This is a solidly traditional epic fantasy on its face, taking place in a vaguely European land of dukedoms and mad kings, featuring names full of umlauts and acute and grave accents. The real problem is that any one of the Immanent Powers in play might achieve apotheosis, transforming into a god - and in the process destroying the land that created it.
When the ruler of Emmer decides to feed the Immanents of every other nation to his own, conquest isn’t the greatest danger. Every polity in the Four Kingdoms generates magic, which wells up from the intentions and labors of its people and invests local rulers with hereditary, semi-sentient spirits called Immanents. Gods spring forth from the human heart in Rachel Neumeier’s WINTER OF ICE AND IRON (Saga, $29.99), a sprawling epic fantasy of political intrigue and cold, bitter magics. Romance novels tend to center character and emotion in a way most science fiction and fantasy novels can’t or won’t - but for some reason Roberts chooses not to do so in “Year One.” This results in a story of shallow people, striving for not all that much, in an implausible world. This is the first book of a planned trilogy, and it shows in the latter half’s sluggish pace.Īs a venerated romance writer with hundreds of books under her belt, Roberts could have brought an exciting perspective to the postapocalyptic subgenre. Other than vague prophecies about the Tuatha de Danaan, however, not much happens. Eventually it turns out that one of the novel’s two pregnant characters bears the One, a savior destined to save humanity. Matters of magic begin to supplant the usual divisions of humankind, though this might be because there’s little mention of survivors who aren’t white, cishet or practitioners of Celtic belief systems. Many have manifested “magickal” abilities elves and faeries suddenly appear, spouting cryptic warnings.
The novel’s main characters shift their focus from survival to building a pastoral community away from the city. Once the bulk of the human race is dead, the pace of events slows drastically. In power and poignancy, this segment of “Year One” is a match for end-of-the-world classics like Stephen King’s “The Stand,” Nevil Shute’s “On the Beach” and the better zombie apocalypses.Īnd then the tension just … stops. The epidemic that follows, eventually wiping out billions, is described with relentless brutality as governments collapse and things fall apart. Readers follow the MacLeod family as they enjoy a pleasant holiday in Scotland - in the process somehow awakening a mystical ancient doom. Martin’s, $27.99), all the formulas for a good thriller are deployed to magnificent effect. For roughly the first quarter of Nora Roberts’s postapocalyptic saga YEAR ONE (St.
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