MEG: Primal Waters (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The engine powered off and I knew I was in trouble..." (more)
Key Phrases: eastern seawall, canal doors, super yacht, Jonas Taylor, Mariana Trench, Coast Guard (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The giant prehistoric shark, carcharadon Megalodon, that put Alten on bestseller lists with his debut novel, Meg (1997), and its follow-up, The Trench, returns in a messy, exuberant, potboiling action thriller. It's 18 years since Angel, spawn of the "meg" in Meg, chomped her way through many humans (as well as through most critics' sensibilities); her nemesis, Jonas Taylor, is now 63—and in financial trouble. For money and perhaps a retaste of youth, Jonas agrees to star in a top-rated reality series, Daredevils, unaware that a meg-lover who's envious of Jonas's fame plans to feed Jonas to a meg lured to the middle of the ocean. Meanwhile, Angel returns to her California hunting grounds and another meg creates havoc on the coast of Washington State. The narrative runs in overdrive from start to finish, as Alten munches on the reality show phenomenon, ocean ecology and family issues (tensions among Jonas, his kids and his wife), but all those are merely the fibers connecting the novel's powerful muscle: the shark attack scenes, which are numerous and exciting and, toward the end, intercut as frantically as an MTV video. This title probably won't sell as well as Alten's first two Meg novels, but the novelty of an aging action hero adds general interest, and the author's many devoted fans should devour it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This latest novel in Alten's MEG adventure-thriller series concerns a 57-foot, 64,000-pound prehistoric shark loose in the South Pacific. The "most fearsome creature in the sea," the Megalodon shark has ruled the planet's oceans for millions of years, surviving the cataclysms that wiped out the dinosaurs and adapting to climate changes that devastated other prehistoric marine species. Alten begins with an informative description of the Pacific Ocean and its inhabitants, the Monterey Bay off California, and the islands of New Guinea and its surrounding waters. He also offers a brief history of the Ice Age, setting the tone for the fictional narrative that follows. Now enter Jonas Taylor, who joins the crew in filming a TV survival series called Daredevils aboard a replica of a Spanish galleon. Taylor eventually comes face to face with this monster--which, of course, comes as no surprise to readers. Who wins this violent struggle probably won't come as a surprise either, but Alten's imaginative tale will keep readers turning the pages to make certain their guess, intuition, or "readerly" instinct is correct. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (July 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765308908
• ISBN-13: 978-0765308900
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #473,166 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Preparing to get a lot of "unhelpful votes" with this one..., April 11, 2005

By	Terry Mesnard (Bellevue, NE) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I must be one of the only people who was not as impressed with this novel as the previous two. I couldn't get into it from the very beginning with the Daredevils wanting to take Jonas on their voyage. The whole thing became a story by numbers with people dying in obligatory ways.

Meg was very interesting and fun and the Trench was absolutely fantastic in my opinion because it raised the stakes of the first book and introduced much more tension and, most importantly, it rounded out the characters and had a tight plot. But, because I didn't believe the story for once in this book the tension and horror was gone for me. It just seemed to be like one of those "paint by numbers." I bought this book as soon as it came out because I enjoyed the first one and loved the second. I'm sad to say I was sorely disappointed in this one. It's a shame because no one writes about the Meg shark the same way that Steve Alten does.

I knew Reality TV's influence stretched far...but when it pops up in a book, I know things are going to Hell. In my opinion stick with the first two, vastly superior novels and don't read this one. Oh, and catch the Meg movie that is finally being made because it will be exciting.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fresh exciting prehistoric Jaws vs. humans thriller, June 30, 2004

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Now in his sixties, married to Terry and living in Tampa with her and their two teens, Jonas Taylor feels old and tired as financial sharks surround him demanding payments of past due bills. Jonas nostalgically thinks back to his glory days when he was in his mid forties and captured Angel the prehistoric Megalodon shark that terrorized the Mariana Trench. However, that was the highlight film of his life; now he owes a ton of money and has to deal with a recalcitrant female teen.

When the top-rated reality TV show Daredevils offers Jonas a chance to provide expert commentary on a contest in the South Pacific, he leaps at the opportunity. Taking his daughter with him, Jonas joins the TV show.

Meanwhile Terry investigates whale beachings off Vancouver Island. Neither of the spouses is aware that they have entered the latest feeding zone of "Megs" and will soon be battling for their lives as they did before (see MEG and THE TRENCH).

The third exciting Prehistoric Jaws vs. humans thriller is fast-paced especially Megs who steal the show once again. Steve Alten refreshes his series through Jonas is aging not so gracefully as he wonders how two decades have almost past since he had his fifteen minutes of fame and now has a chance to recapture somewhat his glorious past. Much of the action is similar to the previous novels with the shark feeding, man vs. man disputing, and shark vs. hero/heroine scenes, but the aging cast makes it seem new leading to a swimmingly fine time for the Megsters.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!!, July 1, 2004

By	Joshua L. Bunkofske (Garner, IA USA) - See all my reviews

Steve Alten has once again written a white-knuckle page turner, from the first page to the last, I could not put it down. Alten really delivers with Primal Waters and doesn't skimp on the details of locations, action, or gory deaths. The most outstanding thing of all about Primal Waters, and Alten's other work, is that he gets his fans involved with what he's doing...that's something that isn't too common. If you are a fan of MEG and THE TRENCH you will not be able to put PRIMAL WATERS down.