Review - The Meg: From the Deep by Steve Alten

Well, I was entertained. I read it within two days as I couldn't put the damned thing down. Is it far-fetched? Yes. Is it plausible? Hmm, not sure, but I'm not a marine biologist so who knows? Are there misogynist views and unsavoury characters? Yes, but they die, so that's okay.

To be honest, I didn't read this book to be educated. I wanted to be entertained, and I was. It was fun. I loved the film, but it didn't come close to the amount of splattery sharky shenanigans in the book.

This isn't one to read if you are in anyway snobbish about logic. Some readers have said it isn't a good book. I disagree. I thought it was well-written even though the characters could be accused of being two dimensional. There was a lot of pseudo-science, perhaps too much in places, as Jonas (sic) goes through his "we're dealing with the world's top predator," speech more than once. (And no, I didn't miss that joke near the end, when our hero may or may not end up in the belly of the beast.)

And there are numerous references to Jonas's stay in a "looney bin," with only one character correcting that offensive language. The phrase "mental health issues," didn't raise its head at all, surprising in a book published in 2017, to be honest. There seemed to be a crashing lack of respect for people with PTSD even in the 21st century.

That aside, this is a full-on adrenaline rush, massive fun, and a perfect read on a hot summer's day. Just don't go into the water afterwards.

BLURB

On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he's sure he saw but still can't prove exists--Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds.

Written off as a crackpot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Taylor refuses to forget the depths that nearly cost him his life. With a Ph.D. in paleontology under his belt, Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back into a high-tech miniature sub. Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he's never imagined, and what he finds could turn the tides bloody red until the end of time.