Challenge: Science Fiction vs Fantasy 2018 Bingo
Category: Plague
Book: Year One; Chronicles of The One Book One; Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts. Queen of Romance. Queen of Lather Rinse Repeat Happy Ever After Trilogies. Queen of Predictability. Not this time. This time, she flips the program.
It starts on New Year’s Eve in Scotland in an unnamed year. A single gunshot…a falling pheasant…a happy celebration… starts the downfall of humanity. They call it The Doom. First your throat hurts. Then you start to cough. Next comes the vomiting. Then…you die. Within 4 weeks, over 2 billion humans, 1/3 the Earth’s population, is dead. And, more lay in ER waiting areas, dying.
As the Earth’s human population continues to fall, strange new powers are born to many who live. Witches. Faeries. Healers. Seers. Shape Shifters. But, with the Light, comes the Dark.
When I first started reading this, I expected, and saw to an extent, the same old set up by Nora Roberts. Make no mistake, that same old setup is comforting and enjoyable. It’s what makes me read her trilogies year after year after year, and still find enjoyment. It’s not long before you realize THIS NR book is different. THIS NR book won’t bring you comfort. THIS NR book doesn’t follow the familiar pattern of Happy Ever After. THIS NR book sends you on a dystopian, urban fantasy ride that reminded me of an unexpected setting. From the car ridden streets to the bands of Raiders terrorizing their way through a new world to the cringe inducing abandoned tubes of New York, I felt like I was reading the synopsis for Fallout 5…and that’s not a bad thing. As factions arise, and the Immune Humans and Uncanny try to survive in a world determined to destroy itself, Year One reminds us there’s a reason we love Nora Roberts. While I found the ending slightly unsatisfying, overall, I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. 4/5 Lattes.
