Meg

Rating:
Summary: Awesome WORK Alten, Awesome
Review: I can not wait for meg to come to the theaters. It's been a while since a good shark movie. I've read the book and the sequal, what can I say I love Steve Altens giant monster work. Take it from me a HUGE Scifi fan Shark attack 3 will show no comparrison to this movie, NOT AT ALL. The movie sa3 was TERRIBLE I've seen alot of the bad never made it to theaters creature features and I can't even begin to imagine meg to be one of those. Trust me you'll get big hits on this movie all my friends have read the book and loved it and I know everyone will love the live action more. Python, Boa, sa3,and all those other giant creature movies will never compare with Steve Alten's books I still have not got a chance to read behemoth or what ever it is but I pray it is as good as the Meg series. One last time EXCELLENT work, Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting thought but no plot and no characters
Review: The book started off ok. A prehistoric shark could still be alive at the bottom of a trench. From that point forward the story just fell apart. The plot was one dimensional and no time or effort was spent on developing the characters.

The story put itself in situations of suspense but none of them were believeable. After awhile you just stop believing any of it and you just want it to be over.

The back cover says this book is for fans of Cussler and Crighton. Well I like both of those authors and this book captures only the worst of those 2.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun and non-stop action
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: WHY IS THERE NO FOOTBALL?
Review: Well, to start off this book in actuality deserved a half of a star. But unfortunately I could only enter one star. Now, I like football, but the author of this book portrayed no knowledge of football whatsoever. Not even soccer. I looked at the cover thinking it would be about the Miami Dolphins and their glorious romp to the Super Bowl. I was wrong. As I read the first few chapters I found that the word "shark" kept appearing on the pages. I started to wonder when the book would start to go off about football. I was not sure if the "shark" in this book had something to do with the Miami Dolphins. After all, sharks and dolphins both live in the sea. I really like chairs and this book only mentioned these wooden wonders only but a few times. Sadly, there was no mention of flubber(which by the way, is my favorite movie). I thought the main character in this book was Robin Williams, after all, he is one of the greatest football coaches ever lived, next to Denny Green. I was crestfallen once I turned the last page of the book because it did not mention football once. I had just read about 300 pages all for nothing. All I wanted was football. Now I have ongoing nightmares about sharks. Steve Alten should be publically flogged for this unjustice against humanity, and also should be tried in a judicial court for public indecency and treason for no less than 30 years in a maximum security prison. :-(

Rating:
Summary: Meg swallows Jaws whole
Review: If you liked Jaws and thrilled at Extinct, Meg is a book for you. The prehistoric ancestor to the great white shark, the carcharodon megalodon, is back and hungry.

Volcanic vents keep the deepest parts of the great ocean trenches warm enough to support life. Millions of yeas ago, the giant sharks retreated to these areas and survive there today.

A deep sea exploration mission accidently allows one of these massive sharks to pass through the colder regions and return to surface waters.

Our hero, who led the expedition is now bent on stopping the shark and capturing it. But how does one capture a hungry killing machine that is more than 60 feet long? The answer is this book.

Action and suspense combine to give the reader a fast-paced adventure with a truly awesome force of nature clashing against modern man. The book ends in a satisfying manner without an obvious plug for a sequel (although one exists in The Trench). Good book, great read.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Dumb/Smart book. No, Really.
Review: 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 get work.

Rating:
Summary: Meg
Review: I think both Meg and Trench are fantastic books, myself I have been studying carcharodon megalodon for years and these books are great things to give somebody that has no clue about meg. Along with my studies I have become somewhat a Meg Fan and I would love to see this book along with Trench take to the silver screen.I also would like to thank Steve Alten for writing such great books.

Rating:
Summary: MEG: Majestic, Exciting, Gripping
Review: MEG is a fiction novel. You have to go into the book realizing this. Prior to writing this review, I read previous reviews and was disappointed with the critizisms that were made. The novel is about MEG, not Jonas, not Terry, not Mac,etc... It is about a 60 foot megaladon that was pulled from the Mariana Trench and into human inhabited waters. It is about the havoc that this creature caused among people who never really believed it to exist. It is the reality that we don't know everything that we could about the sea. Why read fiction if you want absolute accuracy? The 2 don't mix. I also must disagree with others' critizisms on character developement. The joy of reading is knowing the jist of the characters/personalities/history and developing the rest with your IMAGINATION.
MEG is all it should be; entertaining, overwhelming (in a positive way), and extremely suspenseful. For shark lovers (such as myself,) this book, as well as THE TRENCH (which I am almost done at this point) gives personality as well as realism to the creatures that fascinate so many. It is fast paced, well written, suspenseful, and I ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND ITS READING FOR ANYONE; SHARK LOVERS ESPECIALLY.

Rating:
Summary: Meg: A Novel of Deep Disappointment
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT book!!
Review: I first had to read this book for school and I wasn't going to read it and then I started and the book was great and very interesting. I always wanted to find out what happened next and read the next chapter. The author is coming to our class and and going to talk to us about the book.