Hell's Aquarium (Meg) [Hardcover]

Steve Alten (Author)

Book Description

Series: Meg | Publication Date: May 2009

The Philippine Sea Plate... the deepest, most unexplored realm on the planet. Hidden beneath its ancient crust lies the remains of the Panthalassa, an ocean that dates back 220 million years. Vast and isolated, the Panthalassa in inhabited by nightmarish species of sea creatures long believed extinct.

Tanaka Institute, Monterey, CA.:

Angel, the recaptured 76 foot, 100,000 pound Megalodon, has birthed a liter of pups -- five females -- far too numerous and aggressive to keep in one pen. One solution: A Dubai royal prince is building the largest aquarium in the world and seeks to purchase two of the "runts."

The deal hinges on hiring Jonas Taylor's 21 year old son, David, to be their trainer. Jonas reluctantly agrees, and David is off to Dubai for the summer of his life-- --not realizing he is being set-up to lead an expedition that will hunt down and capture the most dangerous creatures ever to inhabit the planet!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steve Alten is the best-selling author of the Meg series. A native of Philadelphia, he earned a Bachelor’s degree from Penn State, a Masters from the University of Delaware, and a Doctorate from Temple University. He is the founder and director of Adopt-An-Author, a free nationwide teen reading program used in thousands of secondary school classrooms across the country to excite reluctant readers.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1.

Monterey Peninsula Airport
Monterey, California

Saturday

The black Lexus JX sedan is double-parked outside Gate B, the vehicle’s driver, Jonas Taylor, eyeballing the airport cop who has sent him circling the airport four times already. The sixty-six-year-old paleobiologist glances at his twenty-four-year-old daughter, Danielle, curled up in the passenger seat next to him. The model-pretty blonde, who works part-time for a local NBC-TV affiliate as a news reporter and weekends emceeing shows at the Tanaka Institute, is staring at the digital clock on the dashboard, growing impatient. “Almost four thirty. If his plane doesn’t get here soon, I’ll miss the evening show.”

“His plane just landed. Relax.” Jonas taps the steering wheel to an old Neil Diamond tune on the radio. “Anyway, Olivia can always emcee the show in a pinch.”

“Olivia?” Dani looks at her father as if she just swallowed turpentine. “Dad, the Saturday night show is my gig. Period. Now would you please turn off that annoying song.”

“I like Neil Diamond.”

“Who?”

“Come on, I’m not that old.”

“Yeah, you are. Seriously, Dad, I will pay you to let me change the station.”

“Fine, only no gangster rap.”

“It’s ‘gangsta,’ and get with the times. Ghetto is in. It’s what we relate to.”

“My mistake. I forgot your mother and I raised you as a poor black child in a gang-infested neighborhood.”

The airport cop approaches the Lexus. Before he can signal Jonas to move the car, twenty-year-old David Taylor steps out of the baggage claim exit, an orange and blue University of Florida duffle bag slung over one broad shoulder. Jonas’s son is wearing a gray Gator’s Football tee-shirt, faded jeans, and sneakers. He is fit and tan, his brown hair long, speckled with golden highlights from being in the sun, his almond-brown eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses.

David tosses his duffle in the back seat of the Lexus and climbs in. “Sorry. Plane was an hour late.”

“No worries. We just got here. Right, Dani?”

“Wrong. You know dad, he had to leave an hour early.” She allows David to kiss her cheek. “You look good . . . Jesus, Dad, drive!”

Jonas pulls into traffic, following the signs leading to Highway 68 West.

“You look like you gained a few pounds. Lifting weights again?”

“Yes . . . and no, for the last time, I am not trying out for football.”

“Sure, I know. I just saw the shirt and thought—”

“It’s just a shirt.”

“—because the coach called our house twice last week. He lost two wide-outs to injuries in spring training. With your speed—”

“Dad, enough! My playing days ended in high school.”

“Okay, okay. I just remember my playing days at Penn State . . . those were the best of times.”

“Please, that was half a century ago.” Dani ruffles her father’s thick mane of snowy-white hair. “David, what do you think of Dad’s new look?”

David smiles. “It’s as white as Angel’s ass. It was still gray last time I saw you.”

“Comes from working too closely with monsters.”

“I thought you enjoyed working with Angel’s pups?”

Jonas smiles at his daughter. “I was talking about you.”

Dani smacks him playfully across his head. “I told him he should use that hair stuff that gets rid of the gray.”

“Don’t listen to her, Dad. It makes you look more intelligent. Sort of like Anderson Cooper, only a lot older.”

“Good. I can use all the help I can get. David . . . about this internship—”

“Dad, we talked about this.”

“There are other specialties in marine biology. We just completed the Manta Ray sale with the Naval Warfare Center, thanks, in part, to your piloting demo. The Navy knows you’re the best pilot we have, and the Vice Admiral mentioned they could use a good trainer.”

“You know I love piloting the subs. I just like working with the Megs more. There’s something about big predators—”

“You want big predators? San Diego needs a new trainer for their female orca. I could make a call—”

“Pass.”

“What’s wrong with orcas?”

“Nothing, if you enjoy teaching dog tricks to a whale. Angel’s pups have special needs.”

“Pups? Christ, you make them sound like a litter of cocker spaniels. The three runts are already larger than an adult great white, and the two sisters . . . you tell him, Dani.”

Dani nods, text messaging on her cell phone. “The sisters are evil. They’ll be as big and nasty as their mother.”

“Why do you call them ‘the sisters?’ Technically, all five are sisters.”

“When you see them every day like Dani and I do, you’ll understand. They may have shared the same womb, but the three runts look and act nothing like Bela and Lizzy.” Jonas exits Highway 68, heading south on Highway 1. “How’s Corrine?”

“We broke up.”

Dani looks up. “Seriously? I never liked her.”

“Wait,” Jonas jumps in, “what was wrong with Corrine?”

“She was getting too serious.”

“What’s wrong with serious? Is serious so bad?”

“How’s mom?”

“She’s good. And don’t change the subject.”

“Mom’s stressed out,” Dani says.

“Not PETA again?”

“Worse. A thug off-shoot. They call themselves R.A.W. Stands for Return Animals to the Wild. Dad had to hire a security outfit; they were puncturing the staff’s tires. I’m trying to convince my producer to let me do an exposé. These assholes don’t give a damn about the Megs. They’re just after the free publicity.”

David says nothing, preferring to gaze out his passenger window at the Pacific Ocean peeking through the rolling hillsides.

Jonas weighs the sudden silence. “Go ahead and say it, David. ‘The pen’s too small. The pups are getting too big.’ ”

David looks at his father. “What did the State Assembly say?”

“Same as they’ve always said. No more expansion, at least not along the coast. They offered us six hundred acres in Bakersfield.”

“Bakersfield? Why not Death Valley?”

“There may be another option. Mac and I have a meeting on Monday with Emaar Properties out of the United Arab Emirates. Rumor has it they’re constructing some kind of new state-of-the-art aquarium and hotel in Dubai.”

“I heard about that. The place is supposed to be incredible, ten times the size of the Georgia Aquarium. You think they want one of the pups?”

Jonas nods. “I’d bet the house on it.”

The Lexus heads south on Cabrillo Highway, exiting onto Sand Dunes Drive. David stares at the ocean, mesmerized by its crashing surf, marveling at the differences between Monterey’s rough Pacific and Florida’s calmer Atlantic. He has spent the last three summers interning at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, completing field work in order to earn his bachelor’s degree in marine biology. Up ahead he sees the familiar concrete and steel bowl, the arena’s ocean-access canal running out to meet the deeper ocean waters like a submerge...

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 342 pages
• Publisher: Variance Publishing LLC (May 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935142046
• ISBN-13: 978-1935142041
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #406,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Alten grew up in Philadelphia, earning his Bachelors degree in Physical Education at Penn State University, a Masters Degree in Sports Medicine from the University of Delaware, and a Doctorate of Education at Temple University. Struggling to support his family of five, he decided to pen a novel he had been thinking about for years. Working late nights and on weekends, he eventually finished MEG; A Novel of Deep Terror. Steve sold his car to pay for editing fees. On September (Friday) the 13th, 1996, Steve lost his general manager's job at a wholesale meat plant. Four days later his agent had a two-book deal with Bantam Doubleday.

MEG would go on to become the book of the 1996 Frankfurt book fair, where it eventually sold to more than a twenty countries. MEG hit every major best-seller list, including #19 on the New York Times list (#7 audio), and became a popular radio series in Japan.

Steve's second release, The TRENCH (Meg sequel) was published by Kensington/Pinnacle in 1999 where it also hit best-seller status. His next novel, DOMAIN and its sequel, RESURRECTION were published by St. Martin's Press/Tor Books and were runaway best-sellers in Spain, Mexico, Germany, and Italy, with the rights selling to more than a dozen countries.

Steve's fourth novel, GOLIATH, received rave reviews and was a big hit in Germany. It is being considered for a TV series. MEG: Primal Waters was published in the summer of 2004. A year later his seventh novel, The LOCH, hit stores -- a modern-day thriller about the Loch Ness Monster. Steve's eighth novel, The SHELL GAME, is about the end of oil and the next 9/11 event. The book was another NY Times best-seller, but the stress of penning this real-life story affected Steve's health, and three months after he finished the manuscript he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Steve's ninth novel, MEG: Hell's Aquarium, is considered to be the best of the best-selling MEG series. Steve says his best novel is GRIM REAPER: End of Days. The story, a modern-day Dante's Inferno, takes place in New York when a man-made plague strikes Manhattan. The release date was 10-10-10. His eleventh novel. PHOBOS: Mayan Fear is the third in the Domain series and will debut in the Fall of 2011 (Tor/Forge).

Steve's novels are action-packed and very visual. He has optioned DOMAIN, MEG and The LOCH to film producers. Steve has written six original screenplays. His comedy, HARLEM SHUFFLE was a semi-finalist in the LA screenwriting contest, his psychological thriller, STRANGLEHOLD, was selected as a finalist at the Philadelphia film festival and his reality series, HOUSE OF BABEL won at Scriptapalooza. He has also created a TV Drama, PAPA JOHN, based on his years coaching basketball with hall of Fame coach John Chaney.

Over the years, Steve has been inundated with e-mail from teens who hated reading ...until they read his novels. When he learned high school teachers were actually using his books in the classroom (MEG had been rated #1 book for reluctant readers) Steve launched Adopt-An-Author, a nationwide non-profit program designed to encourage students to read. Teachers who register for the program (it's free) receive giant shark posters, free curriculum materials, student-author correspondence, an interactive website, and classroom conference calls/visits with the author. To date, over 10,000 teachers have registered, and the success rate in getting teens to read has been unprecedented. Steve now spends half his work week working with high schools. For more information click on www.AdoptAnAuthor.com

As an author, Steve has two goals. First, to continue to work hard to become a better storyteller and create exciting page turning thrillers. Second, to remain accessible to his readers. Steve reads and answers all e-mails, uses the names and descriptions of his loyal fans as characters in all his novels, and even hires readers as editors, depending on their particular expertise.

For more information, contact the author at [e-mail]
or go to www.SteveAlten.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than Primal Waters, but..., November 4, 2009

By 

Ms. M. L. Hyndman (UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hell's Aquarium (Meg) (Hardcover)

There's no denying that Steve Alten is a good writer. His take on the whole 'does Megalodon still exist' business as an entertainment for the masses weaned on JAWS (and its numerous imitators) was a brilliant one - at least to begin with. MEG was good, THE TRENCH even better and I very much looked forward to the third book PRIMAL WATERS, which was a disappointment. Why? It seems Mr. Alten is not content with writing a good book, rather a screenplay masquerading as a novel. Does this have anything to do with Disney and New Line Cinema passing on the option to make the first film or maybe he's just hoping to add an enthusiastic producer (or two) to his readership - who knows? The fact remains, the problems that marred PRIMAL WATERS repeat themselves with HELL'S AQUARIUM. Though I applaud the attempt to develop the characters beyond the simple heroics of the first book, HELL'S AQUARIUM misses the dark complexity the character of Celeste and her cronies gave THE TRENCH and loses a great deal of its tension through too much discription and liberal use of exclamation marks. If someone is about to get eaten by a steam locomotive with a mouth-full of steak knives, I think it safe to assume the result would be fatal. For a mature reader well versed in this sort of thing, it never fails to irritate. Despite its flaws, HELL'S AQUARIUM is a decent enough read, with plenty of inventive action for the devoted topped by a ending wide enough for another book. Great - I just hope its better than the last one

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hell's Aquarium will unlock a prehistoric hunger within you for the next in the series... NOW!, May 12, 2009

By 

Jeffrey A. Sitko - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hell's Aquarium (Meg) (Hardcover)

As an enthusiast of both paleontology and ichthyology the MEG series has been a staple of my literary diet. The first book established a mythos that I adored, the second remains one of my all-time favorite novels, and the third is quite plainly a fun read of non-stop excitement.

For the sake of candor, I should admit that since having read the third book and the preview for Hell's Aquarium online, I have been apprehensive regarding this book and specifically the newest terrifying denizen of the deep in the MEG series - the Liopleurodon. In point of fact, I think the only reason that I didn't enjoy the third book as much was because I couldn't get around the fact that there was supposedly a predator existing in the depths of the Philippine sea in excess of 120 feet! Immediately a nagging voice was unearthed in the back of my mind, screaming, "There is no such creature known to exist!" Following that, the online free preview both tantalized me with Steve's writing style and the characters that I have come to adore, and caused me to be still more unnerved, discovering the 120-foot monster to be a Liopleurodon with a skull in excess of 30 feet! I became confused instantaneously; the series with such an eye to attracting fans of prehistoric aquatic fauna is featuring a grossly paleontologically inaccurate specimen, hyping the Liopleurodon to more than twice the size of what we know for even the largest specimen of this pliosaur? However, with tens of millions of years for this animal to evolve if left undisturbed in a subterranean sea, who is to say that its size couldn't increase? I remained hopeful that Steve would provide an explanation... and provide he did! My one fear and quibble for the book laid to rest in an evolutionarily plausible fashion, I may now go back and reread Primal Waters so that I can fully appreciate that book without being concerned with an inaccurate leviathan of ludicrous proportions!

With "the bad" (if the above worry could even have been considered as much) out of the way, I should move on to the good... which literally is the ENTIRE book. Hell's Aquarium is the singularly most enthralling novel I have read since The Trench, steering the series into uncharted waters of infinite possibility. Angel is back in all her rapacious, cantankerous glory, but the creatures I found myself yearning to read about just as much as Angel were her offspring, particularly her larger two female pups, Belle and Lizzy, referred to by the Tanaka Institute staff as "the sisters". What's compelling about the sisters is that we see them not only as Megalodons but as animals with distinct personalities which make them memorable and enticing for the reader. Long have we seen Megalodons as fiercely territorial and solitary; now we see the sisters in a symbiotic predatory relationship. Belle is the brawn to Lizzy's brain. Lizzy appears strategic and calculating in attacks, while Belle is pure, unbridled primal fury.

All of the main characters are back, with David now 20 years old and donning the mantle of main protagonist (Jonas coming in at a close second). This book seems to groom David as the Taylor we'll be following most closely in future books as Jonas advances in years and becomes less capable of taking on these apex predators and coming out unscathed. A glut of new and memorable characters are present, including bi-polar Monty whom David befriends on his trip to Dubai, their relationship echoing that between Jonas and Mac. From the Monterey bay to Dubai, this book ceaselessly churns out intrigue and action in a manner that fans of the series will swarm about as if it were chum!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One "Hell" of a Ride, June 13, 2009

By 

D. J. Donovan "Dan" (El Cajon, CA.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hell's Aquarium (Meg) (Hardcover)

Steve's research on prehistoric sea monsters is beyond belief. Then being able to wrap an exciting,entertaining,informative and suspense filled fictional story around all this fact made this the best MEG in the series. If you thought MEG's were really bad, just wait till you see what Steve presents in this episodic adventure in "Hell's Aquarium". The first half sets you up, the last half you can't put it down. Be prepared for one Hell of a Ride !!