Monday, July 20, 2009

Antarktos Rising


Antarktos Rising by Jeremy Robinson
Variance, 2008
mass market paperback, 453 pages
ISBN-13: 9781935142003
Christian action-adventure/science fiction
very highly recommended

Synopsis:
THE WORLD RACES TO CLAIM A NEW CONTINENT...
A phenomenon known as crustal displacement shifts the Earth's crust, repositioning continents and causing countless deaths. In the wake of the global catastrophe, the world struggles to take care of its displaced billions. But Antarctica, freshly thawed and blooming, has emerged as a new hope. Rather than wage a world war no nation can endure, the leading nations devise a competition, a race to the center of Antarctica, with the three victors dividing the continent.
It is within this race that Mirabelle Whitney, one of the few surviving experts on the continent, grouped with an American special forces unit, finds herself. But the dangers awaiting the team are far worse than feared; beyond the sour history of a torn family, beyond the nefarious intentions of their human enemies, beyond the ancient creatures reborn through anhydrobiosis - there are the Nephilim.
...ONLY TO FIND IT ALREADY TAKEN.
My thoughts:

I really enjoyed Antarktos Rising. This was a perfect summer book. It was almost non-stop action and had me racing through it to see what happened next. This is a Christian apocalyptic end of the world thriller but it's not like the Left Behind series in any way. I would say that it has a Christian world view and it might help you follow the story if you are a Christian, but I also think it is a novel any action/adventure junkie will highly enjoy. There are also definite science fiction elements. It seems that most of the bad reviews of Antarktos Rising are hardly impartial at all because they seem intent to fault it for even mentioning Christianity and for some unrealistic events. Come on, can't Christians experience some action adventure science fiction and mention their faith? And I seem to recall many other novels where even more unrealistic events happened and nary a whine was heard. So, if you like action adventure science fiction and don't mind that a novel doesn't bash Christianity, then I would imagine you will also enjoy Antarktos Rising.
Very Highly Recommended

Quotes:

"Leave the fossil! Follow my voice!"
"What's that noise?"
"Ignore it! We need to find each other!"
Merrill, I -hmph!"
"Aimee? Keep talking so I can find you! Aimee? Aimee!" pg. 2

The temperature shift struck her as odd - a cold front and heat wave battling for supremacy. New England was known for its drastic weather changes, but this variation in temperature during a mid-summer day seemed downright freakish. pg. 13

The old man scanned the world around him. It was white and frozen. His eyes turned back to the whale. Its skin sparkled with frost - it was frozen solid. It was only then that he noticed the biting cold nibbling at his skin. pg. 15

When she looked back, all that was left of the coastline was a small river flowing out of the Piscataqua and a sliver of blue, far on the horizon. The ocean was gone....Whitney realized what must be happening. Tsunami. pg. 23

She saw an illusion. It had to be. A wall of blue and white churning water surged back into view, spilling from the northeast straight for shore. As the wall grew closer, she knew it was real. A tsunami, more massive than she'd ever imagined the phenomenon to be, was headed straight for her home town. pg. 27

Extending out from ten feet below her home's foundation all the way to the horizon was a sheet of ice. Thick flakes of snow fell from the sky. pg. 32

Since 1994, when the first dinosaur remains - a predator named Crylophosaurus - were found on the seventh continent amid fragments of several prey animals, the idea of life flourishing on Antarctica in millennia past was no longer debated....Some believed that a civilization had once thrived on the mainland of the southernmost continent before it froze over. pg. 36-37

He would have continued in this pattern of work, starvation, and prayer until his dying day, but again God disturbed his plans. When he knelt to pray on the night of July 21, just over a year since his return, the ground began to shake. pg. 37

But now the land was brown and gray. The landscape was barren as ever except for the occasional pool of water, but otherwise, as far as he could see, Antarctica was free of ice and there wasn't a volcano in sight.
The continent had thawed. pg. 51

Life was expanding on the thawed Antarctic continent like a sponge toy in a bowl of water. pg. 82

When the Bible says the world was corrupt, it doesn't just mean morally - it's talking genetics. pg. 318

4 comments:

Jeremy Robinson said...

Thanks for the wonderful review! I appreciate it.

-- Jeremy Robinson

PS, be sure to check out the new hard cover, PULSE! It's based on Greek mythology rather than Biblical events, so we'll see if the few reviewers afraid of a little Bible can handle this one. :)

Lori L said...

You're welcome! It is a great book! I'll be looking for Pulse! - and every other book you've written based on how much I enjoyed Antarktos Rising.

Lori Langford, Owner, Big Dog Pots Pottery said...

This was a FUN book! I was a geology major in college, several decades ago, and I LOVE historic christian fiction. What a great combination for a story idea. Glad to see Jeremy Robinson contacted you, what a thrill!
Thanks for the positive take on this very imaginative book.

Lori L said...

Thanks BigDogPots, but it really was a great book and will probably make my best of the year list.