Year One starts off promising enough, with the coming of a plague (“The Doom”) which will SPOILER ALERT eventually wipe out eighty per cent of the world’s population. But it goes rapidly downhill when the ‘magick’ starts. Some people can suddenly light candles with a sweep of their hands, which is, indisputably, a handy skill to have when the power is out. Others turn inexplicably into fairies and elves. Then they stand around preaching about The Light and the old ways and prophecies and it all goes downhill from there. Roberts has marred a decent survivalist story with magical matter that is neither necessary nor believable. It comes across as preachy and ridiculous. Shame. If she’d just focused on a few survivors with hope and shotguns it would have been so much better.
