Antiquitas Lost: The Last of the Shamalans - Softcover

Antiquitas Lost: The Last of the Shamalans is the award-winning debut novel of American cardiologist, Robert Louis Smith. It is an illustrated fantasy novel that chronicles the adventures of an American teenage boy after he stumbles through a magical doorway in his grandfather's basement, and into a war-torn fantasy world called Pangrelor. The main story arc involves the protagonist's gradual discovery of his unknown relation to Pangrelor, and his unlikely quest to help save its greatest civilization, which is centered around the mountaintop city of Harwelden. Several times during the story, the protagonist is told that success in saving this fabled city of Harwelden may help to save his own dying mother, who remains isolated from him and terminally ill back in New Orleans.Antiquitas Lost is noteworthy for its many high quality illustrations, making it somewhat unique to its genre. It was awarded "Most Promising New Novel" at the 2011 New York City Comic Convention, selected as a Kirkus 2011 Critics' Pick, and awarded a medal for "Best Juvenile Fiction" at the 2012 Independent Publishers Book Awards.

From American cardiologist Robert Louis Smith comes the unique fantasy novel Antiquitas Lost, peppered with more than seventy eye-popping illustrations by Marvel Comics legend Geof Isherwood. This epic fantasy tells the story of a boy named Elliott, a lonesome kid with deformities on his hands and feet, who is uprooted from his home after his mother falls gravely ill. When they move to New Orleans so his grandfather can help care for her, Elliott learns that the old man's eighteenth century mansion hides an ancient secret. While checking out some strange relics in the basement, Elliott strays through an ancient doorway into a tumultuous parallel world, full of bizarre creatures and warring races. He has stumbled into Pangrelor, the most ancient of all worlds and "mother to all the stars in the sky." As he learns to navigate his new surroundings, he discovers wondrous abilities he never dreamed he possessed, and an abiding connection to the primitive, alien world that will forever change him. But he must proceed carefully. For he soon learns that his actions in the ancient world will impact the upcoming battle for Harwelden, Pangrelor's greatest civilization, and will also resonate all the way back to New Orleans, perhaps deciding whether his mother lives or dies.