The majority of these were included free with an audible subscription last year. I had seen the first Meg movie, and I am a huge fan of sharks, so I grabbed these up and decided to give them a listen. I remember countless hours spent just absorbing everything I could during the annual Shark Week, as well as our yearly family vacation where we’d all huddle around the little box TV to watch Jaws the first night there. I first gave an honorable mention for the series in my top reads of 2023, if you’d like to check that out here.
The series chronological order and titles are: Meg: Origins, Meg, Meg, Angel of Death: Survival, The Trench, Meg: Primal Waters, Meg: Hell’s Aquarium, Meg: Nightstalkers, Meg: Generations.
The MEG series starts out with a scientific heavy pull to its sci-fi, in an almost-possible sort of way. The series pretty much goes absolutely insane after book 2 (and entirely off the rails in book 5), where the antics of the main characters, and the megalodons, just get unbelievably insane. While not without its issues, including some rather obvious misogyny from the author (something that nearly pushed me to the brink of stopping several times, and is prevalent in my reviews, coming to a pinnacle in the sixth book–I’ll share that review below), the one thing that is for sure is that the writing knocks the fast-paced ocean horror creature-feature out of the water. The author just writes like every male ever born is stuck in the mind of a teenager that just found out that boobs are cool. The way he writes women is severely lacking due to it as well. If you can possibly get past that, there is fun to be had here. In case you’ve never heard of these, I’ll include the synopsis for the first book below.
Synopsis
Seven years ago and seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, Dr. Jonas Taylor encountered something that changed the course of his life. Once a Navy deep-sea submersible pilot, now a marine paleontologist, Taylor is convinced that a remnant population of Carcharodon megalodon—prehistoric sharks growing up to 70 feet long, that subsisted on whales—lurks at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Offered the opportunity to return to those crushing depths in search of the Megs, Taylor leaps at the chance…but his quest for scientific knowledge (and personal vindication) becomes a desperate fight for survival, when the most vicious predator the earth has ever known is freed to once again hunt the surface.
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The author writes in third person, but still has these incredibly intense and descriptive scientific informational dumps that are not dialogue for some reason? Especially in the first one, it makes the story premise sound almost real, but it truly never stops throughout, and he is very repetitive in his information. I want to stress that I think these are fun, the enjoyment comes from suspending your disbelief…although I loved pointing it out in every review. For instance, while there are scientists that believe the megalodon could have grown up to the 80ft limit, the known fossils currently suggest 30-55ft being most likely the general norm…IE they grow as they age, but most likely tapped out the closer to 60ft they got. For some reason, the author starts them at 70ft in the series, almost pushing the limits, and then as he tries to up the ante as the series goes along, they continue to get bigger and bigger…further into disbelief. He does spend some time trying to explain why, with fake science that could possibly sound real if you didn’t know any better. It’s as if he didn’t think a 55ft shark with a bite big enough to swallow a human whole, or strong enough to destroy any boat, would be scary enough…
My favorite bit of unscientific information is the MEG cover with the tyrannosaurus pictured above. Important side note would be that this also somehow made its way into the second movie! The author writes this prehistoric prequel-like opener where he is trying to show off that the meg was the REAL apex predator…the Megalodon and the T-rex did not even exist within the same era. Just absolutely insane. But you know…suspend your disbelief and let it rock.
Although I have to understand that this series started in the 90s and I read them in 2023 (meaning new discoveries were made), the author continuously refers to them as prehistoric gigantic great whites. That is simply not sure, and not only that, they are no longer classified in the Carcharodon family–not considered at all related to the great white family. They were reclassified under Otodus Megalodon, which is a type of mackerel shark. I’m not saying that thirty years later the author should entirely change his book series, but I do find it weird that the movies definitely look like great whites.
A last take away from the synopsis for the first book, is that the author later wrote and released the prequel story of what happened when Jonas first encountered one in the trench. He did it justice, but kind of botched some of the details he had already written into the other book. There’s just tons of silly misses like that, and apparently the author is known to change things in between editions…
I really didn’t intend to write this up just to smack talk it, so I’ll share my actual review of book 6 and then talk some positives.
Possible spoilers ahead, here’s your warning! They’re slight if any, but you’ve been warned.
Synopsis
In MEG: Generations, Steve Alten New York Times bestselling author continues his terrifying series.
MEG: GENERATIONS opens where MEG: NIGHTSTALKERS left off. The Liopleurodon offspring has been moved to a holding tank aboard the Dubai-Land transport ship, Tonga for its journey to the Middle East. While the Crown Prince’s investors gawk at the creature, below deck in the tanker’s hold, another captured beast is awakened from its drug-induced state and goes on a rampage. The vessel sinks, the Lio escapes
Review
Gave this a go when I saw that all except for 2 are currently included with audible. Just in time to head into October spooky reads, and I love some scifi shark horror. Each one’s been a little less science and a bit more fiction, but parts have remained fun.
Let me just say, this dude waited SIX full length novels using the identical formula, to then hit us with a CLIFFHANGER? I’m maddddd. I had read that this was supposed to be the last one, and maybe it had just gotten too long and he had to split it, or maybe he just likes torture. Especially because he apparently hasn’t even started to write the 7th entry, and this one released in 2018…
This one reined in the story a bit, a lot of my complaints about the last one going off the rails were missing from this plot thankfully. It’s still virtually the same story for 6 books in a row, but it’s action packed with an addictive pace. There is something about the way he writes to lends itself to an enjoyable creature feature.
On a serious note, if the objectification and sexualization of every single female character wasn’t enough, the stuff the author puts Terry Taylor through has got to be pretty on the nose about how he feels about women as a whole. She nearly dies over and over, giving Jonas the opportunity to be the hero. She gets an extreme anxiety disorder, more than likely PTSD too. Then she gets Parkinson’s. This one it’s cancer then a coma. Prime example being that Terry is the main reason that Jonas agrees to the mission in this one, and Terry doesn’t even get a mention in the blurb.
If you can get past that, these are still a lot of fun. Definitely my favorite cover. Meg is not the main character anymore sadly though.
As I already kind of said above, the author does get how to write a fast paced ocean-horror creature feature. If those are of interest to you, these definitely have got that going for them. They are bloody, edge-of-you-seat thrilling, and even claustrophobic at many points in each novel. The author brings in various prehistoric marine animals to keep you guessing, and they get crazier and crazier.
I read all six and the prequel, only saving Meg, Angel of Death: Survival (book “1.1”) for a rainy day (mostly as this was the second one that was not included for free). Especially when Meg: Purgatory is announced, but last I read, he hasn’t even started writing it yet.
I feel like 90% of this was me talking smack, but for what I have read I actually gave the series a 7.15/10 overall! I’d suggest that.
Of course, I am going to take the chance to talk about the adaptations. The first movie, which I saw in theaters years before reading the series, was an enjoyable mess of a shark horror. It made little sense and focused on big CGI sequences, but I could respect that enough to watch it for what it was. My favorite part was them changing Jonas Taylor from a marine paleontologist to just the dive expert, as it was pretty obvious we would never believe Jason Statham was a scientist. “It’s a megalodon” in his self assured, matter-of-fact accent is still my favorite line in any recent movie.
The second movie, goes completely off the deep end. I’ll include my very succinct movie review, with it’s 1/2 star rating below. It’s as if they didn’t know it was based on a book. Not only that, but they stole plot lines from future books, and worse, just made shit up. Jason Statham swings across the bottom of the Mariana Trench! NO SUIT, NO OXYGEN…what pressure? they said. Oh wow it’s bad. And the screenplay writers continued the legacy of mistreating female characters. In this one, Terry doesn’t even just suffer, she had an off-screen death!
I wouldn’t be surprised if this did not sell these for anyone, and for that, I am sorry.
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