Year One (Chronicles of The One #1)
by Nora Roberts
What is it 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 of it:
*spoilery*
I had never read anything by Nora Roberts before, but the post apocalyptic nature of this book made me want to give it a try.
And I can tell you that the world building is terrific. The plague spreading, the chaos, the desperate attempts of people trying to get out of the big cities. I was totally hooked. Slowly the major players are introduced, and I like some, didn't care much for some others.
And that's where the story fell short for me. Soon it was clear that the couple I didn't much care for was the most important. Lana turns out to have a Virgin Mary kind of role in this story and the hints given before she finds out were not subtle. I grumbled a bit, but there was the other group of survivors who I liked, so I kept reading, wanting to know how they would cope.
Then the two groups meet up, there are of course Bad Guys after
I made it to the end of the book because I expected the story would switch back to my favorite characters, if I'd known the rest of the book would only be about Wonder Witch Lana I'd have stopped reading. What started out as a cool story with a mixed bag of characters, turned into a big disappointment. I won't be continuing with this series, I can tell you.
Why should you read it:
It has some cool characters and cool worldbuilding.
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