The Last Hunter: Collected Edition (Antarktos Saga #1-5)

The Last Hunter: Collected Edition (Antarktos Saga #1-5)

Jeremy Robinson



For the real Solomon, my son and inspiration.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Since the five books in my series, The Last Hunter, took several years to write and publish, I feel like there should be a ton of people to thank, but the creation of this book has been a fairly closed system between just a few people. First, I must thank Kane Gilmour, who not only edited all five books, but also spurred me to release this collected edition and helped make it possible. I must also thank Roger Brodeur, Patrick O’Sullivan and Frank Bernard for hunting down the typos that snuck into the individual books, making the collected edition sparkly clean.

For an astounding cover that perfectly depicts Solomon, I must thank illustrator extraordinaire, Larry Rostant. And for amazing character sketches, a big thank you to Mark Corotan (markcorotan.com), Rich Woodall (johnraygun.deviantart.com), Christian Guldager (chrisguldager.com) and Dave Freeman.

On the home front, I have to thank my wife Hilaree for all her support over the years and for raising a son that could inspire such a story. You are amazing. To my daughters, Aquila and Norah, your creativity and energy fuel my own. I hope that you will enjoy your introduction into the world of Antarktos, as seen in the new short story, “The Children of Antarktos”. And to Solomon, my first and only son, thank you so much for being you; for being strong and savage when you need to be, and compassionate and forgiving like no other person I’ve met. Without you, this series would never have existed. I hope that when you are old enough to read it, you will enjoy the fictional world I’ve made for you. I love you all.

—Jeremy Robinson

New Hampshire

November 2013





INTRODUCTION

In 2005, I wrote a novel titled Antarktos Rising, in which I created the world of Antarktos. In that novel, we met strange and horrible creatures freed to live on the surface of Antarctica, after an event known as Crustal Displacement shifted the frigid continent to the equator (and South Dakota to the North Pole). The novel was self-published to great success in 2007, and it helped land my publishing deal with Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press. In the years that followed, a nagging urge to revisit the unexplored world of Antarktos grew to the point that I could no longer ignore it.

I let my imagination run wild through the lush Antarctican jungles and dark recesses of the ancient subterranean world. I discovered new creatures and a cast of human beings called hunters, who had been kidnapped from the surface world, broken and remade as ruthless killers—servants to the Nephilim, an ancient race of half-human, half-demons living beneath the surface, but rising to exact their millennia-old plan: the destruction of the human race.

After coming up with the hunters, I immediately knew that one of them would be my main character. At the time, my son, Solomon, was just four years old, but his wild appearance combined with a strong character was exactly what I needed for my hunter. So, the Last Hunter became Solomon Ull Vincent, modeled after my son, along with myself as a child, and he was thrust into a dark world. I suppose it’s strange to write about my son facing such horrible fictional situations, but knowing my actual son and witnessing his passion, compassion and endless kindness, made my fictional Solomon more believable, well-rounded and inspiring—to readers and to myself personally. As a result, The Last Hunter remains my favorite of all my novels.

And I’m now thrilled to release the story in a single collected edition, complete with never-before-seen art, an amazing new cover, a brand new short story and an interview featuring questions from fans of the series. Whether you’re reading Solomon’s story for the first time, or you’re a long-time fan picking up the collected edition, I hope you will enjoy The Last Hunter as much as I do, and that the fictional Solomon will inspire you the way the real Solomon continues to inspire me.

—Jeremy Robinson

P.S. If you’re interested in Antarktos Rising, it is still available, and it’s a great side story for The Last Hunter. If you would like to read Antarktos Rising in chronological order with The Last Hunter, read it after Pursuit (Book 2).





Prologue

1911