drew me in, I was hooked within the first few pages! I love to read pre-publication but in this case it will be a long time before I can read part 2 and 3 of this trilogy which I want to, need to, read NOW.

This is Nora Roberts first book in the apocalyptic and dystopian genre and she has nailed it! Any lovers of fantasy, dystopian fantasy, or paranormal romance/fantasy romance – read it! There are comparisons to Stephen King’s The show more Stand and although both books have a very similar plot, the writing styles make them very different books, thankfully!

Year One starts on New Years Eve, with the McLeod family in Scotland, whilst out shooting the men become the first people to contract this new virus, a virus that is extremely contagious. As the McLeod family part to return to their own homes they unknowingly infect everyone that they come into contact with, spreading it to different countries.

Within weeks over 5 billion people are dead. But there are survivors, people who are immune to the Virus, The Doom. Among these survivors some exhibit mysterious and dangerous new abilities. Those that had minor magic/psychic abilities before The Doom find their gifts vastly increased , while others are now able to shape-shift and become known as the ‘Uncanny’

Across the World as governments collapse, people start to leave the dangers of the Cities and try to find safe havens where like-minded survivors of all types can live together in relative Peace and Hope . The story follows Lana & Max, Jonah, Katie & babies, Rachel, Aryls, Fred and Chuck as they try to rebuild what is left of the world and look to the future, for Hope.

But not all the survivors are looking for peace, there is also Uncanny’s serving a dark purpose as well as bands of people searching for Uncanny’s to extinguish as well as anyone that stands in their way. Or just to kill anyone for their own entertainment.

During this turbulent time a child is born, conceived on New Years eve in love and magic. She must remain hidden and protected , taught magical and survival skills, she MUST survive in order to take up the reins of her per-ordained destiny.

Although Year One chronicles the near-extinction of mankind, the story is one of rebirth and the persistence of hope, rather than despair. The never-ending battle between good and evil and the reliance of the human soul.

Emotionally, this book ran the gamut from joy to relief, to fear and despair, and everything in between. There is a fair amount of tension, with periods of seeming contentment sprinkled in, but these brief periods often felt like the calm before the storm. As quickly as Hope is found, Hope can soon be taken away.

The story is really well written and the characters are fleshed out enough to make you feel like you know them and care what the future holds for them. It is told from several points of view from the initial stages on through the first year. The story ends as it began, on New years eve with Lana. And the two nights a year apart couldn’t be any more different if they tried. From New York city and a swanky New years eve party to a rural remote farm-house.

As clichéd as this is – I do honestly recommend this book and it will make a brilliant book for book clubs, it will provide hours worth of topics and emotions to discuss.
Now comes the very long wait for Book Two! show less