Year One is Nora Roberts' take on dystopian end-of-the-world literature, with a fantasy twist. My favorite parts of the book were the initial stories around patient zero, the start of the pandemic, and how the characters coped in the initial aftermath. With so much going on, the pacing was swift and the story felt compelling.
After that, the book started in on survival mode, and that's when it started to feel sluggish. The characters were moving from place to place, trying to find a safe haven, but searching for food and shelter while trying to avoid bad people just isn't that exciting (at least to me). Roberts introduced a lot of characters, and while she tried to keep them separate and unique, I still felt at times that they blurred together, and I forgot who was who.
An integral part of this story was the fantasy element, but to me, it just never meshed with the rest of the story. It felt out of place, and as a result, I just didn't buy into it completely. It didn't help that the fantasy part was a bit over the top and silly, with lines like "May I eat? I've fasted three days in honor of The One."
Still, Roberts is a skillful writer of easy-to-read fiction, and this book falls in that category. While this was interesting enough for a read, I don't feel that it crosses over from just ok to actually good, so I'll probably skip the rest in the series.
Readaroo Rating: 2 stars
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