The Trench

Rating:
Summary: Jaws meets James Bond!
Review: I have to admit, when I first picked up 'Meg' I felt it was actually entertaining (its inaccuracies notwithstanding) but I also felt the ending was a bit contrived...which is why I did NOT purchase 'The Trench' when it came out in hardback, but instead waited for the paperback version. It is obvious to see that Mr. Alten has improved greatly upon his original premise of prehistoric incredibly large sharks terrorizing the Pacific Coast...but he has added a totally new dimension when he added

the intrigue with the Russian connection. Did this distract from the storyline? I don't think so...it DID however make me wonder exactly WHERE the plot was going at times, but don't worry, it DOES get there.

Alten also adds a new twist with a new lifeform that is discovered in the Trench, maybe not as big as the Meg, but one that could be the basis for his next novel (I couldn't help but wonder if he was setting up his next undersea adventure when these creatures made their debut). In short, 'The Trench' improves in almost every way upon 'Meg' (which really wasn't all that bad to begin with--just a little overly dramatic) and I could sense maybe a 3rd 'Meg' book in the closing portions, but I could be wrong. The bad guys are really bad, the good guys are almost too impossibly good to be true, and the action sequences move at incredible speed--BIG TIME. I have to say I enjoyed this book very much, even though I KNEW the bad guys would lose and the good guys would win. I can see the day where I'd gamble on a 3rd installment from the world of the prehistoric shark--should Mr. Alten get around to writing one, or whatever else he dreams of, I am definitely game for another action/adventure from him...and I think this time I just might go for the hardback edition instead of waiting...

Rating:
Summary: THe MEGA GREAT WHITE
Review: I thought this book was totally amazing It is the megalosequel to MEG and I think that this book is better than meg The shark in MEG was 60 feet long and the shark in the Trench is 72 feet long I liked it when the gigantic shark attacked whales and when it grabbed that helicopter and alomst brought it down. It was really amazing when Angel attacked the KRONOSAURUS that was about to devour JONAS AND TERRY. I would give this book 10 stars. I think that the megalodon is totally unstoppable I have read about giant megalodons bigger than Angel that have might made strange appearances in remote places of the oceans. but even a 72 foot long shark is powerful enough to rule the oceans the sharks I read about were of course more powerful and more terrifying than angel. AnYWAYS i think that The TRENCh and MEg, and Extinct are just totally awesome there is no creature that is going to challenge a MEGALODON.

Rating:
Summary: Just what DO I really expect anyway?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: What a Great Movie it will Make....
Review: Well, I emailed Alten 2 years ago commenting on how much I liked the book... And he sent me a promotional poster via email, showing what the "movie poster" would look like. Some names in it were Mel Gibson or Kurt Russel, Anthony Hopkins and Tia Carerra. I am a huge movie buff, and my dream is to direct a movie like this... Big budget, thriller, predator, and NON FICTION that has come to be called SCIENCE FICTION. I dont believe this book was sci fi at all.... just like Jurassic Park. A mission to the moon 500 yrs ago was Sci fi.... I love, as many do, where science collides with technology and nature. You will be hearing from me Alten... Hollywood is my calling, and your book makes for a GREAT plot. Another thing. The surprises in it alone make for ENTHUSIASTIC audiences. And, this is no spoiler, but killing the shark in a different way than the Jaws movies and Deep Blue sea..... was incredible.... even though a little weird. I promise to do the book justice.

Rating:
Summary: Good read, a little rushed sometimes
Review: I liked the book. I thought some parts were rushed and could have been more exciting. Besides that, it had a good plot, an exciting climax, and some real graphic killings. Alten's book is different from Charles Wilson's "Extinct". Wilson doesn't really go into the gore detail like Alten when the attacks occur. I liked Alten's creature because it was so aggresive and voracious and had one hell of an appetite. The book had a lot of profanity and gore, so if you are faint at heart or stomach, don't read it. If you like underwater thrillers, go for it.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first!!!!
Review: I just got this the other day & couldn't wait to to read it(I waited a year for it to come out in paperback.Oh the agony!!)Anyways this sequel was even better than the first book,which I thought couldn't happen.Steve Alten is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.I can't wait for his next book to come out.

Rating:
Summary: THE worst thriller I've ever read
Review: Horrendous. I threw it away, so I can't sample the actual dialogue for you, but it sounds like it was written by a 13-year-old boy with a predilection for science-fiction and the martial arts. I'll approximate: "His name is Jonathan", Maysuhiro said, with wisdom shining from behind his old but still powerful eyes. "He is skilled in the arts of war, but prefers to impress with quotations in latin and french. He is not to be trusted, and may reveal dark recesses of psychosis when threatened.", blah blah blah, I'm not kidding. I can't begin to approximate the abysmal (ha!) nature of this book. Slightly better on science stuff, but, ultimately, utterly unbelievable, very very annoying - the bottom of the barrel. This is the Star Wars Episode One of the literary world.

Rating:
Summary: monster shark runs amok
Review: i found this to be a wonderful follow up to his first novel, meg, but in some ways not quite a exciting.the author is very adept at making you understand the characters and what makes them tick, even the evil celeste, the only exception being the main human protagonist who seems to have been plucked from the pages of a james bond novel.(not that there is anything wrong with that- it's just that the character was very one dimensional when all the other characters were more than that) and the book adds new elements to awonderful and challenging idea of how these creatures could still be alive along with a few surprise denizens of the deep.for the most part i found this to be a book that i couldn't put down and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good monster runs amok fest.it's very compelling and in some cases makes you feel in awe of what our world would actually be like and how helpless we actually are in the face of nature a it's best (or worst as some might see it) and how we would no longer be at the pinnacle of thefood chain.

Rating:
Summary: An excellenty thought out sequel
Review: After writing the most expensive B-movie never made I wondered how Steve Alten could work a sequel out of his set-up ending from Meg. Quite well as it turns out.

The narrative picks up four years later, with the baby Meg named Angel now overgrown and itching to escape as two nefarious scumbags have managed to wrest control of the Tanaka Institute from Maseo Tanaka and Jonas Taylor.

Soon enough the shark does escape and Terry has become a prisoner of the book's real villian (Benedict Singer, an excellent piece of work cut from the James Bond supervillian cloth) in the deepest part of the Marianas Trench, where some other nasty monsters are lurking.

The Trench will have you on the edge of your seat until the exciting conclusion. Highly recommended for monster buffs. Steve Alten sure knows how to write them.

Rating:
Summary: Better than Meg, but.....
Review: Maybe two and a half stars. This book was an improvement on "Meg." The writing style is a bit better, and the plot was more complex. However, "Meg" was so badly written that this isn't saying much.

Now that he's figured out how to plot, maybe Alten should work on character development. Clearly, we were supposed to care deeply about what happens to Jonas and Terry. I didn't care one bit. And these are holdover characters from the first book! He did his best development with the bad guys. And we all know what happens to the bad guys in Alten's books.

The bits about the sharks and other sea creatures were interesting, and will most likely induce me to read another installment. I have to admit, I'll be taking it out of the library. There's just not enough here to make me want to purchase even a paperback copy.