This book was originally published in 5 parts. Here are my reviews in order:
DESCENT:
I’ve been speaking with the author over the past couple of days about this book, and my trepidation of buying it even though I am an avid fan of his work. The reason for my trepidation is one factor alone: the Young Adult classification.
But I bit the bullet and bought the book last night – and even though it didn’t arrive on my Kindle until 12:01a, I’ve already finished it. It is that good. I don’t know how Kindle lines translate to pages, but as far as length goes this was 4K or so lines compared to 6K or so from Lee Child’s Worth Dying For, which was the first book I bought on my Kindle.
TRUST ME: Buy this book! It is from the ANTARKTOS RISING universe, and as its title implies, it is set up to be a multi-part series. That fact – that you can feel throughout that it is destined to be a multi-book story – is the ONLY drawback to this book. It is set at least a few years prior to the events of ANTARKTOS RISING, as the creatures are still buried under the ice.
The story is intense. Shortly after his 13th birthday, a young boy travels to Antarctica – the land of his birth – with his parents. While there, he is abducted, taken underground, and broken. He is forced to learn an entirely new way of life, encountering myriad strange creatures. He is nearly killed several times, and comes face to face with many of the entities and characters from ANTARKTOS RISING, many of which are terrifying. Along the way, he becomes a strong, stealthy hunter – the last hunter.
It is at this point that he learns what is truly expected of him – and that there is much more to him than even his captors realize.
This story takes the ANTARKTOS RISING mythology to a whole new level, and I’m going to have to re-read that story now! Truly looking forward to seeing how this new series comes out, and how it dove-tails into the ANTARKTOS RISING story line. This is truly Young Adult in name only, and while it is debatable as to whether this is truly among the author’s best work – or maybe even the best (a claim he made yesterday), if you’re a fan of Jeremy Robinson – or Matt Reilly or David Golemon – you’ll be THRILLED with this latest addition.
Apparently Amazon has eaten my review of PURSUIT at some point in the last 8 years or so.
ASCENT:
LAST HUNTER – ASCENT continues the tale of Solomon Ull Vincent, the only Son of Antartica, and his battles with the “men of renown” from the Genesis tale – the Nephilim, human/demon hybrids worshipped by the ancient world as gods.
In this tale, as promised, the storylines of LAST HUNTER and ANTARKTOS RISING, one of Robinson’s early (and best, IMHO) books are finally merged, and by the end of ASCENT a cohesive story line emerges for the characters of both tales.
I don’t want to reveal too much, but at the end of the second book in the series, our hero was pretty much at the lowest point he could possibly be – willingly condemning himself to Tartarus while battling the greatest Nephilim warrior. The tale of ASCENT picks up at that point, with our hero having to find himself, leave Tartarus, find his way in the new ANTARKTOS RISING world (with a crustal displacement that happened at the end of Book 2 having shifted Antartica to the equator, and the subsequent changes to that continent), learn what is happening on the continent as a result of ANTARKTOS RISING, and finally learn his destiny.
To fully understand this book, you really need to read the first two first. To enjoy it, feel free to pick this one up on its own – you’ll have questions about the previous action, but you’ll be able to enjoy the action of this book even without the full depth of knowledge of the first two.
Overall a GREAT tale, and I’m already looking forward to Book 4!
LAMENT:
I’ve been a big fan of Robinson for many years – I first met him through Myspace, which should give you a rough idea of how long I’ve followed him – and while I’ve immensely enjoyed his work, it was only while reading this book that I realized what a master of an author this man truly is.
If you’ve never read any of Robinson’s work, start with Antarktos Rising, then pick up this series at the beginning (The Last Hunter – Descent) and read through this book. Truly an amazing tale, though admittedly some may see why moreso than others. (And I don’t want to give too much away here other than to say…. read your historical texts…. particularly the most published book in all of history.)
The Last Hunter – Lament picks up, as the others have, right where the previous book left off. This is the first post-Antarktos Rising continuation of the saga, and the entire mythos is brought to a much deeper, fuller level through this particular story.
You can see the basic plot on the info page here, no need for me to explain that – again, one of the great aspects to this series, and this book in particular, is seeing them revealed for yourself and making the connections yourself (though Robinson does explicitly state most of the more obscure connections, if slightly later than a well-read reader connects the dots).
I read this book in about 4 hours or so – making it a good length for a younger audience, and a pleasurable half weekend day experience for an adult. Both of whom will find this story very satisfying indeed.
ONSLAUGHT:
I first met Jeremy when he was publishing Antarktos Rising and Didymus Contingency himself on demand, back in the Myspace era. After reading both of those, I was hooked. A couple of years ago when he announced the Last Hunter series, I was skeptical. He was going to take the Antarktos Rising universe and create a “young adult” series off of it, one that had 2 books before AR, one during, and one after? How could he possibly make that work, and have guys like me (not exactly a teen anymore) like it?
As I noted on the five star review I gave of Last Hunter – Descent (Book 1), he did it superbly by creating a compelling story.
Through effectively 5 books over the last several years, Jeremy has been building to this point, Last Hunter – Onslaught. The final battle between the “men of renown” and humans. Only one can survive, and ultimately, one man decides both species’ fate. Solomon Ull Vincent. The Last Hunter – and sole heir of Antarktos. As the final book in the series, it truly does not disappoint. While not as shocking as other books in this series, it more than makes up for the shocks with the action and the full realization of Solomon’s powers. The final battle is almost literally the entire second half of the book – and very well written indeed.
JRR Tolkien, watch out. Jeremy Robinson is showing himself to be your equal.
The Last Hunter was originally published over a period of a couple of years by Jeremy Robinson. The Collected Edition combines all five stories into one volume.