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jplayjames 's review for:
Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror
by Steve Alten
Sure, the writing wasn't great, and the author in the preface really seems to believe in the feasibility of the story, and the motivations of the characters were just all over the place, and the only thing that partially excuses the terrible female characters was that the author wasn't great at writing male ones either, and the occasional bits of scientific language to describe body parts that the author dropped in felt clunky and like they were just there to prove that he'd done his research.
However, counterpoint: I like big shark.
It's a fun concept, and beyond having already seen the film I think I've read some other books or seen some other films which may have been partly inspired by this? Obviously Meg is itself heavily inspired by Jaws - with the author seeming most surprisingly to have thought thatan affair subplot was a critical part of the shark story as it is focused on pretty heavily in both books.
As mentioned above, the two women in the story felt poorly written,with one being a sort of heartless greedy fame-hungry adulterer and the other flipping from bratty and defiant to spirit of vengeance to sudden bond-girl level adulation of the main character over the course of the book, but with all character development kinda happening off-screen . On the other hand, none of the characters wanting revenge on the Meg at all costs vs wanting to keep it in SeaWorld vs switching between the two felt that credible. How you can make both sides of a diametric choice feel implausible is a bit of a feat. Then we have Bud suddenly becoming all murderlicious towards the end despite having apparently planned to shoot at the shark for a bit and then kill himself within a page or two and of course our protagonist being too traumatised to go in the sea at all for the best part of a decade, until someone suggested going for a dip in the spot which traumatised him and where he believed the megalodon was and he was not only on board but after his initial reservations just gung ho whack me in the water just put me as close to any seamonster as possible please for the rest of the book.
There is a lot to complain about, but on the other hand, big shark.
However, counterpoint: I like big shark.
It's a fun concept, and beyond having already seen the film I think I've read some other books or seen some other films which may have been partly inspired by this? Obviously Meg is itself heavily inspired by Jaws - with the author seeming most surprisingly to have thought that
As mentioned above, the two women in the story felt poorly written,
There is a lot to complain about, but on the other hand, big shark.