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Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Book Review: Year One (Chronicles of The One #1) by Nora Roberts

Year One (Chronicles of The One #1)
by Nora Roberts
December 5th, 2017
Hardcover, 432 pages
St. Martin's Press
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.


Wow! I am amazed at how easy Nora Roberts crosses genres. I have read a fair amount of her books but this one embodies many storylines...Horror, fantasy, paranormal, suspense, romance...and does so with seamless effort. I was invested from page one, then addicted by the second chapter. I felt tinges of "The Stand", "Wayward Pines", "Blackout" and many great paranormal stories.

A devastating plague, caused by contamination of consecrated ground, affects the world's population and opens the gateway for paranormal powers to grow. We follow those that survived (both normal and magical ) and share in their fears, heartaches, and triumphs with bated breath and pounding hearts. They pick up the pieces of their lives and try to reestablish some semblance of society. Can they survive together? Given a chance to essentially start over. will the earth's population learn from the mistakes of the previous society? There will be a "One" to save humanity but how will people survive until that time comes?

I couldn't put this down and am devastated that the next installment in this trilogy is not available. No matter what genre of Nora Roberts' writings are your favorite, you must try this on for size. I guarantee you will not be disappointed and you will join me in the support group of "junkies waiting for the 'Year One' sequel".

Getting 5 "Doomed" sheep!






Jeanie G

About the Author:
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Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, the youngest of five children. After a school career that included some time in Catholic school and the discipline of nuns, she married young and settled in Keedysville, Maryland.
She worked briefly as a legal secretary. “I could type fast but couldn’t spell, I was the worst legal secretary ever,” she says now. After her sons were born she stayed home and tried every craft that came along. A blizzard in February 1979 forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate.
Born into a family of readers, Nora had never known a time that she wasn’t reading or making up stories. During the now-famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981.

Nora met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together.

Through the years, Nora has always been surrounded by men. Not only was she the youngest in her family, but she was also the only girl. She has raised two sons. Having spent her life surrounded by men, Ms. Roberts has a fairly good view of the workings of the male mind, which is a constant delight to her readers. It was, she’s been quoted as saying, a choice between figuring men out or running away screaming.
Nora is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry. Recently The New Yorker called her “America’s favorite novelist.”

1 comment:

  1. I LOVED Year One and thought she really outdid herself on this one.

    ReplyDelete