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vicarrojo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mdunnbass's review against another edition
2.0
How does this man continue to sell best-sellers? The character development is like getting hit with a frying pan to the face! That said, I kept turning the pages, even as I was griping every step of the way. Not as good as his MEG series, but an enjoyable waste of time.
five_pennies's review against another edition
Very interesting story... engaging and a good page turner!
hippie13's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
mb_books's review against another edition
5.0
Este autor, me parece un maestro en la escritura.
La información que reúne para escribir sus libros, me encanta, requiere mucha investigación de fondo y te mantiene en vilo del suspenso.
El final fue lo máximo, es excelente.
Una vez que lo leí, supe que sería un autor del que leería todo lo que publicara.
5 estrellas bien merecidas.
La información que reúne para escribir sus libros, me encanta, requiere mucha investigación de fondo y te mantiene en vilo del suspenso.
El final fue lo máximo, es excelente.
Una vez que lo leí, supe que sería un autor del que leería todo lo que publicara.
5 estrellas bien merecidas.
tpaulschulte's review against another edition
4.0
Extremely cinematic and gives Clancy a run for his money!
trevert's review against another edition
2.0
Welll... Not great.
Normally I really enjoy Alten's stuff and appreciate the B-movie cheeseball lunacy of his giant shark books, but this one was a struggle. He seemed to be going more for a Tom Clancy feel here, with long detailed technical descriptions of the various subs and military hardware that fill the story, but his forté is definitely in giant sea monster attacks, not complex political tech thrillers. In a nutshell, this just turned into an extended drag, IMO at least.
The US Navy has created the "next step" in global sea power, which is somehow a gigantic robotic manta ray with glowing eyes and an AI brain that's a nanosecond from going SkyNet. This seems as likely as the Pentagon financing the creation of MechaGodzilla for homeland defense, but just go with it. The thing has been hijacked by terrorists, which brings in Standard Steve Alten Hero, a disgraced hyper-capable expert whose life hangs under the shadow of some past mistake, plus Standard Steve Alten Heroine, a bitchy, borderline lunatic ex whose emotional overreactions and histrionics could power New Zealand. These two somehow get on board the hijacked sub and then things...well, grind to a plod.
Look, I loved the Meg books - Hell, I just finished Hell's Aquarium and it was a blast - so I hope I don't come off like the standard snotty elitist reviewer types who auto-hate anything anything that even vaguely smacks of "genre" or "fun". This was, however, a sea monster of a different color, and the focus on the politics and the political machinations and the gradual progress of the hero, it all just combined to suck all the momentum out of the book. I bet it could make a great movie, if the expositions and extended descriptions were removed, but as it is, you get a chapter of spy action and then a chapter on why nations have nuclear weapons and then a chapter describing how the submarine works and then a chapter back to the characters... but by that time, I'd lost interest in what they were doing.
It wasn't a DNF, I've read worse and bailed, but it wasn't one I'll ever pick up again either. Sadness. Getting pigeonholed as a writer must be hell and I'm sure Mr. Alten doesn't want to spend the entire rest of his career writing giant shark books, BUT... Well, I'm hoping his next venture out of familiar waters retains some of drive-in movie fun of his Meg books.
Normally I really enjoy Alten's stuff and appreciate the B-movie cheeseball lunacy of his giant shark books, but this one was a struggle. He seemed to be going more for a Tom Clancy feel here, with long detailed technical descriptions of the various subs and military hardware that fill the story, but his forté is definitely in giant sea monster attacks, not complex political tech thrillers. In a nutshell, this just turned into an extended drag, IMO at least.
The US Navy has created the "next step" in global sea power, which is somehow a gigantic robotic manta ray with glowing eyes and an AI brain that's a nanosecond from going SkyNet. This seems as likely as the Pentagon financing the creation of MechaGodzilla for homeland defense, but just go with it. The thing has been hijacked by terrorists, which brings in Standard Steve Alten Hero, a disgraced hyper-capable expert whose life hangs under the shadow of some past mistake, plus Standard Steve Alten Heroine, a bitchy, borderline lunatic ex whose emotional overreactions and histrionics could power New Zealand. These two somehow get on board the hijacked sub and then things...well, grind to a plod.
Look, I loved the Meg books - Hell, I just finished Hell's Aquarium and it was a blast - so I hope I don't come off like the standard snotty elitist reviewer types who auto-hate anything anything that even vaguely smacks of "genre" or "fun". This was, however, a sea monster of a different color, and the focus on the politics and the political machinations and the gradual progress of the hero, it all just combined to suck all the momentum out of the book. I bet it could make a great movie, if the expositions and extended descriptions were removed, but as it is, you get a chapter of spy action and then a chapter on why nations have nuclear weapons and then a chapter describing how the submarine works and then a chapter back to the characters... but by that time, I'd lost interest in what they were doing.
It wasn't a DNF, I've read worse and bailed, but it wasn't one I'll ever pick up again either. Sadness. Getting pigeonholed as a writer must be hell and I'm sure Mr. Alten doesn't want to spend the entire rest of his career writing giant shark books, BUT... Well, I'm hoping his next venture out of familiar waters retains some of drive-in movie fun of his Meg books.
buildhergender's review against another edition
3.0
This one wasn’t bad. I am glad it’s not a series because if it was I am pretty sure we would be up to the 8th part now and the sub would be in space.
Spoilers
Characters
Commander Rochelle Rocky Jackson: She is a survivor. She survived when her fiance turned out to be a traitor. She survived finding her husband with a bullet hole in her head. She survived the sinking of an Aircraft Carrier, and she survives an insane submarine. Very intelligent she attended college and then joined the Navy quickly rising in the ranks. Strong and able to handle any challenge. Seven years ago she was in charge of a group creating the next step in submarine warfare, Goliath. Look out we might have a great female character from Steve Alten. Lets see how she’s introduced. “The heavy-air conditioning is causing Rocky’s nipples to press against the inside of her T-shirt.” Well, that’s the third sentence after she’s introduced. Maybe it gets better...no now her commander is staring at her nipples and asking if she wants a coat. DAMN IT STEVE
Gunnar Wolfe: He is a broken man. He was raised on a dairy farm and went off to Penn State college. Soon after starting his mother was killed. He changes his major from diary technology to Engineering and his father cuts him off. To pay for college he joins the Rotc and after graduation he enrolls. He goes through all sorts of training becomes a lean mean killing machine but burns out. He is assigned to design a new remote control submersible. While doing so he falls in love with Rocky and they get engaged. Things change after he makes a trip to the pentagon. He comes back and erases all data on his sub and Goliath. It is soon found that he has millions of dollars in the bank and that the plans for Goliath may have been stolen. He is sent to prison. Seven years of prison and he is given an early release for saving the Warden during a prison riot. He spent a year drinking and now tries to live one day at a time milking cows.
Simon Bela Covah: A former russian he was recruited to America for his computer genius. He was working on the Goliath team to help them develop a biological computer that would let the Goliath run semi-automatically or even fully automatically. He only has half a face because the rest was burned off during a revolt in Russia. After stealing the Goliath plans he went to China and they had him build it. Unfortunately for the Chinese he sailed the ship off one day before it was supposed to go live. I am sure there was at least one embarrassed Chinese guard that day.
The book starts off with Rocky working with her commander in chief, and current husband, on the bridge of an aircraft carrier. It is in the middle of a carrier group and great pains are set taken to show how strong and unattackable the group is. Thirty pages later her husband is dead, the carrier is sinking and she is riding on the top of an aircraft tire waiting for rescue.
Meanwhile Gunnar Wolfe is mowing grass on a tractor. He spends a good part of his time thinking about his life and all the things that went wrong and how there is one person in the world he hates more than anything...his ex fiance. Finishing a row of the field he turns the tractor around and sees at the other end of the field his ex-fiance. Rather than live out most men’s dreams and run her over he insteads let’s her explain what has happened.
The ship was sunk by Goliath. Someone has built it and it is armed.
Underneath the water the Goliath is using it’s remote controlled submersibles to remove nuclear weapons and torpedoes from the sunken carrier and a sub that was also sunk. We are introduced to the crew. They are a very small group, seven, of misfits who have all been victims of a genocide, political cleansing, or war. They are upset that the computer is the one giving the directions. Over the last seven years besides building the submarine Simon has also come up with a computer that is one step from sentience. Not to long later a lightning bolt hits the submarine and it is now fully sentient.
The submarine is shaped like a Manta Ray and has two windows so that it can look scary, yes that is really the reason they are there. Built like a stealth bomber it absorbs most of a radar pulse. It uses forced propulsion rather than propellers making it almost graveyard silent. Goliath contains seven small submersibles shaped like hammerhead sharks and it uses whale clicks to communicate with them thus making its communications blend in with the sea noises. All of the different non living spaces have mechanical arms and cameras so that the ship can practically do everything on it’s own well except for turn a lug nut...seriously that is the only thing this crew does on this ship. Basically it’s the best Chineese knockoff ever.
What is remaining of the Goliath team get together to figure out how to take down the sub. They bring in a multi billionaire computer scientist named David, think Bill Gates with a six pack. Now does anyone remember Contact when the giant spaceship/communicator gets destroyed it’s revealed that oh yeah there was another built we just never mentioned it till now? Well we find out that there was another Goliath built, by the US government. All that it is missing is the computer brain. Instead it has a full crew. The plan is to have the new Goliath sneak up on Simon’s Goliath, then they are going to use the prototype of Gunnar’s Hammerhead shark to get even closer. At that point the computer genius would release a specially coded whale click that would open the docking bay and before you know it the sub has been captured. Their backup plan is a small nuclear magnetic mine that Gunnar designs and builds in less than a day.
Simon sends out a list of demands to the world. And rather than ask for money, power or land like any self respecting Bond villain, he instead asks for
The dismantlement of the US Star Wars program.
Destruction of all nuclear weapons.
A list of dictators removed from office.
Free elections for certain countries
The list gives the Goliath team the information that they need and they soon figure out that the Goliath sunk the career not only to show its power but to gain the nuclear missiles on board. So for their trap they send out a nuclear sub and follow it with the new Goliath. All other subs are recalled.
So let’s say a terrorist is using nuclear weapons to threaten the world. You know he needs more nukes to carry out his plan. So you tempt him with a nuclear sub.
Is the smart course of action
A. Send out the sub and protect it with another sub filled with convention weapons?
Or
B. Send out the sub and protect it with another sub filled with nuclear weapons that this terrorist wants?
If you pick A you are smarter than the US government in this book. They send out the new Goliath full of nuclear weapons after the original. At first the plan seems to succeed and Gunnar, Rocky, and David get onboard. But then it’s revealed that David is working with Simon. The Goliath with it’s superior computer brain quickly locates and disables the new Goliath and Simon now has enough weapons to carry out his threats.
Now on board the Goliath, Rocky and Gunnar are given free range of the ship but are forced to wear dog collars that shock them if they misbehave. Simon gives them a super villain speech as to why he is doing what he’s doing. Rocky is not swayed, but Gunnar is not sure if he actually disagrees with Simon. He then reveals to Rocky that he did not steal the plans but did erase everything when he found out that his remote controlled submarines were going to be used as a fusion bomb deliver system. Simon knew about his plan to do it and used it as a cover to steal the plans and frame Gunnar.
Meanwhile the computer has begun to go through that awkward teenage period where it begins to question everything. What is life, why do I have to do this, am I alive, do I really have to listen to this man who made me? Luring one of the crewmen to a deserted part of the sub it uses it’s robot arms to slowly disassemble the human to discover out how to become fully alive.
In the real world Iraq has refused to depose Saddam and so Simon carries through with his threat. Seven missiles later all of the palaces of Saddam, Baghdad, and Saddam himself are all nuclear dust. This makes Simon a hero and the countries of the world start to comply with his demands.
David soon finds that sublife is not for him and he can’t stand not being in charge. He also discovers that the computer has mutated and become sentient. He uses it to take control of the ship, having the computer upload Simons’ brain in the process, this drives the already mentally unbalanced computer insane.
Now in control David starts to change the plans of the original mission. Instead of giving China the time it was supposed to have to free Tibet he nukes Beijing. He also traps Gunnar in a room and instead of killing him when he has the chance tells the computer to take care of it. (I think he got the idea from Austin Powers)
Gunnar quickly realizes the computer is sentient and convinces the computer it will never be a real boy until it has experienced the ultimate experience a human can. Hunting a human. Surprisingly the computer agrees and Gunnar quickly escapes.
Hijinks happen, too many to list but the highlights of which include a crew man being given robotic arms and a computer chip control in his brain, ventilator shafts, and unscrewing the hinges of doors. Pretty soon Gunnar and Rocky are the prototype Hammerhead shark running away from the Goliath who has decided that the best way to carry out its mission of peace is to kill every human on Earth by using its nuclear weapons to set off a ton of volcanoes. Gunnar manages to trick the submarine into getting into the gunsights of an American sub and it is sunk.
Upon returning to America Gunnar and Rocky kiss, what’s 7 years of hatred between lovers, and soon find out that the world does not know that Goliath was destroyed. Instead the US has started to issue demands for further peace disguising them as coming from the Goliath.
And the world is happy and peaceful and I am sure America will never use this awesome power to its advantage.
So this makes the second book or series where Steve Alten has the world almost destroyed by Volcanoes and Fusion weapons. I’m beginning to think he is a bit paranoid.
Spoilers
Characters
Commander Rochelle Rocky Jackson: She is a survivor. She survived when her fiance turned out to be a traitor. She survived finding her husband with a bullet hole in her head. She survived the sinking of an Aircraft Carrier, and she survives an insane submarine. Very intelligent she attended college and then joined the Navy quickly rising in the ranks. Strong and able to handle any challenge. Seven years ago she was in charge of a group creating the next step in submarine warfare, Goliath. Look out we might have a great female character from Steve Alten. Lets see how she’s introduced. “The heavy-air conditioning is causing Rocky’s nipples to press against the inside of her T-shirt.” Well, that’s the third sentence after she’s introduced. Maybe it gets better...no now her commander is staring at her nipples and asking if she wants a coat. DAMN IT STEVE
Gunnar Wolfe: He is a broken man. He was raised on a dairy farm and went off to Penn State college. Soon after starting his mother was killed. He changes his major from diary technology to Engineering and his father cuts him off. To pay for college he joins the Rotc and after graduation he enrolls. He goes through all sorts of training becomes a lean mean killing machine but burns out. He is assigned to design a new remote control submersible. While doing so he falls in love with Rocky and they get engaged. Things change after he makes a trip to the pentagon. He comes back and erases all data on his sub and Goliath. It is soon found that he has millions of dollars in the bank and that the plans for Goliath may have been stolen. He is sent to prison. Seven years of prison and he is given an early release for saving the Warden during a prison riot. He spent a year drinking and now tries to live one day at a time milking cows.
Simon Bela Covah: A former russian he was recruited to America for his computer genius. He was working on the Goliath team to help them develop a biological computer that would let the Goliath run semi-automatically or even fully automatically. He only has half a face because the rest was burned off during a revolt in Russia. After stealing the Goliath plans he went to China and they had him build it. Unfortunately for the Chinese he sailed the ship off one day before it was supposed to go live. I am sure there was at least one embarrassed Chinese guard that day.
The book starts off with Rocky working with her commander in chief, and current husband, on the bridge of an aircraft carrier. It is in the middle of a carrier group and great pains are set taken to show how strong and unattackable the group is. Thirty pages later her husband is dead, the carrier is sinking and she is riding on the top of an aircraft tire waiting for rescue.
Meanwhile Gunnar Wolfe is mowing grass on a tractor. He spends a good part of his time thinking about his life and all the things that went wrong and how there is one person in the world he hates more than anything...his ex fiance. Finishing a row of the field he turns the tractor around and sees at the other end of the field his ex-fiance. Rather than live out most men’s dreams and run her over he insteads let’s her explain what has happened.
The ship was sunk by Goliath. Someone has built it and it is armed.
Underneath the water the Goliath is using it’s remote controlled submersibles to remove nuclear weapons and torpedoes from the sunken carrier and a sub that was also sunk. We are introduced to the crew. They are a very small group, seven, of misfits who have all been victims of a genocide, political cleansing, or war. They are upset that the computer is the one giving the directions. Over the last seven years besides building the submarine Simon has also come up with a computer that is one step from sentience. Not to long later a lightning bolt hits the submarine and it is now fully sentient.
The submarine is shaped like a Manta Ray and has two windows so that it can look scary, yes that is really the reason they are there. Built like a stealth bomber it absorbs most of a radar pulse. It uses forced propulsion rather than propellers making it almost graveyard silent. Goliath contains seven small submersibles shaped like hammerhead sharks and it uses whale clicks to communicate with them thus making its communications blend in with the sea noises. All of the different non living spaces have mechanical arms and cameras so that the ship can practically do everything on it’s own well except for turn a lug nut...seriously that is the only thing this crew does on this ship. Basically it’s the best Chineese knockoff ever.
What is remaining of the Goliath team get together to figure out how to take down the sub. They bring in a multi billionaire computer scientist named David, think Bill Gates with a six pack. Now does anyone remember Contact when the giant spaceship/communicator gets destroyed it’s revealed that oh yeah there was another built we just never mentioned it till now? Well we find out that there was another Goliath built, by the US government. All that it is missing is the computer brain. Instead it has a full crew. The plan is to have the new Goliath sneak up on Simon’s Goliath, then they are going to use the prototype of Gunnar’s Hammerhead shark to get even closer. At that point the computer genius would release a specially coded whale click that would open the docking bay and before you know it the sub has been captured. Their backup plan is a small nuclear magnetic mine that Gunnar designs and builds in less than a day.
Simon sends out a list of demands to the world. And rather than ask for money, power or land like any self respecting Bond villain, he instead asks for
The dismantlement of the US Star Wars program.
Destruction of all nuclear weapons.
A list of dictators removed from office.
Free elections for certain countries
The list gives the Goliath team the information that they need and they soon figure out that the Goliath sunk the career not only to show its power but to gain the nuclear missiles on board. So for their trap they send out a nuclear sub and follow it with the new Goliath. All other subs are recalled.
So let’s say a terrorist is using nuclear weapons to threaten the world. You know he needs more nukes to carry out his plan. So you tempt him with a nuclear sub.
Is the smart course of action
A. Send out the sub and protect it with another sub filled with convention weapons?
Or
B. Send out the sub and protect it with another sub filled with nuclear weapons that this terrorist wants?
If you pick A you are smarter than the US government in this book. They send out the new Goliath full of nuclear weapons after the original. At first the plan seems to succeed and Gunnar, Rocky, and David get onboard. But then it’s revealed that David is working with Simon. The Goliath with it’s superior computer brain quickly locates and disables the new Goliath and Simon now has enough weapons to carry out his threats.
Now on board the Goliath, Rocky and Gunnar are given free range of the ship but are forced to wear dog collars that shock them if they misbehave. Simon gives them a super villain speech as to why he is doing what he’s doing. Rocky is not swayed, but Gunnar is not sure if he actually disagrees with Simon. He then reveals to Rocky that he did not steal the plans but did erase everything when he found out that his remote controlled submarines were going to be used as a fusion bomb deliver system. Simon knew about his plan to do it and used it as a cover to steal the plans and frame Gunnar.
Meanwhile the computer has begun to go through that awkward teenage period where it begins to question everything. What is life, why do I have to do this, am I alive, do I really have to listen to this man who made me? Luring one of the crewmen to a deserted part of the sub it uses it’s robot arms to slowly disassemble the human to discover out how to become fully alive.
In the real world Iraq has refused to depose Saddam and so Simon carries through with his threat. Seven missiles later all of the palaces of Saddam, Baghdad, and Saddam himself are all nuclear dust. This makes Simon a hero and the countries of the world start to comply with his demands.
David soon finds that sublife is not for him and he can’t stand not being in charge. He also discovers that the computer has mutated and become sentient. He uses it to take control of the ship, having the computer upload Simons’ brain in the process, this drives the already mentally unbalanced computer insane.
Now in control David starts to change the plans of the original mission. Instead of giving China the time it was supposed to have to free Tibet he nukes Beijing. He also traps Gunnar in a room and instead of killing him when he has the chance tells the computer to take care of it. (I think he got the idea from Austin Powers)
Gunnar quickly realizes the computer is sentient and convinces the computer it will never be a real boy until it has experienced the ultimate experience a human can. Hunting a human. Surprisingly the computer agrees and Gunnar quickly escapes.
Hijinks happen, too many to list but the highlights of which include a crew man being given robotic arms and a computer chip control in his brain, ventilator shafts, and unscrewing the hinges of doors. Pretty soon Gunnar and Rocky are the prototype Hammerhead shark running away from the Goliath who has decided that the best way to carry out its mission of peace is to kill every human on Earth by using its nuclear weapons to set off a ton of volcanoes. Gunnar manages to trick the submarine into getting into the gunsights of an American sub and it is sunk.
Upon returning to America Gunnar and Rocky kiss, what’s 7 years of hatred between lovers, and soon find out that the world does not know that Goliath was destroyed. Instead the US has started to issue demands for further peace disguising them as coming from the Goliath.
And the world is happy and peaceful and I am sure America will never use this awesome power to its advantage.
So this makes the second book or series where Steve Alten has the world almost destroyed by Volcanoes and Fusion weapons. I’m beginning to think he is a bit paranoid.
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