The Trench (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: hydrothermal ceiling, hydrothermal layer, observation pod, Steve Alton, Mariana Trench, William Beebe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

So how bad is this spawn of Meg, which Doubleday declined to publish (albeit perhaps in an earlier version)? About as badAand as goodAas its predecessor. Alten can still write a mean giant prehistoric shark scene, but he flails like a fish out of water at nearly everything else (of his #1 human villain, psycho billionaire Benedict Singer, he writes, "Benedict stood before the window, his arms outspread, emerald eyes blazing as he reveled in his glory"). It's four years after the bloody doings of Meg, and Angel, the daughter of the Carcharadon megalodon of that novel, is now terrifying tourists at a Monterey aquarium. She escapes, however, and starts eating themAmunching on yacht-goers, a kayaker, a submarinerAand swallows other animals, including a media-darling whale named Tootie, before she returns to her home in the Pacific's Mariana Trench. The novel isn't all d?j?-vu shark action, though, since Alten bifurcates the narrative. While paleobiologist Jonas Taylor, who killed Meg, pursues Angel across the seas, his wife, Terry, suffers misadventures galore in the Trench as she tries to uncover exactly what that billionaire (who's in partnership with her father, who owns Angel), is up to 35,000 feet down: nasty work involving nuclear fusion supplies for terrorists, it turns out. Alten's evocation of the Trench and its dangers (including more prehistoric beasts), and of the machineryAsubs, minisubs and a giant underwater stationAthat would challenge them, is evocative and backed by rigorous scientific detail. His human vs. human conflict is screechingly melodramatic and his dialogue littered with exclamation points, but when Angel rolls back her eyes and opens her jaws for the kill, readers will remember with a thrill why they picked up this novel in the first place. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The Meg (Carcharodon megalodon, a really, really big shark) is back in this sequel to Meg (LJ 5/1/97), which picks up right where Alten's last killer thriller left off (in the second chapter there's even a two-page synopsis recapping the previous action and plot to bring new readers up to speed). Angel, the female offspring of the Meg killed last time around, is being held in captivity and displayed by hero Jonas Taylor and aquarium-owner Masao Tanaka. But Angel is huge and deadly; when she escapes from the aquarium, the predictable rock 'em-sock 'em mayhem ensues. So Jonas must face death and his own fears once again and return to the Marianas Trench in another attempt to rid the world of this prehistoric menace. Nearly a carbon-copy of Meg, this action-packed technothriller reads like a movie script and won't provoke many thoughts but will satisfy fans of Meg and Peter Benchley. Recommended for most fiction collections.ARebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786011149
• ISBN-13: 978-0786011148
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (244 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #124,760 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Meg is back and bigger than ever, April 24, 2003

By	Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The giant prehistoric shark, star of Meg, is back.

Meg has been living in a water park as a tourist attraction. People pay to see the incredible shark (especially at feeding time). The lower pressures of the surface and regular feedings have allowed the shark to grow to more than 80 feet in length. It is now the greatest living killer in the water.

Well, guess what? Yup, the shark manages to escape and the hunt is on once again as Jonas Taylor must face the giant one more time.

But this is not just a repeat of the previous book. No, the meg wants to return to the trench it considered home. But there is more in the trench than we knew. A massive research station has traveled to the bottom for purposes to be revealed. There are also other nasty denizens from prehistory that have retreated to the trench bottom.

While the first book was an excellent action adventure, this on adds to that and becomes a techno thriller as the goings on at the trench bottom are revealed to the reader.

More, fun, more action and more giant shark. Another great read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars entertaining but not a masterpiece, June 27, 2000

By	jclay (charlotte, north carolina) - See all my reviews

The Trench was pretty good. The plot tended to get a little elementary with twists that one could see from a mile away. The ending was a little hokey with all the fighting in 36000 feet of water. I know the book was a work of fiction but it was also supposed to have an underlying truth to it as well. As opposed to the first book, Meg, I personally thought that this book was written better and was more entertaining. I won't reveal the ending to the people who havent read the book yet, but I was more pleased with the ending in The Trench than with Meg.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just what DO I really expect anyway?, October 30, 2000

By	"azzo" (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

Ah. A good question. The problem, you see, is that I am battling a life-long obsession with marine creatures with specific concentrations on the great white shark and giant squid. So I, admittedly, rather stupidly, plunk down my ten dollars anytime I see large teeth or tentacles on the cover of anything. This cannot be a good thing.

I have read JAWS. I have read BEAST. I have even partaken of EXTINCT. I am an idiot.

Now, just when I thought it couldn't possibly get any worse in the prose waters, Steven Alten trudges along with MEG and THE TRENCH. My question to you, dear reader, is, when will I learn?

They are, quite possibly, (and please feel free to include all of the above-listed oceanic masterpieces on this list), the worst things I've ever read.

Oh, ho! What didn't I like about them? Why that's like reflecting light into a mirror. I bounce it right back to you. The real question is, is there anything I did like about them?

Well for pure comedic purposes:

I love how news of a marauding, 70 foot prehistoric killing machine, doesn't reach the country of Canada, presumably because we have not the technology to listen to news reports, even though it's, quite celarly, a path the beast is following.

I love when semi-annoying children are gobbled in front of their apathetic sister's eyes. Explain that one to dad, honey.

I love how the creature would have to use it's baby front teeth to nibble the head off of the poor upside-down underwater-photographing kayaker, so as not to create a wake and play a pretty mean-spirited joke on her husband when he flips her over.

I love the speed of the submersibles, and their miraculous ability to withstand quick-changing oceanic pressures and hard hitting sea monsters.

I love how the shark is unhappy wth his kayaker-meal, and reaks havac on a nearby coastal restaurant , (staffed by the world's most obnoxious french waiter), stilted in waters that could not possibly be deep enough to actually swim in.

I love the sadistic latin/philosophy-spewing villain, his equally sadistic lover, and their meditations on the trials of life. I learned quite a bit from these moments about myself, my friends and my loved-ones. And the villain's dumb-as-nails Russian henchman. Him, I love too.

I love that the deep-trench sea creatures have a good sense of ironic and comedic timing when they decide to attack their victims straying to far to the subersibles opening.

I love how the esteemed Dr. Taylor sets the record for shark-attack victims, (four, I believe) in one week and recovers a day or two later. I believe in Mr. Alten's universe, a shark attack is very much like a bee-sting if you are the hero of a novel: pull a tooth out and lie down for a few hours. If you're a mischievous teenage, however, or evil scientist, you're mulch.

Of course there is more. There is more on every single darn page. That's the problem. So there it is. I hate it. Kill me, if you will.

On the other hand, it is also perhaps the funniest thing I've ever read. So read it. Please. I greatly look forward to either Mr. Benchley or Mr. Alten's take on sea-horses or jelly fish. I believe they should, respectively, be called SEA HORSE and JELLY FISH.