By: Nora Roberts
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Series: Chronicles of The One (#1)
Summary: It began on New Year's Eve.
The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed--and more than half of the world's population was decimated.
Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river--or in the ones you know and love the most.
As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.
In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.
The end has come. The beginning comes next.
Review: A sudden illness spread quickly. Even more fear spread. Within weeks, everyone’s trust crumbled. As a result, power grids sputtered, laws collapsed, and governments collapsed - and more than half of the world’s population died.
In a world of uncertainty, strangers could be savages or saviors, and their intentions and direction are a mystery. But a purpose awaits them that will affect their lives and those of the remaining survivors.
I’m really in the mood for a dark, post-apocalyptic dystopia. Unfortunately, what started out as a great dystopian novel quickly devolved into a generic urban fantasy.
What a jarring experience it is to see how quickly things change. The first few chapters brilliantly establish the unsettling tone through the Doom’s arrival, the epidemic, and the catastrophic loss of human life. This book competes with other great pandemic novels, such as The Stand and Blindness. When the fantastical elements swept in, it failed for me.
Suddenly, people are developing superpowers and running rabid through the streets. In fact, Lana and Max are witches! In contrast to the perfect beginning, the rest of the story seemed chaotic and out of place.I don’t know if it will make a difference to know what you’re getting into beforehand. I just know I found it unpleasantly disorientating to discover that the meat in the novel differed from the set-up.
Since the start of the book was so strong, I had subconsciously written a five-star review in my mind. This turned out to be a standard gory, end-of-the-world story with characters that aren’t worth remembering. It’s a real shame.