Mysteriously immune from The Doom, these main characters and the people around them form the core of the story as they seek to find other survivors and generally survive – no, more than survive, but rebuild a life. Events are observed mainly through the eyes of a few protagonists: journalist, Arylis, sous chef, Lana and her lover, the writer, Max, and a paramedic, Jonah, the man responsible for bringing patent zero – one of the McLeods – to his hospital in NYC, and the only suriving member of the McLeod family. The story quickly shifts to New York and the United States generally and, as is usual with these types of tales, we bear witness to the destruction of society and civility as we know it.

Fatalities rise and the sickness quickly becomes known as The Doom. (all via stopovers in other major centres) spreads and kills anyone infected. When the men shoot a pheasant and it lands in the middle of a cursed stone circle (as they do), it marks the beginning of the end as the men, somehow, become infected with a deadly sickness that, as they leave the Highlands and venture back to their homes in London, USA etc. Travelling from far and wide, they spend glorious days feasting, hunting, reminiscing and sharing. The opening scenes take us to the Scottish Highlands where the McLeod family gather for their annual Christmas celebrations. Lewis thrown in along with a healthy dose of romance.īasically, Year One by Nora Roberts, starts off as a dramatic apocalyptic story. You see, it started very much like Stephen King’s The Stand, a terrific post-apocalyptic/eschatological novel and one of my favourites in the genre (along with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale) before it suddenly morphs into an urban fantasy ala Karen Marie Moning’s Fever books, with a little bit of Harry Potter, Tolkien and C.S. Depending on what you think of the genre that dominates the novel from thereon in, responses to the book overall will vary. The principal reason for this is because from the blurb and the first hundred or so pages, the novel sets up the reader and one set of genre expectations that are, out of the blue, overturned. This is such a difficult and, frankly, strange book to review.

Year one nora roberts summary