dancpharmd's review against another edition
4.0
The sixth book of 2012 was a free Kindle book a while back – Jeremy Robinson’s Antarktos Rising. Robinson also publishes horror fiction under the name Jeremy Bishop and I read both Torment and The Sentinel last year and enjoyed them enough to give this a try as well. While this book was not horror, I would classify it as sci-fi/horror and so it sounded right up my alley.
The basic set up of Antarktos Rising is that the planet has undergone a cataclysmic crustal realignment, moving most of the habitable land ends up as ice a mile thick and Antarctica, now positioned in the tropics, becomes a lush paradise. Naturally, the better part of 50% of the population of the planet was killed off during this, but those that are left want to stake a claim to the new continent by engaging in a race to the center of the continent. What they don’t realize is there’s more to the thawed out Antarctica than they can even imagine.
Robinson sets the story up very well and does an admirable job of juggling a large cast of characters that somehow and rather inexplicably includes Dr. Merrill Clark, a creationist scientist who believes the Bible to be a literal history. This was hard for me to get my head around as I look at those things as being pretty much mutually exclusive – either you believe the Bible is a history text or you’re a scientist, not both. I was really nervous that I would be beaten over the head with Christian morality a la the Left Behind series, so much so that for the first 50-60 pages, I had my guard up higher than the Antarctic wall that Clark discovers once the ice of the continent melts.
I needn’t have worried, as Robinson handled the religious content much more deftly than lesser writers would have. I have to admit that a part of me enjoys stories steeped in some sort of religion, especially fiction like this. If this book had just been a race for the center of Antarctica with a bunch of military types fighting each other, it would have been a bore. Add in man-eating dinosaurs that somehow survived being frozen for 12,000 years and Biblical characters that should have been wiped out by the Great Flood (which, according to Clark, was the time of the last crustal displacement) and you have a much more engaging story.
I’d recommend giving Antarktos Rising a whirl, even if you’re normally put off by books that seem religious in nature. This is not the Left Behind series. Robinson is a better author than both of those guys combined.
The basic set up of Antarktos Rising is that the planet has undergone a cataclysmic crustal realignment, moving most of the habitable land ends up as ice a mile thick and Antarctica, now positioned in the tropics, becomes a lush paradise. Naturally, the better part of 50% of the population of the planet was killed off during this, but those that are left want to stake a claim to the new continent by engaging in a race to the center of the continent. What they don’t realize is there’s more to the thawed out Antarctica than they can even imagine.
Robinson sets the story up very well and does an admirable job of juggling a large cast of characters that somehow and rather inexplicably includes Dr. Merrill Clark, a creationist scientist who believes the Bible to be a literal history. This was hard for me to get my head around as I look at those things as being pretty much mutually exclusive – either you believe the Bible is a history text or you’re a scientist, not both. I was really nervous that I would be beaten over the head with Christian morality a la the Left Behind series, so much so that for the first 50-60 pages, I had my guard up higher than the Antarctic wall that Clark discovers once the ice of the continent melts.
I needn’t have worried, as Robinson handled the religious content much more deftly than lesser writers would have. I have to admit that a part of me enjoys stories steeped in some sort of religion, especially fiction like this. If this book had just been a race for the center of Antarctica with a bunch of military types fighting each other, it would have been a bore. Add in man-eating dinosaurs that somehow survived being frozen for 12,000 years and Biblical characters that should have been wiped out by the Great Flood (which, according to Clark, was the time of the last crustal displacement) and you have a much more engaging story.
I’d recommend giving Antarktos Rising a whirl, even if you’re normally put off by books that seem religious in nature. This is not the Left Behind series. Robinson is a better author than both of those guys combined.
paulopaperbooksonly's review against another edition
4.0
This was an interesting book I read in two settings. The first time I didn't felt connect to it. The second time I read it in a row.
The story unfolds after an apocalpyse that changes earth's climate. Antatartica becomes a green paradise and the north hemisphere becomes frozen.
The timeline in my opinion was a little rushed because everything happened quickly. But to my knowlegde everyone knows the earth crust shall change in the nearby future and nobody knows how fast and how long it will take. So no fault there. Imagination.
This books deals with the aftermath of the before mentioned apocalypse and we follow a two or three viewpoints which help the flow of the story.
This story deals with a race to the Antartica from several countries so they can colonize it. Unfortunaly there are somethings that made me what to stop reading and because of it I won't give 5 stars. First all countries are what we know of them without question. The Americans are the good guys (even if they have to do some nasty things to Good prevail, or as the Tau says "For the Greater Good"). The arabs are suicide guys. The chinese comunism is what we think they are. Singleminded and without feelings. The Russians are what american movies portrait of them when they were under the Iron Curtain. The Europeans are dumb and of course they must follow the almighty american people. And so on. Cliches and cliches that made me sick.
The Nephilim are an interesting concept, even the christian references to the flood are. But as I said those cardboard characters are quite bland. (I don't know if this is the term for it).
In the end I didnt' enjoy the all reunion thingy... cliche, and for me I read it as a hollywood script where everything ends alrighty...
But don't get me wrong. Nevertheless it was a good book, apart from the cliches. I shall read Kronos book.
The story unfolds after an apocalpyse that changes earth's climate. Antatartica becomes a green paradise and the north hemisphere becomes frozen.
The timeline in my opinion was a little rushed because everything happened quickly. But to my knowlegde everyone knows the earth crust shall change in the nearby future and nobody knows how fast and how long it will take. So no fault there. Imagination.
This books deals with the aftermath of the before mentioned apocalypse and we follow a two or three viewpoints which help the flow of the story.
This story deals with a race to the Antartica from several countries so they can colonize it. Unfortunaly there are somethings that made me what to stop reading and because of it I won't give 5 stars. First all countries are what we know of them without question. The Americans are the good guys (even if they have to do some nasty things to Good prevail, or as the Tau says "For the Greater Good"). The arabs are suicide guys. The chinese comunism is what we think they are. Singleminded and without feelings. The Russians are what american movies portrait of them when they were under the Iron Curtain. The Europeans are dumb and of course they must follow the almighty american people. And so on. Cliches and cliches that made me sick.
The Nephilim are an interesting concept, even the christian references to the flood are. But as I said those cardboard characters are quite bland. (I don't know if this is the term for it).
In the end I didnt' enjoy the all reunion thingy... cliche, and for me I read it as a hollywood script where everything ends alrighty...
But don't get me wrong. Nevertheless it was a good book, apart from the cliches. I shall read Kronos book.
sabrosa's review against another edition
2.0
Entretenido y atrapante, tiene momentos de tensión que son muy llamativos y descripciones muy buenas que amé porque podía imaginarme todo con detalle, hasta sentí frío
More...