Year One (Chronincles of the One), by Nora Roberts

Summary

This series starts off quickly, with the story jumping right into the apocolypse, while hinting at the cause of it. A virus, called the Doom, spreads quickly and is incurable. Once it has run its course, all that’s left in the world are magical people of one form or another. Groups of people eventually find each other and form: the evil Raiders, the dark magic, and the survivors.

This book follows a plethura of characters, but Roberts does an amazing job of giving these people unique personalities and hinting at the roles they will play later in the trilogy. It is very different in that it doesn’t clearly follow one couple, or a trio of couples. The relationships are interwoven throughout generations and Roberts covers a longer time frame than she normally does in a trilogy. As the main group of characters battle to make the beginning of the world a positive one, they face an evil duo who kill one of our main heros, leaving his wife pregnant and alone. As she runs from the evil darkness and begins a new life once again, she carries the world’s savior in her. As soon as I finished reading this on my Kindle, I clicked to purchase the second book in the series.

Evaluation

This plot of this book was a complicated read compared to those in Nora Robert’s past. There were a lot of characters to not only get to know, but also envision, for with all the magic and types of creatures, it wasn’t safe to assume a character looked human. Also, I didn’t feel comfortable forgetting any characters because I had a feeling many of them would come back into play later in the series. This trilogy also seems to be set up a bit defferently than her other books. While her other books have a clear beginning, middle with a climax, and end, this one shifts the order of story a bit. Most of the book seems to be exposition setting readers up for the cliffhanger at the end, which will in turn, cause them to buy the second book.

Robert’s style is as descriptive as ever here, if not more so. She allows herself a bit more freedom with the figurative and abstact language because so much of the book is based on magic. Her descriptions tend to contrast each other, dark one moment, then light the other, depending on the character or scene she is emphasizing. The darkness in this novel did make me uncomfortable at times. Torture, rape, and murder are brought on by the apocolyptic state. There were also a few times I had to reread sections because ambiguous language (meaning to create suspense or a certain tone, in my opinon) confused me. But overall, I was pleased with this combination of romance and apocalyptic thriller all in one book.

The content of her novels remains controversial and relevant as ever: racism, fear of anyone different, greed and malice, government corruption, religious zealots, and more are highlighted, especially between characters of dark and light magic, as well as humans and all magical beings. The sex scenes are not the highlight of this book, but instead used to express the emotions of characters who are in survival mode, fighting to save not only their lives, but the whole world. This gives them more magic and power, but less details.

Similar/Related Readings

Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of the One #2) by Nora Roberts

The Rise of Magicks (Chronicles of the One #3) by Nora Roberts