Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Year One
    Year One
    Year One
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Year One

    Written by Nora Roberts

    Narrated by Julia Whelan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER (December 2017)

    A stunning novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts—Year One is an epic of hope and horror, chaos and magick, and a journey that will unite a desperate group of people to fight the battle of their lives…

    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, magick 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 5, 2017
    ISBN9781531834432
    Year One
    Author

    Nora Roberts

    Nora Roberts is the bestselling author of more than two hundred romance novels. She was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Since her first bestseller in 1991, Nora’s books have spent more than two hundred weeks in the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list. There are more than five hundred million copies of her books in print, published in over thirty-four countries.

    Related to Year One

    Titles in the series (6)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Silence Of The Geese

      Jan 19, 2022

      Silence Of The Geese
      3 min read

    • Article

      Myths And Legends Of Cock Robin

      Dec 6, 2022

      This extract from AG 20 December 1975 looks at some of the stories surrounding the robin ALMOST all British gardeners are familiar with robins. These are perhaps the best known of our resident birds, enjoying the company of human beings and demonstra

      5 min read

    • Article

      Happy Christmas 1871!

      Nov 8, 2022

      Happy Christmas 1871!
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Life Well Lived

      Dec 29, 2023

      WHAT is the collective noun for a group of hunting people? A guffaw, a gaggle, a pack? You could spot them if you looked closely among the people who had gathered in their hundreds for the funeral and memorial of Adam's friend, Ron Dobson, who died v

      2 min read

    • Article

      Charades Anyone?

      Nov 10, 2022

      Charades Anyone?
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Oz trials

      Dec 14, 2022

      My Oz trials
      3 min read

    • Article

      All I Want For Christmas

      Dec 16, 2020

      IT was more than an icicle. More like an icy boulder, oversized and murkily white, faceted like a cartoon jewel and, shortly, dripping. It had lurked beneath a low stone bridge at the bottom of the wood, where sycamore thickets bald for winter gave w

      18 min read

    • Article

      Summer From Hell

      Mar 18, 2020

      Summer From Hell
      11 min read

    • Article

      At Home With Canadas

      Aug 8, 2020

      At Home With Canadas
      3 min read

    • Article

      They Do Make ’em Like That

      Nov 1, 2023

      A FEW weeks back, a friend and I set out to put away a bottle of whisky. Not swallowed, for once, but buried. On a mild early-autumn day, we sauntered six miles into the hills of Wester Ross on our mission. My friend Jonny has whisky secreted all ove

      2 min read

    • Article

      Notes From The Isles

      Feb 18, 2022

      Notes From The Isles
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Tale Of Two Christmases

      Dec 17, 2020

      A Tale Of Two Christmases
      7 min read

    • Article

      From Time Immemorial

      Nov 10, 2022

      From Time Immemorial
      2 min read

    • Article

      Claws For Celebration

      Jan 8, 2023

      Claws For Celebration
      2 min read

    • Article

      Winter Is Coming

      Nov 16, 2022

      I walk to Advent Matins in a thin, cold drizzle. Supermarket shoppers zip past. I can hear our church bells getting into their stride. How pleased Widow Sturdy would have been to know that the bell she created in her foundry was in good ringing order

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sounding The Right Note

      Jul 15, 2021

      Sounding The Right Note
      3 min read

    • Article

      All Is Safely Gathered In

      Jul 20, 2022

      All Is Safely Gathered In
      3 min read

    • Article

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy

      Oct 6, 2022

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy
      2 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Jul 26, 2023

      IN COMPETITION No 295 you were invited to write a poem called Roots. Cherry MacGregor started off in medias res: ‘Has the vine died? My husband had asked,/ As we enjoyed lunch in the garden.’ Another excellent opening came from DM Davis: ‘Roots, oh m

      2 min read

    • Article

      Beasts Of The Fields

      Feb 19, 2020

      Family heartache on the northern New York border, and the creatures that bore witness to it.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Exotic Bird In The Paddock

      Oct 16, 2023

      Miles the sheep farmer was coming to Lush Places to fix our leaking water troughs. He sent a text message to say he was here. I hopped over the stile, in my stylish, mud-smeared, sheepbitten paddock shorts and saw him at the far end of our pear orcha

      2 min read

    • Article

      Scarlet Ribbons

      Oct 20, 2022

      I was two when I came to love the tiny, red flowers that spilled over the worn doorstep of my first home and splattered the cracked pathway to the beck with vibrant colour. Like Hansel’s breadcrumbs, the scarlet pimpernel ribbon was my security on th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Waiting For A Queen To Fly

      May 15, 2019

      Waiting For A Queen To Fly
      10 min read

    • Article

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy

      Oct 6, 2022

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy
      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘My heart BROKE’

      Oct 28, 2021

      ‘My heart BROKE’
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Year One

    4/5

    728 ratings68 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This book is great because it was even better than I had expected. I have never been disappointed with a book by Nora Roberts. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      one of the better apocalypse stories, full of magic and love

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Listened to the audiobook.
      The Scottish accents at the start of the book were shocking but I kept going.

      Sadly it wasn't a book I enjoyed. I felt like the characters were a bit shallow and fleeting and I didn't get to know them enough.

      Predictable towards the end.

      Sadly I won't be listening to the next one in the series. Sorry.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I loved the book! But the audiobook hadn’t all the parts as the book!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Kept me wanting more !! Loved it!! Nora Roberts is amazing

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A bit slow but an enjoyable read. Hope i can find book 2

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It's a great book when you finish and want more and need to continue the story. I can't wait to read what happens next in Fallon's life.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      did not end well. the cure and the cause of the epidemic was not clear
      .

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      There are Lots of breaks in the sound through the end of the book

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I was disappointed. Parts of the book were very good and parts were not. The pandemic story was told well, but the magic was a little over the top. It seemed like two book ideas smashed into one.

      Oh well, it ticks off an item on my reading challenge!
    • 5/5
      Great characters. Awesome writing. She has a way with emotions.
    • 5/5
      I seriously enjoyed this series. I like Nora Roberts, but this was a huge surprise to me. It will be one that I will indeed read again.
    • 2/5
      This is an abridged version and it ruins the story. Find a hard copy or ebook that is complete. Don’t bother with the audio book, it leaves out important developments that keep you invested in the story
    • 1/5
      Witches? Really? That a NO for me. Such a shame. The rest was starting to get interesting.
    • 4/5
      Pretty good, decent world building and an interesting plot. Lana wasnt the most interesting character, preferred Jonah and wish we got more of him and Rachel too.
    • 5/5
      I always enjoy Nora Roberts. Compelling story and good characters. The story feels real—and therefore believable. Looking forward to the next installment.
    • 1/5
      The book was condensed to a point that it didn’t make sense.
    • 5/5
      yes loved it a lot!!!! is there a next one
    • 5/5
      Year One is the first book in the Chronicles of The One trilogy by Nora Roberts.

      The book starts at New year in Scotland and where Patient 0 was infected before leaving to return to the USA. The virus and its symptoms came on suddenly while Patient 0 is on the flight home, however by the time this has happened he has already infected at least a dozen people before landing.

      Within a matter of weeks life as the world know has changed dramatically and the governments which are in place start to fail them. Along with this failing, the electric grid splatters and has periodic outages, and law & government collapsing. This Virus has infected and resulting deaths has already claimed 50% of the world's populations.

      Nora Roberts describes the state of chaos which has happened with the kind of detail which make you blood run cold but holds your attention and makes you want to keep reading and and not put this down. It is in the descriptive language she uses that she has explained that with the demise of order, magic has surfaced with both good and bad elements. It becomes evident that there are some individuals who are immune and the gifted realise that even though they are immune there is no safety for them from the authorities who patrol the empty streets.

      The novel depicts the pockets of immune and gifted travelling in the same direction. It is clear that all of the characters on edge when they meet other groups because anyone that you meet could be either friend or foe. It is the journeys and eventual settlement of the group together is this story line will give them all a purpose in the community that has been created. I have read several other novels by Nora Roberts and this is a welcome change in direction as she has started to bring in fantasy on a classic thriller. The way that she ensures that you have a backstory for each of the main characters and love listening to the way that they develop.

      I will say that this has made me think how bad the real world could have been if the governments had not introduced lock down. It has shown how quickly a virus can be spread and the way it mutates as conditions change. I would advise that any one which has been effected by Covid-19 may find that this a hard book for them to read, however i would recommend this book to everyone.
    • 5/5
      Nora Roberts never disappoints. Can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
    • 4/5
      I loved it!!! can't wait till the next book. Thanks






    • 5/5
      Excellent! Highly recommend listening to (or reading) this book. You need to read this first, before reading the other two in the series - this is important. Sometimes, you can skip books in a series, but not this one (in my opinion).
    • 1/5
      I loved the book, BUT don’t read this abridged version of it; they have more or less cut away most of the book. Read the full book or see if you can find an UNcabridged version of it, cause this is such a waste of a good book.

      5 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Excellent book. Interesting and engaging dystopian fantasy that really pulled me in and had me caring about the characters. Very different from the author’s other works.
    • 1/5
      Ugh. The male characters all sounds exactly the same, excepting one that has an accent. There's no personality. I'm also pretty annoyed this plot went so quickly to "Americans have to figure out how to survive without shopping". How dreary and boring.
    • 3/5
      Interesting story, well written. A bit to religious for me this Day. Still a good read.
    • 3/5
      My Thoughts:Year One being the fist book in the series, is typically a coming of age book. It introduces the reader to a dystopian world which just started to become dystopian and the memories of a normal modern life is still fresh in peoples' minds. The world of Year One reminds me greatly of the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, a world shifting from tech to magic. And this kind of shift is not the first time and wouldn't be the last, and that this shift happens every so very, very many years. Sort of cyclic. That right now we are living in the tech cycle, so much so that magic is all but disappeared in our world. And in Year One, the magic cycle has begun.This is my first Julia Whelan audiobook listen. I like the way she reads and her voice is not aggravating to the ears. Kudos to the narration!!This is the first Nora Roberts book I've read that uses the "multiple thread" kind of format in telling a story. Where every other chapter follows a different thread of the story. I hate this format in a book!! I guess in this one it fits because the story tells of the different stories of the different characters. It is still annoying though...Now, the plot.... what plot?! *sigh* ...yeah, there isn't much of one. The ending is not exactly a cliffhanger, but it is the prelude to subsequent books.In the end, I did enjoy this book, but not as much as I expected to with Nora Roberts' name on it.Empirical Evaluation:Story telling quality = 4.5Character development = 4.5Story itself = 3Writing Style = 3.5Ending = 3.5World building = 4.5Cover art = 4.5Pace = (12 hrs and 20 mins)Plot = 2Narration = 5Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
    • 3/5
      As a teenager, I devoured Nora Roberts novels like they were candy. I knew when I picked up this book that it was a little different from her typical writing, but I had kinda hoped to return to the familiar rhythms I remembered from her romantic suspense novels. Well, I was mistaken. This book opens with a deadly pandemic (timely) which kills a majority of the world population, while at the same time, some people begin to develop magical abilities. Society quickly fractures, with some people trying to help each other and others turning on each other. The characters spend a lot of time running from violence and arguing about how to build a decent society. Sometimes, reading this felt like a bizarre remix of the nightly news with some magic thrown in. This book is the start of a trilogy and, quite honestly, I don't think I'll being reading the next two books.
    • 5/5
      Nora Roberts has done it again. At first, I thought, oh another end-of-the-world book. I could see a slight similarity to The Stand by Stephen King, but even though it is your classic "good vs. evil" story I love the way the destiny of The One draws you in and keeps you rooting for good to finally overpower bad. I fell in love with the outstanding characters Nora Roberts has created. Lana, the protagonist in this book, is both strong and weak. With all the new Magick, dark and light, the book has its own unique style and story. I can't wait to see what's in store for Fallon Swift, her very special baby, who is supposed to save the world. I couldn't put this down once started and will start on the second book as soon as I can.
    • 4/5
      A guilty pleasure ...