Spooktacular Sunday: Antiquitas Lost

Welcome to our weekend feature designed to showcase books written for the YA crowd. This week we are reviewing Antiquitas Lost by Robert Louis Smith. Enjoy!

 
Elliot has always had strange birthmarks on his hands that have caused him trouble from others, his mother also has the marks. When Elliot’s mother gets sick they go to live with his grandfather in New Orleans, strange that he also has these marks. Elliot knows there is something different about his grandfather and on a walk his grandfather tells him strange tales about the house that he lives in and the history of the family.  He also tells him that he is the one that can solve the mysteries and maybe even save his mother’s life. His grandfather tells him to go to the basement when everyone is sleeping. Not believing him at first Elliot ignores him, but when a storm wakes him in the early morning Elliot cannot let the curiosity go, he heads to the basement, way way down in the basement, and finds a mysterious book and some old paintings. When one of the paintings calls to him and he is transported into another world the adventure begins.    
 

                In this new world there are many creatures that are alive and strange to him. He is found by two creatures that talk to him and seem to think that he is really important, because they have not seen a shamalan around because they thought they were all gone.  Not knowing what is going on he decides it would be best to follow these “men” as they say they are stewards of the princess, to Harwelden.  As this happens Elliot finds out the princess, also a shamalan, has been taken.  Elliot’s adventure has begun. He will meet all sorts of people, be hunted, all in search of the princess and helping to restore what he thinks is the right empire.     But, will this be enough to save his mother? Will he stay alive long enough to find out? What exactly is a shamalan?

                This was an interesting book, it reminded me a lot of the Lord of the Rings series, only because it was a world that was completely different than ours and the character was on a quest to find something, while encountering trials.  It was hard to write a summary of this book only because there were so many things that happened and so many characters that you read about from their point of view. The book flips form different characters, smoothly so that you get the whole picture of the story. This was a great thing, because you can see all the creatures point of view of what really is going on.   I liked how this book was full of adventure; it was long at 615 pages and was not a book that you could read through quickly without paying attention.  You really need to read this book when you have time to think about it, as the discriptions are important.  The illustrations in the book really help to let you visualize the story and they were great images.   I would recommend this book to a mature reader only for that the length and the language used would be harder for some.  Again, I truly liked this book, and this is not the type of books I usually read so that is great!

Visit the Antiquitas Lost website:
http://www.antiquitaslost.com/index.php

*Reviewed by Jenny O. for Bite Club