The Gods of Antarctica

The Gods of Antarctica is a 2014 novel written by Yashvardhan Shukla. It narrates the story of a young boy,David, who reaches Antarctica and learns about the 'gods' of Antarctica. He discovers that he is the son of an Antarctican god and is born for a very special purpose.
It was released on 14 February 2015 at the Hindi Bhawan.
Plot Summary
Twelve years old David Blues and his family (consisting of parents - Michael and Amy, younger siblings - Lilly and John and dog Ray) shift into a lavish mansion (gifted to Michael by his boss) in London. At the mansion, Ray barks at a tree, hinting at some supernatural activity. David has a nightmare, wherein, he hears a strange voice and is killed by a hooded figure. Next day, David encounters two new students in school - Manu Brahmaputra and Adam. Later at night, the triple decker bed, on which David, Lilly and John slept falls, causing serious injuries to John and Lilly. The strange voice later warns David, followed by someone shutting the door from outside. The doctor advises surgery for John and Lilly. Later in the night, the same voice disrupts David’s sleep and tells him to find the ‘lost blood’. David sees an intruder and manages to get him/her out of the house. He sees face of a girl behind a window, whom he follows and gets hold of. The girl reveals herself as Emily, the lost blood and David’s sister. At this, David loses consciousness and finds himself inside his room in the morning. On 14 November, on David’s birthday, David’s father, a detective by profession, leaves for a secret mission. Meanwhile, in school, Adam got involved in beating a 10th grade boy. In the evening, after David’s birthday party, Adam gets offended due to Manu’s suspicion on him and attacks Manu with a knife. During this fight, Manu discovers that Adam belongs to Antarctica and was born in 1777. Suddenly, Adam arrives in the form of a white giant and reveals himself as native of Antarctica and tells how humans exploited Antarctica and destroyed his ancestors and he being there to seek revenge and destroy the human race. In the ensuing fight, he kills Manu. Later, Adam (the white monster) devastates the land and a curfew is declared in London. Adam kills David’s mother, John, Lilly and Ray one by one. But, David somehow manages to escape with the help of a mysterious taxi driver - Jason. He reaches the harbor and gets a ticket for the ship. Aboard the ship, he comes across two siblings, Diana and Stuart, whose family was also destroyed by Adam. Meanwhile, a sailor tells David that he is the son of an Antarctican god and many other astonishing things. Just then, the ship starts sinking and David realizes that he can control time. Later a big sea wave destroys the ship, but David manages to save Diana, but not Stuart. David and Diana reach an unknown land, where they encounter creatures named Xetuses, who attack David and Diana, but they’re defeated by three unknown children, Emily (the lost blood), Lance and Zane. David’s adventure begins now. He gets an ancient sword named Drakonos and defeats Xetuses. He discovers that he is the son of Aniemavous, the Antarctican God of Time and has a special purpose. Diana comes to be known as the daughter of Nevinion, the Antarctican Goddess of Water and Medicine. David meets Will (his god brother), Emily (his god sister), Lance, Zane and Zue (head of land, who is half lion, half human) and befriends all. He realizes that the place known as Antronichle (or Underground Antarctica) is his new home. He gets his own room in a hut and gets introduced to magical creatures like Dragon and Phoenix. He learns sword fighting and riding. He gets his own Syre - Leo (dwarf like slave, gifted to him by his godfather - Aniemavous, who told him that he’ll require it for a quest). Zue announces that David, Diana and Leo will go on a quest to find the lost goddess - Thalomii, who is probably kidnapped by Takhatus, the Antarctican God of Death. Meanwhile, a competition called ‘The Leader of Antronichle’ (TLOA) takes place, in which David participates with the help of Leo (who could turn into a Dragon and fly). While flying, David hears a voice from his sword, which belongs to Rhu (a Syre cursed by Mastoras, the Antarctican God of Wild to become a Dragon and get trapped into the sword). Rhu asks David that if he is allowed control over his body, then David could easily win the contest. David commits the mistake of allowing Rhu. David nearly defeats all his opponents, but accidentally kills Lance. Rhu drives David into a cave, where he meets his wife - Skyana, who also used to be a Syre, but is cursed to be a Dragon. Rhu talks to Skyana through David’s body, but suddenly they are interrupted by Phoelesten, the Antarctican God of War, who is in rage after the death of his son - Lance. He threatens Rhu to return his son’s life or else Rhu would die. Phoelesten talks about Thalomii, which attracts the attention of Aveins (the Antarctican God of Architecture), Thalomii’s father. Aveins enquires about Thalomii. Suddenly, Adam (now revealed as son of Takhatus) and his brother Hermley enter. The gods exit and David fights Adam, but ends up getting crushed under his foot. Later, he is healed by Nevinion. David learns that Adam and Hermley had been trapped in the cellars of Syrotore (a building where Syres were sold). He is told by Zue that in order to get perfectly trained, he should play a game called ‘Firehunt’. David initially refuses, but then decides to give it a thought. During the semifinal of TLOA, David escapes and goes into the Syrotore to kill Adam for his misdeeds. With the help of Leo, David manages to get Adam out. In the subsequent fight, David is miraculously saved by a boy named Drona, who drives Adam away. Drona and his brother Dhwaja are introduced as two new boys at Antronichle and are later revealed as sons of Aniemavous. The following days are spent by David training for ‘Firehunt’. Later, David’s team emerges as the winner, solely due to his efforts. Will rewards David with a Draconix (a creature hatched from the dozer, an egg by which the game is played). David names the Draconix - Lucy and makes Leo responsible to handle her. In the beginning of the quest, David keeps in mind the past of Thalomii, which was told to him by Cyrus Mansfield. Zane makes David take an oath that he’ll not stop a sacrifice from taking place. The quest begins when Brutus (an aquatic creature owned by Will) starts off with David, Diana, Leo and Lucy on its back and takes them to a place called Atleonis, from where they could be easily transported to any place they want. At Atleonis, they find the body of Stuart lying on ground inside the sea. At that time, four creatures like Brutus attack them with Adam as their leader. The fight gets interrupted, (before it begun) by arrival of Lucas Firehunt (inventor of the game - Firehunt), who traps Adam in his magical bottle. David defeats the other four creatures, which attacked them. David thanks Lucas, who tells him that Stuart will die, but could be saved only by transforming Adam’s spirit into Stuart’s body, a very painful effort would be required to do so. David accepts this offer and gets transported into darkness, where he experiences immense pain caused by the transfer of spirit, but manages to get Stuart alive. Diana thanks David. Lucas tells them about a place called Paradox Cave and how it could teleport them easily. David and Diana go through the Paradox Cave, where Lady Xynet (wife of Takhatus) is seen, who gives them a code, which if cracked correctly, would allow them to reach their destination on time and if wrongly handled, then they would spend 10 days without realizing how much time they have spent. Leo quickly volunteers an answer for the mysterious code. However, Diana knew the correct answer (for the destination, Diana said that it was Norway, as she put some logic). Later, on reaching the destination, without seeing Norway around, David realizes that Leo’s answer was wrong as Xynet said that she was seeing them after 10 days. On knowing that they still have an hour left, Diana answers correctly and they reach Norway. They quickly search for a dark building, where they face a battalion of Takletons (undead creatures). David slaughters all of them. They head for the second floor, where they encounter Fax, Zue’s twin brother, who is trapped by Diana. David escapes and reaches the terrace, where he fights Takhatus with the help of Aveins and Phoelesten. In front of the God of Death, David weakens, breaks and becomes lifeless. However, after getting a vision of his mother, he fights back with fully energy and leaves the god into dust. Meanwhile, Thalomii trapped in chains is rescued by David. Just then, Zane arrives and sacrifices herself to save her mother. Soon after that, David blacks out. David wakes up in his room and realizes that he’d been there for 10 days. Will tells David that he has arranged tickets for London for him, Leo, Diana, Stuart and Lucy. David hopes that his father has returned from his mission and thus agrees to leave for London. As the ship arrives, David notices that the sailors were the same, who were with him the last time when he boarded the ship. The sailor, who’d told David about Antarctica, turns out to be the son of Nevinon. David and company bid goodbye to Will and Zue and return to London via Dover. At London, he meets his father, who is overjoyed on seeing David return. He tells David that his secret mission was to Antarctica to see whether it was inhabited or not. He takes David to the house, where he sees his mother, siblings and his dog Ray. David realizes that Takhatus had revived his family. Then, there is a knock on the door and it’s Manu Brahmaputra, who greets David.
Launch and Reception
The Gods of Antarctica was officially released on 14 February 2015 at the Hindi Bhawan in the presence of Dr Shailesh Nayak as the chief guest and eminent writers like Dr Ram Sharan Joshi, Himanshu Joshi, Dr Sherjung Garg and Dr Amarnath Amar.
The book had successfully made its entry into the top 1000 bestsellers on Amazon.in in November 2014.
Dr Ram Sharan Joshi called it a good book which philosophised the evil desires of humanity: To conquer time, to conquer nature and to conquer death.
Sequel
At his book release, Yashvardhan announced his next book: A Space Odyssey, a sequel to the Gods of Antarctica.
“It will be a twist in David's tale where he will be sent to the space,” he said.

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