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Buy MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror (Meg) (Meg) by Steve Alten available and for sale on Brightsurf
| View Larger Image | MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror (Meg) (Meg)
by Steve Alten
| | List Price: | $7.99 |  | | 16 Used starting at: | $3.84 | | | | | Sales Rank: | 497001 | | Studio: | Tsunami Books | | | Binding: | Mass Market Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 432 | | Publication Date: | September 01, 2005 | | Publisher: | Tsunami Books |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Revised and expanded edition, soon to be a major motion picture! On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he's sure he saw but still can't prove exists - Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds. Written off as a crackpot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Taylor refuses to forget the depths that nearly cost him his life. With a Ph.D. in paleontology under his belt, Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back into a high-tech miniature sub. Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he's never imagined, and what he finds could turn the tides bloody red until the end of time. MEG is about to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is going to be safe, and Jonas must face his greatest fear once again. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 516 reviews)
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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.
July 08, 2008 | |
I could not finish this book... 
I picked this book up based on the rave 5-star reviews. Each character, each plot point is ripped off from some earlier book or movie script. I am not surprised Disney would option this stuff, since it is aimed at the lowest common denominator of reader. It should suit the masses just fine. I even tried listening to the audio version: Stephen Lang's fine narration is wasted, and the producers even added a synthesizer rip-off of John William's Jaws music!
July 04, 2008 | |
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!!!
July 02, 2008 | |
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.
June 08, 2008 | |
A fun and quick read 
This book is a quick and fun read. If you like sharks - this book is for you. Most chapters are only a few pages long making this an ideal read while waiting for the metro or before going to sleep. Get this book. Get books 2 and 3 because you'll want to keep reading.
April 01, 2008 | |
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