Antarktos Rising - A Review

Author: Jeremy Robinson
Publisher: Breakneck Books
ISBN: 978-0-9796-9290-1
Pages: 300

Much better! Jeremy Robinson has learned a few new tricks since last I read his work, and all of those tricks are on display in this particular title. There are deeper character sketches than usual; better scene building; and dialogue flows much more naturally this time around. The plot itself is far more complex and layered than the one in his previous work, with the usual science-speak and religious overtones seasoning the book’s broth.

Many will compare this to the glut of Christian fiction that delivers stories concerned with end times, à al Tim LaHaye, but that idea couldn’t be farther from the truth. Robinson’s tale is epic, well-written, and thought-provoking. While at times heavy on biblical concepts, the book tackles them in a way that holds interest, rather than inciting disdain; this is mainly due to the uncharted territory Robinson decides to sail into, what with the expansion of the theory surrounding the Nephilim (or “fallen ones”), a race of beings—thought to be fallen angels by some—that is granted a brief mention in the Scriptures. Robinson holds—or, that is his plot holds—that Noah and his family weren’t the only survivors of the great flood. Some of the Nephilim made it through unscathed as well. That little fact alone should assure you that this book wasn’t intended for average Christians, as many of them would balk at these very notions.

Robinson, in a note to his readers, urges as follows:

Antarktos Rising is a work of fiction. All of the characters in the novel are fictional, as are their beliefs. For your own enjoyment, don’t take fiction seriously. Authors, for the most part, aren’t trying to convert you to their personal beliefs; we’re trying to entertain you. If I accomplish that, I’ve done my job.

Funny how some of his words tie in perfectly with a previous post on this blog, the one dealing with the purpose of a novel.

Robinson also rehashes a bit of history as well, causing his characters to reenact, in a way, the Old West land claims that resulted from a race for new land—in this case, a freshly thawed Antarctica, or—to use the ancient designation, as the title of the book suggests—Antarktos. Crustal displacement, we are told, shifts the earth forty degrees, killing 2.5 billion people, and Antarctica in turn becomes “a tropical rain forest the size of the United States.” The book commences with a series of disasters that effectively set things in motion, not least the tsunami featured in chapter six, which is written so effectively it recalls the devastating events of December 2004, which were touched off, of course, by the historic Sumatra-Andaman earthquake.

Antarktos Rising, in short, is one of those rare thrillers that will keep readers turning pages, because the story doesn’t really let up, and that’s bad if one decides to crack the pages of this thing just before going to bed.