Year One

Solid 4 stars!

This book is crazy! I felt that the book started really good, creepy, and uncomfortable. But in the middle, it was a little slow, and the end wasn't great!

Here we have a modern world that is infected by a virus that has 100% of mortality. However, there are some people that are immune and these people start to develop magical ability. Some of the people already knew that they had power and some are still developing it. Here we see a lot of characters and how they survive in this new crazy world. How they start to build the communities and how there are a lot of people who just want to do evil and destroy everything.

Nevertheless, the reading is very captivating and exciting. There are a lot of super tense moments and we just want them to end.

The best part of this book is that the writer is not afraid of giving complicated and often deadly challenges to her characters.

I was very excited to read Year One by Nora Roberts. First off, I have read close to thirty of her books. For a while there I was plowing through them. She writes great characters and exciting plots. Especially her later work. I also have read pretty much all the post-apocalyptic books I can get my hands on. Except for “The Road” which I won't touch with a ten-foot stick. 

My first observation is a positive one. The entire novel rests on an interesting, if not a slightly trite premise. World plague that decimates human the population. The thrilling thing is that the epidemic is based on lore mythology and magic. The disease is itself named “Doom,” and is made of these dark energies escaping and infecting the world. I think. Nora Roberts was a little fuzzy on it. In response to these increasing darkness and sickness infecting, a reaction in people with any spiritual and/or magical is that the latent power these people had increased exponentially. Another point I'm fuzzy on. Otherwords, some people get big woo-woo, others not so much. No idea what it is based on or why. Some people get nothing at all and remain human. Also no clue. It just is. Plot points like these that lay the foundation in novels, in my opinion, need to be rock solid. Otherwise, niggling questions remain and throw the reader's mind out of the story. 

The second observation is also a positive one. Nora Roberts knows how to write good dialog. It may be a little schmaltzy, but it flows like people talk. The dialog was well written. I may not have liked what the characters were saying, but she is damn good at writing it.  

Character-wise, it is just damn confusing. She has some well-written ones in there that are fleshed out, and some that are flat as a board (I am looking at you Eric and Allegra) and you scratch your head wondering what the hell. Why are the ones that are vapid come from out of nowhere and give so much page time? Also, the pacing and plot arcs are jarring as hell. I have never read a novel that jarred me like a car accident from one vignette to another. 

Lastly the third act of the story. I am going to speak in broad terms so as not to do any spoilers, but I spent 75 pages scratching my head. It was all so bland and wrapped up in a neat little bow. I didn't give a damn about the characters at the end. The ones that I really liked and thought were interesting got unceremoniously excised from the last act of the novel which was a weird pacing and story arc thing to do. Maybe I was just slightly miffed at that. Where are my Arlys, Fred and Jonah? She should have at least nodded her head at them and told us a little of what was going on. 

I want to be very clear here. This isn't a crap book. Nora Roberts is a master storyteller, but this isn't her best work. That's ok not everything is going to be a shining star. It is a serviceable book with highs and lows and is very readable. I will read the next book in the series to see what happens. If I had to give it a rating, I'd rate it 3 out of 5. 

Dystopian novel, heavy on the fantasy and I enjoyed it. The action does go up and down...so it's not fast paced all the way. About halfway when the smoke begins to clear, the story does slow down some..as people begin to settle but it didn't make me want to stop reading. I was invested by this point.
Some things kept me from 5 starring this. There are a lot of characters so it's told from several point of views. I didn't get confused. I got where everyone was in their story but it had several main characters and that can leave a story with one too many holes to fill. I would have also liked just a bit more explanation between the magical races that appear. Such as the differences between them etc etc.
Other than that, I am definitely looking forward to getting my hand on the next book in this trilogy.