Customer Reviews

Meg

5 star:		(225)
4 star:		(106)
3 star:		(74)
2 star:		(41)
1 star:		(89)

 

 

"Meg" is a fun novel to read. It is full of almost non-stop action with just enough science to snag the tech-heads and just enough suspense for fans of mystery and horror. Alten knows just how far to go when describing the megalodon and uses just enough technical information to keep scientifically-inclined readers flipping through the pages.

The story is pretty basic. A scientist named Jonas Taylor runs into something in the Mariana Trench that scares him. So much so, that it costs the lives of the two Naval scientists with him. From that point on he becomes wary of the deep sea, but completely addicted to the study of Carcharodon megalodon, the prehistoric cousin of the great white shark. He swares that a megalodon lives in the Mariana Trench, but cannot prove it.

Ten years after his accident, Taylor is given another chance at the Mariana Trench. This time, he is asked to help out a friend hoping to recover damaged equipment deep within the trench. Taylor agrees to help, not without reservations. From this point on, the story picks up at a nail-biting pace that makes for a great read.

The description of the Meg and her vicious attacks are so vibrant that you can easily see them in your mind. It's obvious that much time and research was put into this novel by Alten. He gives the reader a clear view of everything. Even the least seaworthy reader can get a grip on what is happening the entire time.

"Meg" is also a great book to hand to your friends who might be a little bit slow to sit down and read a novel. This book's quick pace and fast action makes it an easy book to read. Hopefully, Alten's other books are just as great.

Highly recommended, especially to those who love fast-paced adventure.

One word of caution: This book is cover-to-cover blood and horror, especially for younger readers. Also, there is a little rough language, so parents might want to approve this before letting their teen read it.

When I was reading Meg, co-workers kept asking me what it was about and I told them "It's about a big, prehistoric shark on the loose in the modern age." And they'd ask if it was good and I'd say"Sure, I'm learning alot about ocean trenches and sharks." Then they'd ask about the plot and I'd tell them that it was like reading an action movie jam packed with facts, like Hunt for Red October would have been if they'd put Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan on the sub with Sean Connery.
Meg is all about supersizing. Everything is big or state of the art. Everyone is at the top of their game, even the drunk Viet Nam Vet who pilots the helicopter and the little kid on the surf board. The subs and boats are all cutting edge or retro-fitted. There's even an uber shark tank.
Meg gets bonus points for coming up with a new way to finish off the climactic battle between Man and Beast.
In the opening notes, the author thanks Disney for their interest. Since the book's publication, Disney has held and dropped the film rights. It's too bad, because this is the Jerry Bruckheimer of shark books. If you see Michael Bay, tell him to get Nicholas Cage in to a wet suit and to get work.

If I listened to my mother who said "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," this would be a very short review. The best thing that can be said about Meg is that it has an extremely fast pace. The author does not bog down the action with unnecessary details or over-flowery prose. This is, after all, a novel of suspense, not great literature.

That being said, let me talk about what bothered me about this book. For starters, as many people have mentioned, this book reads like a script for a summer blockbuster movie. Sometimes, that's not a bad thing. But this book reads like a cliche-ridden script, devoid of original ideas.

Then there are the characters. People greatly underestimate the value of fully-developed characters. Suspense is a million times greater when you feel some sort of connection with a character - sympathy, empathy, or genuine concern. However, the characters in this book are nothing more than names with one personality. They are unbelievable, and you never care about any of them - not a single one. They could survive or be eaten by the shark, and it wouldn't make a difference.

And this is the biggest problem with the book. It lacks any sort of suspense. You kind of read in morbid fascination to find out what gets destroyed next or who gets eaten next. But you never care. What's the point?

In addition to the lack of suspense, this book requires way too much of a suspension of disbelief. I'm willing to accept fiction if there's some sort of credibility. But how can I accept the scene where they use the historic submarine The Nautilus to hunt for the Meg? It made no sense. Why use an old sub with old technology? So you don't lose a lot of money if it gets destroyed? It's like using Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis for an air battle. I couldn't accept it for a minute.

And I won't go into the ending, which has been widely criticized for its absurdity. Other reviews mention what happen, but I'll leave it a surprise for those who still want to read the book. Let's just say, it was so blazenly ridiculous that you couldn't be scared or tense for even a second.

The sad part is that Alten had a lot of potential with the science and the history of the shark. As someone who enjoys nature specials on prehistoric animals, I enjoyed reading Alten's take on the Megalodon and the possibility of its existence in the current times. If only the rest of the book wasn't so poorly conceived, I might consider recommending it.

I had never heard of this book until I read the reviews of Charles Wilson's Extinct, and I decided to try it. Jonas Taylor spends the better part of his career trying to convince the public that prehistoric megalodons could survive in the warm waters of undersea canyons. When a submersible dive goes awry, he spends the next 7 years in psychotherapy and trying to convince himself that he only imagined seeing a megalodon. But when a friend shows him a picture of what could be a megalodon tooth lodged in the old wreckage of the submersible, Jonas decides to make the dive again. What he discovers on the dive leaves him paradoxically excited that he can finally prove that he is right yet upset that he loses another friend and inadvertantly brings the female to the surface. Everyone, including the media and the U.S. Navy, gets into the act once the megalodon surfaces. The ensuing chase and capture of the megalodon is exciting and will keep you reading, constantly wanting to know who will win out, man or beast. Like any good shark book, Meg is filled with "good guys" and "bad guys", and I can't deny that I felt a certain satisfaction when the meg snacked on the cheating wife. I only wished that the lover and news reporter had met the same fate. Of course, I also never understood why Benchley's great white never got to munch on the mayor of Amity! Unlike many of the reviewers below, I remember that this is science fiction, and what does it matter how big the tooth is, how long the meg is, or how many millions of years ago it lived? It IS fiction, after all. I found the explanation of how megs could survive in the Mariana Trench and how one of them could swim to the top bathed in the warm blood of the dead meg plausible. However, even I had trouble with two points: the meg is able to leap out of the water almost its entire body length (straight up, too--to attack a helicopter) and Jonas (Jonas, not Jonah) pilots the submersible inside the shark and kills it from the inside (maybe all action heroes should conveniently carry eight-inch meg teeth around with them). Yes, I remember that the great white in Jaws 2 also jumped out of the water to attack a helicopter, and I had trouble with that 25 years ago, too. I don't think that Meg will keep readers out of the water like Jaws did (the real shark attacks on the Gulf Coast of Alabama are doing that), but it will give you something to think about. Overall, this was a great read, the excitement building and building until the dramatic climax. Like many of the reviewers below, I will read the sequel and I think Meg would probably make an exciting movie.If you are a fan of shark books, you will like Meg, but then read Extinct; it is better.

Okay, so what if this book reads like a Jaws movie? It was still good, and the plot twists made it interesting. Not only that, it was a fast-paced read that had a lot of excitement. Needless to say, I enjoyed this book more than I'd expected to.

What did I like you ask? Well to begin with, the book started off with interesting events -- and interesting people -- and continued on in that same vein. The characters didn't have a whole lot of depth, but they had enough to carry this story through to the end. The interactions between the characters made for one subplot while the prehistoric shark made for another. Both were interesting.

The descriptions of under water surroundings was good enough to make me feel as if I were there worrying about pressurizing correctly as I ascended from the dark depths. And the action was so good that a few times I found myself holding my breath as I waited to hear what would happen next.

I'll admit that one predicament that a character found himself in makes you stretch your imagination almost to the breaking point, but it was darned interesting to see how he got himself out of that situation nonetheless.

If you're looking for a literary masterpiece, this "ain't" the book for you. If you're looking for a quick rush from an entertaining read, then this is it.

I've got to go now. I've got to order the sequel.

Before reading this book, I looked through many of the reviews given here ... I must admit that after reading the negative reviews (under 2 stars) my expectations were fairly low to say the least. Despite the nay sayers warnings I felt drawn to the book so I read it anyway. I was so pleased with the book! I cannot imagine any other way to say it as simply and succinctly as this: the book was a lot of fun. For those who felt it lacked depth or character development, I can only say this: OH JUST ENJOY IT FOR WHAT IT WAS INTENDED TO BE -- A FAST, FUN, ON-THE-EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT READ. Not every book is going to be a huge literary tome. Some, like MEG, are simply rip-roaring fun to read and to miss such a novel would be a shame. So, if you're snobbish, and looking for the next Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemmingway, or Emily Bronte, move on. But, if you're looking for a memorable book that will keep you on the edge of your seat, go for this one for sure.

In the grand American tradition of "bigger is better," Steve Alten delivers unto the masses his first novel, "Meg." No longer are we afraid of mere tadpoles like the sharks in films such as "Jaws." Now we have to deal with the likes of Meg. Meg isn't the aging, benevolent hippie who lives down the street, playing Melanie records and selling macramé for a living. Alten's Meg is Charcharodon megalodon, the ancestor of the great white shark and Alten thinks we should be very afraid of its possible presence. Megs are some sixty feet long with a ferocious bite. Wouldn't want to run into one of these fellows during a jaunt to the beach, would you?

In the book, Meg is considered extinct by all those foolish marine biologists, with the exception of Dr. Jonas Taylor. Taylor, a former deep-sea diver with the Navy, is on the lecture circuit promoting his mad theories about Meg and her possible existence in the Mariana Trench. This trench is the deepest part of the ocean, a place where water temperature is warm due to hot vents on the ocean floor. This pocket of hot water, theorizes Taylor, could support a whole slew of Megs. Taylor himself thought he saw one on his last dive, resulting in a panic that killed two of his fellow divers. Taylor is the laughing stock of everyone around him, especially his wife Maggie, an egomaniacal reporter. When a fellow marine explorer loses some deep-sea probes in the trench, Taylor is wrenched out of retirement to take a dive and see what happened. Of course, the Megs exist. I'm not giving away anything by telling you that. When one escapes (a pregnant female, no less!) from its Mariana prison, all heck breaks loose in the resulting attempts to capture the beast and warehouse it in an aquatic park.

I shouldn't even need to mention that bodies fall like rain in this book. Scads of people die as Meg swallows them up whole. Meg manages to sink a nuclear submarine, capsize boats, upset a few surfers, and even bring down helicopters during its rampage. Meg isn't a picky eater. She always clears her plate: ships, surfboards, submersibles, and whales--all provide for a tasty snack to this oversized shark. Meg likes to show off too; this shark can jump out of the water at will. This makes it easier to reach the stupid humans who think they are safe on boats or in the air. You can see the danger of allowing Meg to roam our seas. She just won't play by the rules. She has to be tracked down before she upsets migratory patterns in the oceans that might result in damage to the fishing industry.

While I did enjoy the action in this book, there is a lot to be desired. For one thing, the character development is zero in this book. We know a bit about Dr. Jonas, such as his catastrophe during the Mariana dive, an incident that resulted in a raging case of claustrophobia. We also know his wife hates him, and is trying to undermine him at every turn. She even starts fooling around with his old college roommate. For the other characters, there is nothing. They are cardboard cutouts that either serve as background, or shark food. Taylor's burgeoning love interest with Terry Tanaka is a good example. Let's see, they start out hating each other, then they end up in each other's arms? Huh? All we knew about Terry up to this point is that she is an arrogant woman who wants to go on dives. Injecting love into the story doesn't make sense unless Alten is confidant this is going to go to the big screen (he is, too, since he thanks Disney at the beginning of the book). Ultimately, the book suffers for its character ignorance. I think a book like this would be effective if the characters are developed. That way, when they die, the emotional impact on the reader is greater.

I would like to criticize the science behind Alten's theories but what I know about marine biology could fit on the head of Jacques Cousteau's harpoon. It seems to make sense, and maybe that is good enough for most people. But we all know just because something makes sense doesn't mean it is accurate. However, I'm willing to overlook shoddy science for the sake of fiction... It's just too much to take.

I picked up "The Trench" at the same time I got "Meg" but I'm not sure I want to get into the sequel right away. Apparently, a third installment will soon grace libraries and bookstore shelves all across the nation. For action and a quick pace, you can't beat "Meg." If you want character development, might I suggest Tolstoy?

This is the most ambitious and flawed book I have ever read. The plot is ridicoulos and the ending more far fetched than I could have ever possibly conceived. Surely, should this be translated to film then it will be a suitable companion to Jaws - The Revenge! If you love monster stories then you may enjoy this, but for me it lacked any real depth, pardon the pun. The charactertisation is practicaly non-existant, pretty much like the fish itself. This is on a plain with the vampire flick 'Fright Night' in that the character names - Peter Vincent - Jonas Taylor, being reminiscent of Jonah and the Whale and perhap Jon/Valerie Taylor , et al? One final point: Ok, when they die,sharks don't float but whales do: Testiment to how unplausible the author's theory really is. Afterall thats a HUGE bite radius! - But let's not spoil the fun.

I will keep it short and simple. This is the worst book I have ever read. Terrible dialogue, one dimensional characters, and the stupidest climax ever to grace paper. A waste of good trees.

since when did steve alten learn how to write? this book is not only boring but also unrealistic in a sense that the hero went inside the shark's belly and killed it inside - get real. not to mention there's no thrill, no surprises, no suspense. the ending is as less thrilling as the beginning and plot.