MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror | Steve Alten

MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror | Steve Alten | Deep water thriller

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MEG: A Novel of De...

	MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror Steve Alten Apelles (an imprint of Cedar Fort Inc), 2008 - 421 pages average customer review:based on 516 reviews view larger image
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Carcharodon megalodonapex predator of all time, the most fearsome creature that ever liveda 70-foot, 60,000 pound Great White Shark. Hundreds of 7-inch serrated teeth filled jaws that could swallow an elephant whole. It could sense its prey miles away, inhaling its scent as it registered the beat of its fluttering heart, and if you ever came close enough to see the monster...it was already too late. For Navy deep-sea submersible pilot Jonas Taylor, it nearly was too late. Years ago, on a top-secret dive seven miles down into the Mariana Trench, Jonas came face to face with an ancient monster everyone believed extinct. Having barely escaped with his life, Jonas must prove to the world that Meg still exists. When an opportunity to return to the trench presents itself, he takes it, intent on returning topside with a 7-inch tooth! But mans presence in this unexplored domain releases one of the sharks from its purgatory, and now Jonas is the only one who can stop it.

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Teeth-ripping terror!!!

Blood and Rain
Blood for the Masses

"Audio Book"
Meg
By
Steve Alten
Performed
By
Stephen Lang
Reviewed
By
B.L.Morgan

5 out of 5

If you've never listened to a book on tape or CD give it a try. If you start out with Meg you'll probably become an instant audio book junkie like me.

Meg by Steve Alten and performed by Stephen Lange is powerful. There's really no other word to describe it. POWERFUL!!!

From the first scene that takes place in a prehistoric dinosaur infested world to the last scene in the modern day this fish story has you in its Jaws and doesn't let go.

Stephen Lang's performance of Meg is simply perfect. He's not a well known actor, but if they gave out Oscars for audio books I'm sure he'd get one for Meg. I live in the Northwest and want to go on one of those whale watching tours. Well, after listening to Meg, if the wrong shape of fin breaks the surface when we're out in the deep water, you'll probably hear me screaming like a baby to get back to the shore.

A warning: If you put this audio book on as you're going to bed at night, like I was stupid enough to do, then you're in for some serious nightmares.

Just imagine Jaws on steroids: A shark the size of a Grey Hound Bus, hungry as hell, coming straight at you. You are the blue plate special in the Meg diner.

This one had me going to seafood restaurants with revenge on my mind. I have never listened to or read a book as scary as this one. If you're in the mood for a serious scare, check this one out. If you don't, you're a wimp.

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Deep water thriller

I read this book in two days and it had me riveted the whole time excitedly flipping through the pages with the nonstop action. Talk about your worst nightmare coming true! Not only is this story about sharks, but a HUGE white prehistoric shark found in the bowels of the Marianas Trench. This book really hit the nail with horror and action! One of my guilty little pleasures of this book would have to be when the main characters soon to be ex-wife gets eaten. Can't wait to see the movie!!!

Far superior to Jaws (the novel, not the film)

Peter Benchley's Jaws is honestly one of the trashiest gutter-fiction novels I have read in my life. I enjoyed not one part of it and felt dirty after finishing. I was hoping that the popular Meg might make up for it especially since I am fascinated by Megalodon sharks and I have 9-inch Meg tooth in my living room.

I wasn't disappointed. Yes, Steve Alten's non-stop adventure is pulpy as hell but is none the worse for it. Meg is just pure entertaintment and should be read as such.

The story is about Jonas Taylor, a deep-sea explorer who loses his nerve when he 'hallucinates' a giant shark near the bottom of the ocean. Determined to prove that he's not crazy he dedicates his life and runs his marriage into the ground in the hunt for the elusive creature. But when a Japanese tycoon asks him to help with a deep sea seismic event project he is led straight back to the place where he first saw the shark and it turns out that it wasn't a figment of his imagination after all.

The shark follows him to the surface and proceeds to wreak havoc on oceans and not even the Navy can stop it. Only Jonas knows to defeat that shark but it would take a madman to even try.

It's not classic literature but it's perfect for those who find reading to be a bit of a chore and want something easily accessible.

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Bigger isn't always better...

I first tried reading MEG a few years back when I was traveling on my honeymoon. I figured a book about a giant shark would be the perfect airplane book. Unfortunately the book was so badly written and hackneyed that I couldn't take it even when I was locked up on a flight. I tossed it aside unfinished.

Still, I kept it in the back of my mind. Though the book was terrible I liked the idea so much that I kept looking for the promised movie adaptation. It never came.

Later I read an interview with Steve Alten and he seemed like a really nice guy. Also, I saw that he had revised and expanded the original book. Since I had another trip coming up and a story about a giant shark was still such a promising hook, I decided to try it again.

Well, MEG will go down as one of the worst written books that I still managed to enjoy. Steve Alten may be a nice guy, but he's a very ham-handed writer. He constantly used exclamation points in his narrative which just came off as unprofessional. One or twice, okay, but every other paragraph is just too much. His similes were very clumsy and occasionally funny enough to pull me out of the narrative. The whole thing read like a bad novelization of a movie. Mr. Alten has some nifty ideas for books (Goliath and The Shell Game sound promising), but he really, really needs to work on his writing.

The characters are all pretty two-dimensional. The old Japanese man (Masao Tanaka) in particular struck me as funny. Sort of Jacques Cousteau meets Mr. Miyagi. Jonas Taylor is your standard action flick 'hero with a tragic past', his wife is a one trick back-stabbing schemer and everybody else is exactly what you figure they will be on their first introduction.

So all this bad stuff, why did I manage to enjoy it? Because reading about a shark the size of the plane I read the book on is damn cool! Crappy as the writing could be, reading about the Megalodon munching on surfers, boats and whatever else it could chase down was always great fun. I don't plan on rushing out to pick up the rest of the series, but I managed to enjoy with this book.

I did order the similarly themed (and much better reviewed) Extinct by Charles Wilson, so I guess I'm not done with giant sharks yet.

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