Now we move to the modern day, and if we ignore Bigfoot sightings, what kind of Nephilim presence could there be? To answer that question, we have to consider what the Nephilim of history were doing. Primarily, they were screwing around with genetics, creating twisted variants of humans and animals through the supernatural manipulation of our genes. Who else does that? Greys. The so called “aliens” that kidnap people in the night and take samples for genetic manipulation. They might not be described as giants, but a species can change a lot over several thousands of years, and as I propose in The Antarktos Saga, it’s possible that there are simply different classes with different specialties—something that we also saw in The Man of Steel, the most recent incarnation of Superman. Story concepts, for me, are all about connecting dots no one even knew existed. If you have an open mind, it’s possible to find connections between what, on the surface, feel like very disparate topics.
Question from Mike Pastore: How difficult was it to seam the adventures together, like mentioning something briefly in Antarktos Rising, then going into great description of the event in The Last Hunter?
I was terrified when I began The Last Hunter – Descent that I would totally space out on the details and screw up the continuity of both books. But I don’t think that happened once, not even in a minor way. Antarktos Rising has always been one of my favorite books (of mine), and the story and characters were still very much alive in my head when writing the Saga. The general rule of thumb was that nothing in the Saga could contradict Antarktos Rising, since AR was already published. But there was also a lot in Antarktos Rising that was unseen, including most of the Nephilim subterranean world. Also, until the end of Book 3, when the stories converge, there wasn’t too much to worry about. But the end of Book 3 and the beginning of Book 4 were the trickiest parts. In some ways, I think the stories were always meant to be together. When I started Descent, I had no idea that the crustal displacement in Antarktos Rising would be caused by Solomon’s powers, but when I started writing that scene, it was like it had always been there. Really, it all just fell into place. Let’s just call it divine inspiration... Man, I really want to put a smiley face after that, but this isn’t Facebook!
Question from Jim Cobb: When you were writing AR, did you already have the longer saga in mind or did that develop later?
I wrote Antarktos Rising in 2005, and I didn’t write the first Antarktos Saga book until 2010, so there was a five year gap between the writing. During that time, I had no idea I would be expanding the Antarktos world. Really, it kind of just came to me one day—this intense feeling that I would really like to explore the subterranean realm of Antarktos. It started with me daydreaming what the underworld would look like, and what would live there. But it was the realization that my son, Solomon, with his kind heart, heroic ways and gnarly long hair would fit right into the Antarktos world that really pushed me to write the Saga. Happily, Antarktos Rising was already set up to be continued, so once I finished the first two books of the Saga, they zippered together nicely.
Question from Connor James: Can we please get more books set in the Antarktos Universe?
While I haven’t completely dismissed this idea, I’m not yet planning on it either. That said, it’s entirely possible that we could either get more books about Solomon, as King of Antarktos, rooting out the remaining Nephilim around the world. Or we could introduce more characters. But if you really need a little more Solomon, check out my novella, I am Cowboy, which is a spinoff of my novel, SecondWorld. There’s a little something extra in the book that is making The Last Hunter fans very happy.
Question from Cherei McCarter: Did the scientific group that drilled through to the deep lake mess with your stories at all?
Because The Antarktos Saga is largely fantasy, there was never really a chance that anything they discovered in Antarctica could hurt the story (though they could confirm parts of it!). They’re just lucky the crustal displacement didn’t happen while they were drilling through the ice. The one story of mine it does mess with a bit, is Beneath, which starts out at Lake Vostok, in Antarctica. The characters are preparing to melt through the ice in search of extremophile microbes. So, really, I predicted the future accurately (Beneath was first written in 1995). I just got the date wrong.
Question from Jenn Turkette: There are a few characters in Antarktos Rising, like Kat Farrell, that also appear in The Last Hunter books, so when you wrote Antarktos Rising, did you already have the plot ideas for the other books already in your mind?
Nope! Other than (spoiler alert for those who have not yet read Antarktos Rising) Kat surviving the end of the book, I had no specific idea about what the future held for her. I wrote her apparent demise vaguely on purpose, because I knew I wanted to someday write a sequel, but I had no idea it would turn out to be a five book epic in which she would become a major character. This is true for Wright, Aimee, Merrill and Mirabelle.
Question from Kyle Mohr: Out of all the Origins Edition stories, what made you choose Antarktos Rising to expand?
For those who don’t know, the Origins Edition stories are what I, and many fans, call my first five novels. They are, in chronological order, The Didymus Contingency, Raising the Past, Beneath, Antarktos Rising and Kronos. All five of them were self-published, and they effectively launched my career. They are my literary origins.
As for the question, I think it’s because the world created for Antarktos Rising was so vast and unexplored by the end of the book, that I never stopped thinking about what else could be there. I was, and still am, tempted to write sequels for the other Origins books, but none of them would become the five-book epic story that is The Antarktos Saga. There just isn’t a big enough world to explore, whereas, with Antarktos, the potential for stories are essentially limitless.
Question from Cherei McCarter: Do you believe Nephilim ever existed? And if so, why haven’t we found REAL proof of their existence?
In fact, I do. Beyond the fact that I trust the Bible as an accurate historical document, there is a lot of historical evidence for giants outside of the Bible—in the Book of Enoch and in the recorded history of most cultures around the world. If you consider the detailed descriptions of the Nephilim in the Bible and the Book of Enoch, and apply it to other myths, they fall into place. Now, I can’t say for certain whether Hercules was an actual living man, and that he was a Nephilim. I’m just saying it fits. And I believe, whatever they looked like (or still look like), the Nephilim are real. Do they look like the creatures I’ve conjured for The Antarktos Saga? Very unlikely. I kind of went nuts, with the exception of Thinkers and Seekers, the Nephilim races I based on two of the most commonly reported creatures associated with the modern “alien” abduction phenomenon. So, yeah, I’m a weirdo.
Question from Mike Pastore: Is a cataclysmic event of the magnitude that started Antarktos Rising an actual possibility or just scientific data manipulated for the storyline?
Absolutely! At some point in Earth’s future—possibly the near future—it’s almost a guarantee that an asteroid will strike. Or that the mega volcano beneath Yellowstone will erupt. Or any number of other horrible events that have happened in the past and are likely to happen again. As for the specific event featured in Antarktos Rising—crustal displacement—it’s one of the more unlikely scenarios, but it’s possible. Crustal displacement, also known as Polar Shift, is when the entire Earth’s crust, which rests upon a thick layer of molten lava, slips free and rotates. It could slip just a few feet (which would still be enough to cause worldwide havoc) or shift North Dakota to the North Pole and Antarctica to the equator. There is evidence that this has happened in the past, though some argue that it happened gradually, over long periods of time, rather than in a single day. So the severity and suddenness of the event in Antarktos Rising is me taking things to the extreme, but some do believe it’s possible.
Question from Steve Webster: Did you have all your ideas for the entire series (including creature design) or did
bits fall into place while you were writing mid series?
Well, the Nephilim had been created for Antarktos Rising already, as were the cresties (Crylophosaurus). I can’t take credit for the cresties, though, since their fossils have actually been found on Antarctica. For the most part, I created the creatures living in Antarktos’s subterranean realm as I wrote. That’s generally the way I write my stories too. It all just kind of comes to me, either as I write, or while I’m daydreaming in the shower, or in bed. I don’t go through drafts of creatures, they just kind of spill from my subconscious, which is great fun, but also a little freaky. Where does all this dark stuff come from, anyway?
Question from Jim Williams: What ever happened to the Antarktos Rising movie?
Well, that’s something both of us would like to know! For those that haven’t heard about this, the mass market paperback of Antarktos Rising was published with a “Soon to be a major motion picture” star on the front cover, with basic info about the project at the back of the book. I’ve always felt horrible about including that on the cover, but I was assured on several occasions that the movie had been given the green light and that I should have no fear about announcing it on the book cover. Clearly, that was incorrect. The way I understand it, everything was going great, and the movie was about to start production. Then the banks went nuts, the economy tanked and all of the investors, whose other money was suddenly at risk, pulled out. Antarktos, along with a few other films, were dropped.
Question from Kyle Mohr: How much research did you have to do to ensure the accuracy of the story (from the archaeology, geography and military tactics) stayed in place? And also, how did you manage to make sure the story stayed realistic without muddling it up with monotonous detail?
I did research throughout the book, as I wrote it, but only when it made sense. While the series takes place in the modern world and is based on recorded history, a large part of it is fantasy. So while I researched things like Crylophosaurs, crustal displacement, Sumerian gods, McMurdo Base, and Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis’s life (yeah, Ninnis was real guy!) I was also free to create most of the subterranean realm straight out of my head. Even the topography. Most of Antarctica is still covered in snow and ice. Who know what could be beneath it! In terms of realism versus boring detail, I think this is something I’ve worked on over the course of my writing career, not just for the Antarktos Saga. But it has never been a case of cutting detail for me, it’s remembering to add detail. I have to remember that the reader can’t see what’s in my head. At the same time, I’m very careful to not go into too much detail. I’m conscious of my own short attention span, but I also want to give the reader some imaginative freedom. I think my job is to lay down the blueprints and give the reader freedom to fill in the details, based on the limited suggestions provided by me. I think most readers prefer this, and it keeps the story moving at the pace I like best: fast.
BONUS SHORT STORY
Introduction
At the end of The Antarktos Saga, we’re treated to a look at the future, where Solomon is King, characters have passed away, Kainda is a mother and Ninnis is received as a hero. This all takes place twenty years after Nephil’s demise and leaves a large window of time in which to tell more stories about Solomon, Kainda, and other characters of Antarktos, as they build a new world, raise and train children hunters, and scour the underworld for Nephilim in hiding. This story takes place fifteen years after the end of Onslaught and introduces some fun new characters as well as visiting an old friend, while creating the possibility for future adventures in the Antarktos realm. I hope you enjoy The Children of Antarktos, a short story, which is only available in this collected edition.
—JR
THE CHILDREN OF
ANTARKTOS
The air is thick and clingy, like a hot summer day in my home state of Maine, if it weren’t now just a frozen wasteland. But it’s not July, August or even September. It’s November. Here on Antarktos, there are no fallen leaves to rake, no turkeys to baste and no pilgrims to remember. We’re tropical, three-hundred-and-sixty-five days a year. Fifteen years ago, Antarctica was still at the South Pole, covered in ice. Fifteen years ago, the world still made sense.
Not that I haven’t become accustomed to this new world, where I have supernatural powers and I’m recognized as the King of Antarktos. It’s not a title I aspired to, or ever wanted, but I was given a gift on the day of my birth, and some—okay, many—believe that I was chosen for this role. And I’ve grown into it, as Kainda, my wife and Queen, has grown into hers. I might have been chosen for this position, but she was made for hers. Strong, opinionated, unflappable. When she speaks, people listen. When she acts, they run for the hills.
Not that there has been any unrest on the continent since the events that set the human race free from the Nephilim. There has been tension, to be sure, between my fellow hunters, who believe the continent is rightfully theirs, and those of the outside world, who have slowly been immigrating to Antarktos. Early on, there was also tension between outside nations as they set up towns and vied for prime locations. I stopped that problem by forbidding outside nations to claim anything on my continent. I might be uncomfortable with my position as King, but I am physically connected to the land. What is done to the continent, is done to me, and I take it personally. And since I can literally control the entire continent, I don’t get much argument.
The only real danger on Antarktos remains the Nephilim. Although most of them died in the final battle, many of the lesser classes, who didn’t participate in the physical combat, have gone into hiding. Many are out in the wider world—shifters mostly, but humans are seeking them out and destroying them. Those that remain on Antarktos reside in the underground, banished once more to the depths of this continent, pursued by the hunters they once enslaved.
Here on the surface, things are—for the most part—safe. And as such, the children are allowed to wander and explore. Today, we’re exploring the Xin Woods, which grew up around my half-clone’s grave. The woods have grown so thick that the remnants of the United States Forward Operating Base that once dominated the area, have been swallowed up. All that remains in Xin’s gravestone. The trees would have taken it, too, but I forbade them. Some sacrifices should not be forgotten.
I kneel before the grave, remembering Xin and his final gift to me. If not for the squealing laughter of our two girls, I would be lost in the memory. As tears threaten to spill out, I feel a presence in the tree behind me.
“Never before in the history of this planet has there been a king who wept as much as you.” Kainda’s voice is powerful, commanding and a delight to my ears.
I laugh. Loudly. Kainda’s wicked sense of humor is a nice balance to my admittedly more emotional personality. I wipe the single fully formed tear away from my cheek and stand up, the haunting memories once again retreating to the recesses of my mind. “You love my softness.”
Kainda leaps down from a branch, thirty feet above me. A strong wind buffets her fall, placing her gently on the ground before me. She knew I would catch her. But instead of falling into my embrace, she takes hold of my bicep and gives it a squeeze. “I believe there is such a thing as too soft.”
I pull my arm away with a grin. “Hey!” But I don’t argue. While I’m still strong and agile, and thanks to my supernatural abilities, downright powerful, I haven’t had to face a rigorous physical challenge in nearly a decade. My beard and now hairy chest help hide the lessening definition, but Kainda sees it.
She places her hand on my bare chest, smiling wickedly. While we wear more, and finer, clothing in public, we dress as hunters when exploring the wilds of Antarktos. I’m wearing my leather loin cloth, a belt and Whipsnap around my waist. I haven’t had need for the weapon in a very long time, but it will always be ready to defend my family, and all of humanity, if need be.
I glance around nervously as she pushes me back against a tree. “Kainda, I’m not sure this is the best place for—”
She tilts her head and makes a pouty face, which is so unnatural on her I nearly start laughing. “Aww, am I making the big strong King nervous?”
“A little bit,” I say, “Yeah. The girls are—”
“The girls will learn that their mother is twice the hunter their father is.”
Oh no.
I’ve totally misread what’s happening here.
This is going to hurt.
Her pout becomes a mischievous smile. By the time I snap out of my confusion, she’s already unclipped the Viking hammer from her belt and cocked it back. I manage to duck the blow, but just barely. I know a second swing is coming, so I go the only direction I can.
Up.
A gust of wind carries me twenty feet up. I cling to the tree’s rough bark, looking down at my smiling wife.
“Really?” Kainda says. “You’re going to use the elements?”
“I wasn’t planning on training today,” I say, staring down at her.
This statement seems to make her genuinely angry. “To think you were once a hunter! Danger does not announce itself, Solomon!” With a grunt, she throws the hammer at me.
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