Antiquitas Lost: The Last of the Shamalans - Softcover

Smith, Robert Louis

3.84

19 ratings by Goodreads

9780615460475: Antiquitas Lost: The Last of the Shamalans

Softcover

ISBN 10: 061546047X ISBN 13: 9780615460475

Publisher: Medlock Pub Llc, 2011

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Antiquitas Lost: The Last of the Shamalans is the award-winning debut novel of American cardiologist, Robert Louis Smith. It is an illustrated fantasy novel that chronicles the adventures of an American teenage boy after he stumbles through a magical doorway in his grandfather's basement, and into a war-torn fantasy world called Pangrelor. The main story arc involves the protagonist's gradual discovery of his unknown relation to Pangrelor, and his unlikely quest to help save its greatest civilization, which is centered around the mountaintop city of Harwelden. Several times during the story, the protagonist is told that success in saving this fabled city of Harwelden may help to save his own dying mother, who remains isolated from him and terminally ill back in New Orleans.Antiquitas Lost is noteworthy for its many high quality illustrations, making it somewhat unique to its genre. It was awarded "Most Promising New Novel" at the 2011 New York City Comic Convention, selected as a Kirkus 2011 Critics' Pick, and awarded a medal for "Best Juvenile Fiction" at the 2012 Independent Publishers Book Awards.

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From the Inside Flap:

From American cardiologist Robert Louis Smith comes the unique fantasy novel Antiquitas Lost, peppered with more than seventy eye-popping illustrations by Marvel Comics legend Geof Isherwood. This epic fantasy tells the story of a boy named Elliott, a lonesome kid with deformities on his hands and feet, who is uprooted from his home after his mother falls gravely ill. When they move to New Orleans so his grandfather can help care for her, Elliott learns that the old man's eighteenth century mansion hides an ancient secret. While checking out some strange relics in the basement, Elliott strays through an ancient doorway into a tumultuous parallel world, full of bizarre creatures and warring races. He has stumbled into Pangrelor, the most ancient of all worlds and "mother to all the stars in the sky." As he learns to navigate his new surroundings, he discovers wondrous abilities he never dreamed he possessed, and an abiding connection to the primitive, alien world that will forever change him. But he must proceed carefully. For he soon learns that his actions in the ancient world will impact the upcoming battle for Harwelden, Pangrelor's greatest civilization, and will also resonate all the way back to New Orleans, perhaps deciding whether his mother lives or dies.

About the Author:

Antiquitas Lost is the creation of cardiologist Robert Louis Smith. Smith began writing the novel in 2003 while studying at Tulane University in New Orleans—the city where the novel's hero, Elliott, comes to discover his magical connection to another world.Writing at night, after putting his children to bed, Smith worked to create a fantasy novel where the creatures and setting were unprecedented. He imagined a pre-industrial, medieval society with beautiful artistic accomplishments set in a savage and magical natural environment—"the Renaissance meets the Pleistocene, with magical beings and crypto-zoological creatures," he says.To create something different, he found inspiration in the creatures that intrigued him as a boy—gargoyles, Bigfoot creatures, Neanderthal types, Atlanteans and dinosaurs. Moreover, he developed monsters from his own fantastic imagination, such as the book's terrifying race of Salax—more fitting in Guillermo Del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth than in any of J.R.R. Tolkien's books.Smith found his literary inspiration in places ranging from the highly popular Harry Potter books and classics like Tolkien's and C.S. Lewis's to the Star Wars films and thrillers penned by Stephen King—his favorite author. He also gave exceptional attention to every detail. For example, to achieve accurate scenes with horses, he studied Lonesome Dove and the writings of Louis L'Amour.Smith is also a huge fan of comic books and after years of following Geof Isherwood's work, he was ecstatic when Isherwood came on board to illustrate Antiquitas Lost.In addition to authoring Antiquitas Lost and helping his wife raise their young son and daughter, Smith has numerous degrees, including psychology (B.A.), applied microbiology (B.S.), anaerobic microbiology (M.Sc.), and a Medical Doctorate (M.D.). He currently serves as an interventional cardiologist at the Oklahoma Heart Institute. And somewhere in the middle of all this, he found time to dream up new worlds.

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