Steve Alten

Advantages: Excellent and exciting story
Disadvantages: Scottish dialogue

...SYNOPSIS: I became aware of this book after reading the three books in the 'Meg' series (soon to be a film apparently). I liked the way Steve Alten mixed action with human emotional events and also some of the snappy dialogue between the characters and so bought this book from Amazon. The story is told mainly in the first person (strange for Alten) from the point of view of Zach Wallace. Zach is a marine biologist, originally from a small Scottish village, but then from America when his partents split when he was nine. Zach is young and top of his field, however an accident awakens darkened fears in him of when he almost drowned during a boating accident as a child on Loch Ness. Faced with this new fear and mounting other personal problems he's at a low eb when he receives news that his estranged father is on trial for murder... Read review

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Advantages: excellent story
Disadvantages: disappointing ending

...of his game. Jonas is the hero of the story, although at the start of the novel he is anything but heroic. His life is in a shambles because of the accident, he has since devoted his life to investigating this creature which may not exist, his wife, an up and coming tv star, is having an affair with one of his friends and generally his reputation is all but gone. He is given a chance to face his fears when a company wants him to return to the Mariana Trench for some repair work and the chance to set the ghosts to rest once and for all. He agrees although this proves to be a bad idea as his long scoffed at theories prove to be true. Through a quirk of fate one of the Mega-sharks makes it's way to the surface and soon the rampage is on! Steve Alten writes convincingly and with passion and this is far more than a simple Jaws rip off. Steve... Read review

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Advantages: Screaming for a film version,Great characters
Disadvantages: Dodgy ending,a little of scientific in patches

...to give anything more away, as the book has lots of little surprises in store. Steve Alten has managed to give us characters we begin to care about, in situations that are almost believable & scream to be turned into a film. The unfortunate thing about this book, however, is that the finale becomes unbelievable in the extreme, taking much away from the superb work beforehand. I don't want this to put people off, as for the most part it is a very enjoyable read, but it wouldn't be a review if you weren't honest about both good & bad points, would it? I think I should wrap this review up before I start to ramble, so let me conclude by saying that, while I am not a huge fan of the ending (a film version would HAVE to change it!) I enjoyed Meg, and the sequel-The Trench-greatly, have read them loads of times, and would heartily recommend them... Read review

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