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Antarktos Rising - A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeremy Robinson
Publisher: Breakneck Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $6.25
You Save: $8.74 (58%)
New (7) Used (14) from $6.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 222421
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 300
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0979692903
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780979692901
ASIN: 0979692903
Publication Date: June 19, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Lots of shelf wear, may contain some notes or highlighting, corners/edges worn and bent, may not include companion materials like cdroms or access codes.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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. The world races to claim a new continent, only to find it already taken.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 52 more reviews...
 A very intriguing storyline November 30, 2008
It seems that most of the time, "global disaster," books are about preventing the event and result of course in a last second catch to save the planet. In Antarktos Rising the author has skipped right past the chance to prevent disaster with how to deal with it. The disaster here, called crustal displacement kills billions of people and renders America pretty much a frozen wasteland as is much of the world that is now the most inhabitable and in this shift causes Antarctica to become the most desirable and inhabitable country. The race for Antartica between three teams is interesting in it's premise. Even now, with the entire earth to share we manage to fight over nearly every piece of land so it is an interesting premise to think that three countries could devise a race for the most desirable place and then will honor it. The characters involved in this are complex and interesting and add a great deal to this story which also manages to be very believable while it combines scientific theories with religious ones. Then thrown into the mix of man and religion comes the pre-historic upheaval involved. While this could sound convoluted it actually turns into a fascinating read that leaves one breathlessly turning each page while not wanting the book to end. This book has the ability to keep you awake at night, not only in figuring out how to help solve the problems but also because you just don't want to put it down.
 A great start, the giants, scientific absurdities and biblical references spoiled what could have been a great book November 30, 2008
The initial premise of this book is scientifically plausible, although extremely unlikely. It is well known that the Earth's axis of rotation wobbles a bit and that the climate of regions has changed dramatically in the past, sometimes drastically in a short time. Woolly mammoths have been found quick frozen in Siberia with partially chewed vegetation in their mouths. A geologically miniscule thousands of years ago, Alaska was a lush, near-tropical environment, although this change appears to have been more gradual. Therefore, a scientific theory that the inherent chaotic dynamics of the Earth's rotation will cause the axis to suddenly and dramatically shift position is plausible.
That is what happens at the start of this book, the rotational axis shifts from the current location at the North Pole to a new position in North Dakota. Massive tsunami, blasts of cold air that quick-freezes everything and fiery blasts of heat render large sections of the Earth uninhabitable, killing billions. All but the lower section of the United States is a frozen wasteland and many other countries have essentially been destroyed by tsunamis that were nearly 100 feet high.
These climate changes have rendered Antarctica into a lush jungle and once the ice has melted, an enormous variety of plants appear. Merrill Whitney is a scientist who has fled civilization to an isolated location in Antarctica and his daughter Mirabelle manages to survive the freeze in New Hampshire. Once the worst consequences of the pole shift are over, the remaining major powers, the United States, the newly constituted European Federation, the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union and the Arab Alliance agree that rather than fighting over the newly available territory of Antarctica, there would be a race. Each entrant would send a team from a starting point on the coast of Antarctica and the first to reach the geographic center would be declared the winner.
Given the knowledge possessed by the Whitney family about Antarctica, the president of the United States sends a Special Forces team to bring Mirabelle to Texas so that she can contact her father and increase the chances of a U. S. victory in the Antarctic race. While the United States and the European Union send solid teams, the Soviets, Chinese and Arab ones are determined to wipe out the competition. Several members of the Arab team are suicide bombers, whose goal is to infiltrate the other teams and wipe as many of them out as possible. The Soviet team contains an accomplished assassin, whose job is to kill members of the other teams.
With all of this as a backdrop, there is clearly enough to create an intense story of brutal competition. However, the author does not stop there, introducing species of dinosaurs that are capable of surviving a freeze of thousands of years. Unfortunately, it gets even worse, there is a species of giants, some fifteen feet tall living on Antarctica. Not only do they possess enormous strength, but they also have wings that allow them to fly, rows of sharp teeth and the tail of a scorpion. One of their favorite foods is human flesh and they are immortal with no souls. Some of the giants are the original Norse gods such as Thor and the biblical character of Goliath was a giant. In this story, Thor comes complete with his hammer.
There is also a biblical backdrop of interaction and interbreeding with humans, although the idea of a fifteen-foot creature interbreeding with a human seems preposterous. Biblical verses are quoted in support of the existence of these creatures, referred to as Nephilim. With most of the teams wiped out, the story becomes one of a battle between the American team and the giants. In another absurd plot twist, the humans learn that if they can dislodge the gold band that the giants wear around their head, then they lose their immortality and can be killed if their injuries are severe enough.
In my opinion, a potentially great story was lost when the author decided to introduce the dinosaurs and the Nephilim into the plot. Up to that point, there were scientific reasons to explain the shifting of the rotational pole but the idea that the Nephilim could exist is absurd. Basic physiological physics conclusively demonstrates that the human figure cannot grow to a height of fifteen feet. Most humans that have approached eight feet have had defective skeletal structures that rendered them almost immobile. It is also impossible for creatures of this size to fly, given the Earth's level of gravity and atmosphere. Finally, the interbreeding, biblical and mythological references reached the point where I just wanted to get to the end of the book.
Great adventure novel - with some new twists! November 29, 2008
Antarktos Rising combines elements of thriller novels and "The Day After Tomorrow" to change the landscape of our world and lend an urgency to the landrush of a previously unsettled continent.
Along the way, the author introduce some decent characters and puts them in peril not only from other competing landrush participants but the mysterious denizens of Antarktos, an alien landscape populated by unexpected creatures.
I really enjoyed the Nephilim, and thought the author integrated this forgotten species in with historical references nicely.
Some live, some unexpectedly die, and the reader is brought along for a wild ride.
Highly recommended.
 NEVER RISING ABOVE THE WATERLINE November 27, 2008
I found the story of the book-description interesting and decided to give it a try. Well, these were some hours I will never get back, no matter how much I would like to.
Suspension of disbelief is a requirement to enjoy fiction - but a basic logical scaffolding is still essential. Otherwise no immersion is possible.
Some other reviewer compared ANTARKTOS RISING to a Michael Crichton novel - but, besides the quick passing of some dinosaurs, I fail to see the connection. Crichton's science was cutting edge yet solid. The "science" behind Robinson's claims is half-baked at best, if not simply not there. And he is sloppy as well. Unless the continent someway acquired...a metabolism, there are no "katabolic" winds in Antarctica (p35). The author probably refers to katabatic winds. Then again, the novel had much more serious problems.
A character, being the sole survivor of her home-city and after weathering the worse of the climactic change in her well-stocked basement, she decides to take off: what she deems essential to pack in this post-apocalyptic world? Her ...DSLR camera (whose characteristics she describes in detail, p53) complete with its 200mm lens! What's a extinction event if one cannot snap some decent sunset pictures, right?!
Antarctica thawing in...days - and then turning into a tropical environment, complete with 15 ft tall trees within...weeks? No even if said trees were on springs!
Full-grown dinosaurs thawing out to packs with set hierarchy (not to mention cool nicknames!)?
Gigantic demon-spawns living undetected for centuries, having to resort to...eating their own babies (need I point out how inefficient this is, to say the least?) - yet, not neglecting to learn English, taught by the scientists/"teachers" they captured? Come exam time, I would like to be a fly in THAT classroom!
In this light, the incorporation of Creationism and "scientific" verification of Biblical claims would not have bothered me so much, were they presented in a more logical basis. On that note, I never understood the impetus behind strong-arming science into "proving" claims that are supposedly articles of faith.
But that is the least of this novel's problems.
Try, try again November 22, 2008
There are some good things here, but this is a writer in the making, one who needs a bit more discipline and a better editor. After an intriguing beginning, this book becomes confusing and predictable at the same time. I don't mind the author's religious viewpoints, some of which I share. What I do mind is his failure to deliver on the promise of the first quarter of the book.
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