Raising the Past

The beginning was a bit misleading but once you got past that it had all the earmarks of really holding your attention. The characters were setting up nicely and I was looking forward to some gripping action. The story rolled on but the last 1/4 of the book completely disappointed. Just a little to much for to long and I started to get bored and just wanted it to be over...

After reading the Last Hunter, I was enticed to continue exploring the world that Jeremy Robinson so vividly brings to live around Antarctica. I believed that he could not improve on the epic of the Last Hunter, but was greatly surprised that Raising The Past, provided another dimension to the intrigue and mystery of this continent.
Raising the Past, is fast, full of twists and leave the reader begging for more!

In the beginning the story set up and character descriptions were excellant. Where it started to fall to the side was wiping out 3/4 of the characters so quickly and then I really didn't like the descriptions of the antagonists, they could use a little tweaking. The journey had the heros surviving the Artic conditions a lot better than reality dictates (I know this is just a story, but). The major antagonist that comes in at the end was really bad.

Now, that does not mean I would not recommend this book. I would advise that this would make a even better Sci Fi low budget movie. I only say low budget because you are would with a small group of people after the first 20-30 minutes,

This was my first Jeremy Robinson book. If you are looking for a Matt Reily or Preston/Child fast paced book u may be disappointed. It is an interesting, an easy read though. I would recommend this book. It had a few problems that can easily be forgiven. First, the finding of a frozen Mastadon in the begining of the book was totally dropped after a few chapters. It probably would have made a good book on its own. But the story they went with works out well. The group of "men" chasing everyone were susposed to be faster than anything on earth but they never caught up with the main characters until the last few chapters. All this is very miner compared to the story's intreging concept. The twist at the end was thought provoking. It is not a "good vs evil" or a "religious book". I think u should just read it and enjoy.

This was very amatuerish. The archeologist has incredible reflexes and snatches guns out of peoples hands ? The rich guy falls into an ice crevasse but does not even get a bloody nose ? The guys with shotguns hit the dirt when when the girl drives up ? Give me a break ! I can tolerate an odd occurence or two, but a constant stream of them renders the book a Saturday morning cartoon.

Well, I guess Robinson won't be my "favorite" author, but I'll keep giving him chances to try. I expected something totally different then what I actually got. Seem like he has a way of starting a story and then twisting it. I'm not sure I should call this science fiction or fantasy it doesn't seem to fit either, but then maybe both. Confused?? Me too after reading a couple of his tales. Right now I'm into a ripoff of Godzilla that he wrote, title shall remain un-named for now. Really don't know why I'm continuing with his books. Maybe I AM becoming a fan.

J. Robinson gets right into the details of an expedition to the Arctic. With film crew, colorful companions and jaded protagonist in tow the characters head north to raise a wooly mammoth. Sounds great right? Well, just as you think things are going to head down a cool Paleontological expedition ala classics like Doyle's "Lost World" and "Jurrassic Park" Jeremy Robinson heads down a path of filled with ancient aliens living among us, lost alien cities buried below the ice and a super melo-dramatic love story. Bummer. I am one to usually look past some of the cheesy inicdents in a book but, 75% of this book was filled with cliche's and terribly repetitious encounters (how many times can you escape the aliens chasing you?...about 100 pages worth)

I'd look elsewhere for reading material.

I love the basic idea for this book, finding something high-tech buried in ice along. I also found the sort-of thought-provoking, half-philosophical ending rather well thought-out. Alas, I'm sorry to say, the book lacks in everything between premise and conclusion.

Having a knack for buried-in-ice stories, I'm beginning to get a sense of what works in polar fiction and not. This book is not only inconsistent and at times flat-out wrong, but lacks the feel of being in extremely cold conditions that is so well described in other works.

As mentioned by others, the dialogue is at times exceptionally trite and the characters are flat. The comic book/sci-fri freak would have felt real ... if he was 8 years old. As a grown-up dealing with mature issues, he doesn't work at all.

Oh, and the writing's dull and uninspired. Even on a story level, the book's all over the place, deviating fast from its original plot, shaking off major characters and subplots at every sudden turn. You call it unexpected twists and an exciting read, I call it sloppy story work.

I was impressed by the quality of the physical book, but not by the quality of the intellectual material within its pages. The plot seemed to be laid out as a bad screenplay, the dialogue was stilted, and the characters were shallow. These defects could have been corrected through the judicious use of a good editor. A good copy editor would have helped, too, because the grammar is atrocious. Now, I'm not an effete intellectual, I am an rpg gamer, a voracious fantasy and science fiction fan, but most of all a reader. As a reader, I can't recommend this book.

Mostly a sci-fi book, "Raising the Past" deals with the discovery of an ancient alien artifact clutched by a prehistoric women found in the belly of a wooly mammoth. Sounds fantastic? Actually, it a solid story driven by good characters, plenty of action, and sufficient number of plot twists.

The book's protagonists, Eve and Eddy, are teamed up again with their usual crew to set upon the raising of the perfectly preserved mammoth. Once the mammoth is pulled from its icy grave, the explorers find that another perfectly preserved body, this time a 40-year old prehistoric woman, has taken shelter inside the hide of the beast. Both bodies appear to be flash frozen and in great shape. It's what the woman is clutching when she falls out of the mammoth that starts the plot into another direction. The device she's holding is certainly not of this world, nor her time period. Our intrepid explorers soon find that the device is more than likely something left behind by ancient aliens.

Robinson does a nice job pulling all of the plot lines together into a story that rumbles along like the SnoCats driven by the crew. I think fans of James Rollins and Matthew Reilly will find "Raising the Past" much to their liking.

The story begins ten thousand years ago, when a canny cavewoman is visited by strangers from another world. She accepts the object they give her, yet at the end of her life she fails to use it as they instructed. Next thing you know, her frozen remains are unwittingly discovered by a modern-day excavation team in search of the woolly mammoth. Tried and tested archaeologists are rocketed into a fight for their lives and ultimately for the whole planet.

Twists and turns of truly "mammoth" proportions follow. The action rarely eases, and new dangers heap up around every corner. The reader is fleeing along with the team, and learns the truth step by shocking step until finally the entirety of the deception is revealed. Nothing is as it seems to be. What if the idea of angels and demons really did come from opposing alien factions, warring for control of the Earth - one race said to be evil and another claiming to be good?

This is a good exercise in mind-expansion, for sure. It's mainstream fiction, although you will also find spiritual aspects - chiefly the significance of free will in the value of human society. Vast quantities of blood and gore, fights to the death, and impossible chase scenes with larger-than-life alien species make this a nail-biting thriller from beginning to end - though not necessarily to be recommended for a weak constitution. It reminded me vaguely of Jurassic Park at times, in a different setting and with different monsters.

"Raising the Past" makes a terrific cross-over effort, in two directions at once. It's ideal to draw an average reader into the science fiction scene, and may also serve as an effective introduction for someone unfamiliar with spiritual genres. It's this mix that brings you to the unique conclusion, amazingly managing to leave the world unshattered at the end. I view it as a considerable bridge-building contribution and an enrichment to the genre scene.

Jeremy Robinson keeps pumping his creative writing and amazing storyteller ability in a way that never ceases to surprise his fans. This book is not only fast-pace-page-turning, but also has a turn of events that was quite surprising. But the best part is that this is an unfinished Story, meaning more is coming and I'm very excited to know in which direction it's going to move ... looking forward to Project Legion. Is Kaiju meeting Aeros an apocalyptic moment to mankind, or is there still hope for redemption?

This book became a real page turner after the base camp was destroyed and especially after they arrived at the citadel. It ROCKED just getting better and better. The author ingenuously blended evolution, religion and complex changing human interactions. The Arctic crew were there for different reasons (fame, science, money, just a job) and they bickered over real or imagined slights. But in the end, the crew compromised and worked together for their survival (and later for our species survival) whether they liked each other or not. More importantly, their survival adventure forced each of them (and the reader) to know and understand the others and why they behaved the way they did.

Whatever else this book is, it is completely thought provoking.

The book starts on the premise of raising a frozen mammoth but an ancient dead woman rolls out of its belly and the storyline changes forever. Religion say demons make humans act "bad" and that god wants humans to behave "good". It is our free will to "choose" good or bad and these unsuspecting scientists are stuck in a frozen Arctic Garden of Eden making this ultimate choice.

The aliens playing the "on the side of good" guys are called Aeros and believe in total conformity to achieve a world of everyone holding hands and singing kumbaya. They corrupt themselves by taking sadistic joy in hurting/killing those who won't share their idea of utopia including holding coliseum death matches. All good guys lose a bit of their shining armor behaving badly. The scientists in Raising the Past figured this out about the Aeros.

The aliens playing the "bad" part (but believe they are the good guys also) are called Ferox and they believe in free will and complete independence and defend at all cost against the Aeros "oneness" idea. The Ferox believe they are the true "good" side yet they also corrupt their "goodness" by manipulating others including the human race in order to destroy the Aeros before the Aeros destroyed them.

Reading Raising the Past was like figuring out the next unexpected move of a chess or video game. Think fast or die! It gives new meaning to the phrase "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" with the trick being to stay alive long enough to figure out who was friend or foe.

Raising the Past challenges the reader's mind in every way and you won't regret "choosing" to read this book.

Last summer I went and volunteered for some time with a scientist who had led one of the expeditions to Siberia to recover a frozen mammoth. Their intent was to see if the DNA of the animal was still intact enough to enable a clone to be built (grown, developed, whatever). While the meat was still 'fresh' the DNA was destroyed so no clone.

This was enough, however to tempt me into this book. And his story of the digging up of the animal is very well told. His comments on digging in Russia are exactly right, you can't take the animal or even sample tissue out of Russia, etc.)

This story is, of course is science fiction (which I like) so he has expanded the story to move the mammoth to Canada. And then built a story around an alien artifact. This part was a lot like Arthur C. Clarke's 1948 story, 'The Sentinel.' which later became a novel and a movie under the name '2001: A Space Odyssey.' That is, an artifact burried where it can't be found is finally found and used to send a signal to an advanced species.

The rest comes down to the tone of the story, the writing, the characters. Not, I'm afraid going to make it to the all time best, but a damn file read.

After reading the reviews of this new title from Breakneck Books I was intrigued, but what really sold me on it was the book description and the recommendation by author James Somers. Since Somers' debut novel, THE CHRONICLES OF SOONE, was such an action-packed reading experience, I decided to trust his judgment and try this one too.

And am I ever glad I did! Jeremy Robinson's way with words drew me into this fascinating story as easily as ... well, as easily as the creature in this story lured the "good guys" and "bad guys" alike. The brilliant description, clever dialogue, and action-packed plot kept me in suspense until the very end.

Just listen to this: A creature from the past! Scientists! Sabotage! An ancient woman clutching a secret device, a device that everyone wants! If that doesn't make you sizzle with interest, nothing will.

If you're looking for an exciting, hair-raising reading experience on a cold winter day, buy it! This novel is a reader's delight!

SIDENOTE: You may have noticed that the store has made some changes to its website. If it looks the same to you right now, look out for a new format that will be rolling out gradually in the weeks to come. If you can see the changes, especially the review format, I'd like to know what you think. Please leave me a comment with your opinion.

"Love the new look" or "Hate the new look" comments are perfectly acceptable.

My e-mail address is at top of this review. Thank you for your time."

Well written story that made me want to keep reading. The plot Kept me guessing enough for me to change my mind several times as to what sort of book it would be. The ending was satisfactorily surprising.

I recently purchased this new Breakneck Books title and I am very pleased with it. The story takes off from page one and it never let's go! An alien device is found in the arms of an ancient woman who is entombed in the belly of a fully intact Mammoth specimen in the Canadian North. The scientific team raising the mammoth from the ice, accidentally activate the mysterious object and are almost immediately set upon by several different enemies seeking to kill them. The team battles for survival against ghastly alien creatures that dog their heels as they seek out the Citadel, where the device will help them uncover even greater secrets. Even the arctic environment and its native wildlife are desirous of this teams destruction in Raising the Past. This novel far exceeded my expectations and I'm very much looking forward to reading other titles by this author and Breakneck Books!

This was a book that I thought was another adventure one, but I was mistaken. The beginning started out OK, introducing all of the characters and setting up the story of a mammoth & a girl's body being preserved within, but then the story went off a cliff as it went into aliens and toward the end, philosophy and religion.

I read another one of Jeremy Robinson's books, Island 731, which as I recall was pretty good except for some odd-ball parts. But yeah this book totally tricked the reader into thinking that it would be more scientific and anthropologic, but instead it just turned into a bucket of silly.

The main characters were PhD scientists who magically all turned into Indiana Jones mixed with a Crossfit enthusiasts. That was far from believable. On top of this, a lot of people started dying off and these characters barely blinked an eye. Normal people would have total emotional breakdowns; especially academics, so again way too unrealistic for my tastes.

Long story short, this book wasn't what it seemed to be from the description, and the characters, story, and setting were all too fanciful. It felt like I was watching a really terrible movie after the aliens came into play, and unfortunately that lasted all the way to the end.

I have quickly become a Jeremy Robinson fan. I have bought and read all of his published novels so far. I will pre-order his next available title. I don't do this for just any author, only authors whose books I know I will truly enjoy.

This novel has action, suspense, thrills, good vs evil overtones, some science fiction, and religious threads as well. Jeremy Robinson manages to wave all this elements together in a very good manner.

It may not be Paradise Lost, but if you enjoy thrills and stories that move along like an Indiana Jones movie, you will love this one.

WOW! I just loved this. The perfect combination of adventure and Science Fiction, it just flowed! As usual with Jeremy's books, I found myself having a very hard time putting it down and found myself sneaking reads whenever I could.

If you love adventure, thrillers, and a fondness for Ice action you need to read this. Lovable (and hateable) characters abound.

I don't believe in giving away plot in a review (also not very good with words to do so) but trust me, YOU WILL LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

Jeremy, we want more, more, more!

Thanks.

Cathy Doyle

Raising the Past....This book is fantastic! I recommend it to anyone. A fun read with finely tuned details of the arctic and it's conditions. I didn't want the suspence that was killing me to end. Each one of the characters has a vitality all their own. This is a story that makes you think, and crave for a sequel. And hopefully there's a movie in the making! I'm glad I found this book. With the wonderful endorsements made by author James Rollins saying how great this book is...and he's right!
Can't wait for my copy of Antarktos Rising to arrive in the mail. I've found another favorite author!

If you love over the top action and science fiction, then this book is for you. It involves some really cool alien creatures and strange alien locales (although it does take place entirely on this planet). It's a fascinating and fast paced story with some great twists and explosive action sequences. Definitely one to be greatly enjoyed by the video game generation. Although Threshold is Robinson's best book to date, this is my favorite of his stand-alone novels.

This was a book worth propping the eyelids open to finish! Three-dimensional characters, truly imaginative and intriguing aliens, good use of science and speculative tech; should attract fans of Steve Alten, Preston/Child, Crichton, Greg Bear.

I discovered Mr. Robinson's Secondworld book at my local library when it first came out. I bought the sequel, I am Cowboy, immediately upon its release from the store.
I won't spoil it for those that haven't read it, but the last few pages piqued my interest in Mr. Robinson's other novels.
I finished the entire Antarktos saga a few weeks ago, and just finished Raising the Past.

Note to Mr. Robinson:

When can we expect the sequel to Raising the Past?

Good book. A little short, but well written. Certainly looking forward to the sequel. I Emailed Mr. Robinson and he said one is planned but will hinge on sales and reviews.

A good read, enjoyed it a lot.

Frank Ferris, a Waldenbooks assistant manager, 10/01/2006

Robinson does it again

Raising the past is the best book Robinson has written so far.I couldn't put it down until I was done and wanted to read it again. Great book!

This book is sweet!! I totally loved it. Jeremy Robinson has an incredible imagination. Action all the way through. Anyone who doesn't like this book needs to go back to romance novels! I'm off to buy Didymus right now!

Once again, Jeremy Robinson has done it!

Raising The Past is a fantastic book from the first page to the last. The story is well-thought and the action never slows! If you enjoyed The Didymus Contingency, you won't be disappointed with RTP.

Definitely grab this one!

While the other reviewers were correct about the grammar in this book, I really would not have cared about the grammar if this turned out to be a good book. Instead, I think it was a quickly put together poorly developed story with shallow characters. The logic the characters use to make decisions is silly. I wish I could have liked this book as I was anxious to read it.

I love the authors who recommended this book, so I was so excited when I got it, but I have to agree with some of the other reviewers: the grammar was so awful, it was distracting. The book itself could have used a strong hand in editing it. The plot was thin, the dialogue was unrealistic and stilted, and the characters were flat. I was intrigued by the thought of the mammoth and the excavation, but that was hardly a part of the book. For those looking for fascinating creatures and ancient or scientific discoveries, try Steve Alten or James Rollins. This books reads like a high schooler's screenplay, light on the plot and without realistic dialogue. I saw this author has another book out, and I love the cover, but after recalling this one, I can't in good faith make the purchase.

Well. Now where do I start. Interesting? Strange? Just down right Dumb? Actually all of it. Parts of this book was truly interesting and it really did keep me hooked. Parts of this book was strange and a bit hard to believe and then parts of the book was just down right Dumb. That our lives, the way we make decisions whether corrupt or not, influenced by aliens? Give me a break. Please.

The book was nothing like his first.The first grabbed you and ran with all the action a reader could want and it held you to the edge of your seat.this book was slow moving and really did not grab you to the very end.

Based on the 5-star reviews and the premise about excavating a woolly mammoth, I went ahead and purchased this book, hoping it would really be a great adventure yarn -- especially since it was recommended by James Rollins. As I read the book, however, the story for me devolved into a comic-bookish sci-fi story complete with opposing sets of aliens! I believe the author was a comic book writer and I think this is very evident. I did enjoy the setup for the story and the first parts about the mammoth excavation. And the story does have a lot of action but I really can't recommend it.

Another thing that was distracting to me was the numerous typos in the text. This book was published by a new publishing house (Breakneck Books) and this could be the reason for the errors.

The premise of this book, unfortunately, was much more interesting than its actual execution. It was a fun, silly sort of adventure that would have been more entertaining without the video game references and stilted, unrealistic dialogue. The loose ending and the characters' blanket acceptance of all the outlandish actions just felt completely unbelievable. Still, it was overall entertaining enough to keep me reading. If the characters had been more three-dimensional and less stereotypical, and the wildlife had been treated more realistically, then I would have enjoyed this much, much more.

This was reminiscent of James Rollins, whom I love! It was a fun ride in a book, that I couldn't put down. I do agree with some of the other reviews, in that on one side, it would make a great movie. The other side, and the reason I couldn't give 5 stars, is that I agree with one reviewer, the publisher should do a better job in editing typos and meandering paragraphs that make absolutely no sense, no matter how many times read over. And, then there is one death scene, in particular, that was very disturbing in that it may have just been a spectacular death or a convenient 'out' for a character no longer wanted. I don't think any scientific research went into this ponder. Very distracting for me. But, the all and all excitement of the book and the rest of it made up for the negatives for me.........hence the 4 stars.