Year One by Nora Roberts

Description from Amazon:

As this world ends, a new one begins.

With one drop of blood, the old world is gone for ever. And in its place, something extraordinary begins...

They call it The Doom - a deadly pandemic that starts on a cold New Year’s Eve in the Scottish countryside. There’s something mysterious about the virus and the way it spreads. As billions fall sick and die, some survivors find themselves invested with strange, unexpected abilities.

Lana, a New York chef, has the power to move things and people with her will. Fred can summon light in the darkness. Jonah, a paramedic, sees snatches of the future in those he touches. Katie gives birth to twins, and suspects that she has brought fresh magic into the world, along with new life.

But The Doom affects people differently. Along with the light, a dark and terrifying magic will also rise. As the remaining authorities round up the immune and the ‘Uncannies’ for testing, Lana, Katie and others flee New York in search of a safe haven. The old world is over, and Year One has begun.

 

I had not read Nora Roberts or her other penname, JD Robb, before, and with a tagline like this, I just had to read it.

The pandemic has an eerie COVID feeling to it, but it’s a lot more extreme and wipes a lot more people out. It also turns people feral. It’s as though there is a feeling of hatred unleashed, and those willing to embrace the hatred turn the landscape into a dystopian wasteland by stealing and killing and destroying. If you felt the desperation people experienced to stay alive in the movie The Purge, then this is what it’s like on another level. It does move from dystopian to more fantasy, but I had no problem with this.

I enjoyed the magical elements to the story, where the “Uncannies” have incredible abilities and many are just learning to use them. You have humans with simple abilities, while others have become faeries or elves. There are also those without abilities who are merely immune to the virus wiping everyone out. In some humans the abilities have turned dark, and this darkness fuels an evil that threatens to wipe out all that is good.

The survivors have banded together in groups, much like in The Stand, and in one particular group, some of the members may have something that will turn the tides in years to come. But the waiting might kill more people than the world can afford.

I loved the writing, and the tension and sections of happiness are well placed. The author has you thinking one thing at one stage, and then BAM! Something so unexpected happens so quickly I actually went back to read it again to see if I’d made a mistake. There are sections that do seem a little slow when concentrating on the babies or the cooking or the provisions, but I think these made the hills and valleys of the book interesting.

There are plenty of elements that have not been addressed like how the Raiders came together, what the deep dark is, and how the prophet is going to get involved, but I think this will be one of the bases for the full series.

I look forward to the rest!