#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A stunning new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts–Year One is an epic of hope and horror, chaos and magick, and a journey that will unite a desperate group of people to fight the battle of their lives… It began on New Year’s Eve. The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything … 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, magick 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.
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Can’t wait for the next one!
I’ve learned I do not like dystopic sci fi.
Nora Roberts is one of my favorite authors and I usually love all or her books. This one however is not one of my favorites. The whole premise of the series is really quite unusual and very unbelievable.
DNF. Way bloodier than I expected, so I just couldn’t make it past the first few chapters. I was disappointed.
Wow, an unexpected and inventive plot. I can’t wait for the second book.
I haven’t read a Nora Roberts novel that I didn’t absolutely love! Can’t wait until Book 2 is released! The reader can’t help but be drawn into this captivating, dangerous virtual world Roberts has created! Be prepared to eat take out, let the laundry pile up, let the housework go & use a sick day to read this enthralling novel!
Love apocalyptic stories and this one is not your typical.. Is most of the world’s population wiped out by a unknown virus? Yes.. But after that is where the difference comes in.. The aftermath is the prequel to what’s going to amount to good vs evil between the magicks who now populate the world. It also sets up the birth of “The One” who will be the savior of the world against the black evil.
A very large cast of characters are introduced throughout the book. The author breaks that down into 4 groups of people having 3 of those groups eventually cross paths. The 4th sets up what/who I am sure will be in the next two books.
This is definitely a paranormal but the world building is full of strong, brave characters who before the virus were just everyday people and now along with new special abilities for some have banded together and search for a place to start life anew while avoiding the threat of The Purity Warriors and the dark magicks who want to kill all the light magicks.
I was a little surprised at the direction things went towards the end – we are given enough of an explanation that I got it but it wasn’t something I was expecting.
What can you say, it’s Nora Roberts. Sometimes authors have things written, before they happen. Sometimes I feel as this will eventually be what it planet will be like. Good versus evil. I always root for the good guts. Can’t wait for the next book.
Not her usual but I still couldn’t put it down.
Scary, like watching a train wreck, have to keep reading
This book is a departure from the books we are used to from Nora Roberts. Very unexpected. I enjoyed it so much I can hardly wait until the next book!
not one of her best..don’t want to read any more destruction, devastation, plagues etc. world is scary enough by itself..
I read this through the first time thinking it was going to have a straightforward apocalyptic survival-driven storyline, but ended up really liking the paranormal/supernatural flavor of it. In reading it a second time, I appreciated the way Nora wove the world building through the entire book from the very beginning in ways you don’t notice, building toward the end. Memorable characters and high stakes made for an exciting read. I can’t wait for the second one!
Nora’s done it again. She keeps me riveted to her books. I await her next book in this trilogy anxiously.
4.5 stars
I’m not a big fan of post-apocalyptic stories and I was dismayed by the descriptions of man’s inhumanity to man, but I was captured by the story and am looking forward to seeing where the series goes. Not for the squeamish, and I was very saddened by some of the losses. A nice blend of paranormal and realism in the author’s usual deft style.
Not your normal Nora, but you won’t be able to put it down!
My favorite author, but a very unique and dark tale. Can’t wait for book 2 in the series.
I loved the characters!!!
more like her JD Robb books; this is pretty grim but as always kept me captivated.
bummed we have to wait a year for volume 2.
Not what I expected of her. A good book.