Ketos Arises (Paperback)

Paperback. Antarctica is the most recent, and final, of the Earth's Continents to be explored by humans. It is the fifth largest Continent in the World. Before the late eighteenth century, there were only rumours of its existence. British sea Captain James Cook visited in 1773 and 1774. However, ice fields made it impossible for him to land. Russian, British and United States ships sailed around the land mass in the early 1820s. Antarctica is an ice desert. It is the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth. The Antarctic is colder than the Arctic. Explorers of many nations came as the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries progressed. Landings of humans on Antarctica began to be recorded during the later nineteenth century. However, to this day, the Continent has no permanent human population. At any one time there may be several thousand Antarctic researchers operating out of their nations' research bases. They normally spend a maximum of one, or possibly two, years in this freezing place. Albeit, on sunny, but chilly, summer days, Antarctica can look a beautiful place with the sunlight glinting off its ice and lighter snow covering; and its majestic mountains standing before a clear blue sky. However, in icy winter, it is dark and satanic. Eerie giant ice structures form and their ghastly silhouettes stand like threatening guardians in the twilight or Stygian gloom of the land. Early mariners who ventured into this strangest of lands often speculated about, and sometimes believed they glimpsed, vast and terrifying, never-before-seen monsters that lurked beneath its massive ice sheets or existed in the depths of its ice-closed great lakes. In modern times, a United States Marine Biology Professor and his glamorous, and extremely career-minded, female Deputy arrive on a government chartered research ship to search out a fierce giant creature; of whose existence they already have a tiny amount of evidence. The Professor's ancestor was First Mate on a US Whaler that came early into Antarctic waters in 1822. He left a diary account that was never seen outside his family, of a short encounter his ship had with a ferocious and colossal leviathan. The Professor has named the monster 'Ketos' after a mighty avenging beast created and controlled by the Ancient Greek Gods. Before they can start their investigation, they need a guide with local Antarctic knowledge. They are loaned an ex-Marine (and Anglo-American orphan: George Batten) by New Zealand Antarctica. He normally works in Antarctica as a Meteorologist. Their monster-search becomes an incredible adventure. They have encounters with North American gangsters laying low from their most recent atrocity on a luxury Antarctic cruise liner they have hired; along with a bevy of trafficked East European girls. They gain positive evidence of the sea monster of their search. However, this only leads to still more grief and terror. The first third of the story tells of brief incidents, a number are horrendous, mainly involving Seamen and their ships, of various nationalities, from the 1820s to modern times, and the 25 meters-long and massively built, 'Ketos', who is among the last of his terrifying species, of nocturnal, sea-mammal carnivores. They have a few features that are not unlike other sea-mammals. Albeit, their teeth and jaws resemble those of the prehistoric Sabre-toothed Cat. The monsters are never unprovoked aggressive. However, they instinctively protect the young and females, of their dwindling kind; and guard them under the Antarctic ice. For the various ships' crews the encounters may be unintentionally tragic, inadvertently helpful or neutral. Interwoven with the modern-times account of the Professor of Marine Biology's monster-investigation, is the story of Marine George Batten. He has the sort of life one would expect of a tough, and charming young Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…