Nightstalkers (MEG, #5) in Shark Week

Jul 22, 2021 Dennis rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, series-on-hold, sharky-me-likey

And this concludes my Shark Week(s). I started it with a book where the main character had a rather intimate experience with a group of sharks, and who would have thought that I would finish it with a book that would be equally as bad?

Steve Alten has completely run out of ideas. In this book there’s not only a lot of recounting of previous events, he also recycles so much material that he has singlehandedly reversed climate change.

With the last book already, he had introduced some unlikely new p ...more

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Jul 16, 2021 Trish rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I don't know what this woman is so cheery about, but maybe she's just as stupid as the characters in this book.

This is the 5th book in Alten's MEG series and it shows. I'd say the author is running out of steam. Not only has he introduced another prehistoric beast in what I thought was an unrelated book, he now made a connection here and it was ... (view spoiler) bullshit.
Yes, Jonas Taylor is still alive but no longer kicking as he's simply too old ...more

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Jul 21, 2021 Cathy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: underwater-horror

The prologue was a smart way of summarizing the salient points of the previous book. The first chapter though… did he just copy and paste that complete chapter with the kayak tourists and the pod of orca from the previous book?

Early on we meet the main character from The Loch and the subsequent novels of that series. Cross-over time! Unfortunately that character talks with a Scottish brogue. I don‘t mind (too much), however it‘s pretty inconsistent. Whole sentences in the Queen‘s English and the The prologue was a smart way of summarizing the salient points of the previous book. The first chapter though… did he just copy and paste that complete chapter with the kayak tourists and the pod of orca from the previous book?

Early on we meet the main character from The Loch and the subsequent novels of that series. Cross-over time! Unfortunately that character talks with a Scottish brogue. I don‘t mind (too much), however it‘s pretty inconsistent. Whole sentences in the Queen‘s English and then a few Scottish things thrown in. Nobody talks that way.

Alten sticks to his tried and tested routine: two plots with distinct sets of main characters that each face their challenges—the respective monster of the day. First they alternate by chapter and eventually, as the suspense heats up towards the later parts of the book, the narrative switches between the plotlines faster and faster. Chapters usually finish with cliffhangers and then move on to the other plot. Which is annoying and means that you basically have to rush from one chapter to the next, driven by the momentum of whatever crazy thing just happened.

Somewhere in or after the middle Alten throws in some weird development from the other series, specifically from Vostok (I think—I haven‘t actually read that one). You have to suspend your disbelief very hard. He went into a very ridiculous, superfluous direction. Which is saying much, considering that this is about the appearance of pre-historic sharks, Liopleurodons and a ton of other bizarre creatures. My reading buddies and I all rolled our eyes so much…

Up to that point the plot was more or less a repetition of the last book. Felt a bit like Alten plagiarizing himself. Copy-and-paste-a-lot…. I wish that Alten had just stayed with the main plot — chasing the megs and capturing that Liopleurodon. Adding another monster and the character from the other books with his own brand of crazy… what‘s next, sharks in space?

And for the characters — I didn‘t have many expectations, but even those are completely interchangeable. David is Jonas, Monty is Mac… Never mind David‘s squeeze of the day. That romance/friendship-with-benefits was implausible at best. The way Alten writes the female characters is just atrocious. Again. Hoping for an improvement on that front was probably naive.

Why did I think picking up this book was a good idea? And why on Earth did I finish it? Embarrassingly enough I quite enjoyed the action in Part 3 and 4, despite there being too may different monsters. I didn‘t mind all the new monsters in the last book, they worked within the setting of that book. Here it read like a hodgepode of (more) crazy. *head desk*

And you know what? Apparently there will be only one more book. I can‘t not read that one, even it it will be another 2 start rating. Oh boy. ...more

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Jul 25, 2021 Russ rated it it was ok

A mostly unappetizing fish stew that I'm glad to be done with.

The good part was seeing the Taylor family back in the water for another adventure. And there are some entertaining cat-and-mouse captures of and battles among giant sea creatures. It has some value as a summertime shark read.

However, Nightstalkers lacked submersible claustrophobia of the first MEG or of Hell's Aquarium. Some of the earlier books took us close-in the perspective of Jonas or David Taylor, to where I could feel their dr A mostly unappetizing fish stew that I'm glad to be done with.

The good part was seeing the Taylor family back in the water for another adventure. And there are some entertaining cat-and-mouse captures of and battles among giant sea creatures. It has some value as a summertime shark read.

However, Nightstalkers lacked submersible claustrophobia of the first MEG or of Hell's Aquarium. Some of the earlier books took us close-in the perspective of Jonas or David Taylor, to where I could feel their dread as a massive shark circled their little craft so far below the ocean's surface. This one felt much more superficial, flitting quickly from one ocean and sea monster to the next. And they never needed to go to the ocean's floor because it dealt with prehistoric marine life that had already migrated to surface waters.

This also lacked the story stakes that characterized the earlier books of the series, or any thriller for that matter. Usually there is some reason why the Taylor family has to act quickly to stop whatever prehistoric fish is on the prowl. In the first book, that was an ecological reason, because it was thought that the meg would wreak havoc on contemporary marine populations.

In the sequels, there were often super-rich villains deceiving or abducting the Taylors, using their loved ones as leverage to get the Taylor men to do the fish hunting. But there was no antagonist in this novel; nobody with an evil plan whose actions were thwarting the goals of the Taylors.

The closest thing to a ticking clock was an assertion by a supporting character that David would die in a certain number of days unless Jonas took specific actions to prevent it. This time travel/clairvoyance element was the most bizarre, un-MEG-like distraction of the entire book and series to date. In this story world, I'm willing to believe that prehistoric sharks, reptiles, and mammals are still alive. But not that we can or have traveled through time, even if it's only a few days. If I want that I'd read sci-fi set in the future or in outer space.

I think David Taylor has come into his own as a character distinct from Jonas, and is capable of carrying future novels in the series on his own. ...more

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Jul 22, 2018 Neil rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, thriller, fiction, stupid-crap, finished-in-2018, suspense

This is my second time reading the book; I have been reading the series one-after-the-other partly in preparation for watching the movie when it comes out "soon" and partly because I was in the mood to read the whole series and see how it "lines up" when reading the books consecutively. I think it helps, in some respects, to be able to read them all in a row. At the same time, it does make some errors pretty glaring [like the time and age differences between some of the books]. The author does s ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Ami Morrison rated it liked it

Shelves: creature-features, tbr-challenge-2018

Picks up where Hell Aquarium ends. Megs Bela and Lizzy have escaped the Tanaka Institute to roam the Salish Sea in British Columbia. While Jonas and Mac attempt to capture or kill the 2 sisters, Jonas' son, David, embarks on his own adventure, motivated by revenge. After watching his girlfriend die, David joins a Dubai prince's ocean expedition tracking a 120 ft Liopleurdon that escaped the Panthalassa Sea.

I love this series, but this was definitely my least favorite of the series. Where were t ...more

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Jun 28, 2017 Neil rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, horror, thriller, finished-in-2017, suspense

This was an okay novel. Elements of the ending were satisfactory and elements were unsatisfactory. I guess it had okay character development. There was a lot going on, that is for sure, with it jumping between Washington State - Vancouver area offshore, the Antarctica, and the Pacific Ocean. Apparently there is going to be another book in the series; on the one hand, I do hope that is the last one.

The author does tie this series in with two other books involving some Scottish scientist (view sp This was an okay novel. Elements of the ending were satisfactory and elements were unsatisfactory. I guess it had okay character development. There was a lot going on, that is for sure, with it jumping between Washington State - Vancouver area offshore, the Antarctica, and the Pacific Ocean. Apparently there is going to be another book in the series; on the one hand, I do hope that is the last one.

The author does tie this series in with two other books involving some Scottish scientist (view spoiler).

Not only are there numerous "destinations" in the book(view spoiler), there is a lot to keep track of in the narrative.

(view spoiler)[The attitudes of Jonas and his son toward these prehistoric sharks strikes me as very odd. They continually choose the welfare of the sharks over humans on a continual basis. In addition, they refuse to take any responsibility for the deaths caused by Angel and her progeny; Jonas and his crew are horrifically negligent when it comes to keeping dangerous predatory animals under control and unable to attack innocent people. I realize in the fourth novel some radical animal rights protestors free Lizzy and Bella from captivity, but it does not change the fact that Jonas and his son refuse to consider lethal solutions when trying to "fix" their problem(s) in regard to the Megs.

I really disliked Jonas. The author has the guy continually claiming he wants people to be safe, that he loves his wife and family and wants to be with them. Yet, every chance Jonas gets, he is constantly choosing the escaped Megalodon twins over his marriage, his family, and the safety of human lives. The author continually uses "excuses" such as "more people are killed by _____ than by sharks, and yet you don't see people stopping ____________" to justify Jonas not wanting to kill the two Megalodon sisters. He claimed he wanted to take some kind of responsibility for either capturing or killing the Megs, yet his actions speak louder than words as numerous people die under his watch because he refused to make lethal decisions about the Megalodons.

David really bugged me in the book, especially at the end. He has commandeered a Manta in order to try and save the lives of "his" sharks, Lizzy and Bella. He fails to save either shark, but his plan was to somehow distract the Liopleurodon so that Lizzy and Bella could team up and kill the beast. his "escape plan" was to fire the rockets on the Manta and out of the water through the air to land in the bleachers, killing an untold number of innocent people just to save his stupid sharks. In his bizarre internal math, he considers the death of tens to hundreds of paying customers at his own hands to be an acceptable trade if it means saving the lives of the Megalodon sisters. What a creep! The guy's moral compass is severely messed up!

I have to admit, I was kind of hoping these two characters would die by the end the book [preferably eaten by "their" pet sharks]. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[The book also treats women rather poorly in this novel. Ten beautiful female contestants are duped into having sex with Monty during a ten hour flight from California to somewhere in the Pacific for a reality contest show. Of the ten contestants, three finalists will be vying for David's attention and to be there "at the end" when the Liopleurodon is captured by the Arab billionaire and his team of hunters. David is told to start having sex with them when his NSA-lover gets offended by David; David claims he's already started sleeping with several of them to get back at Jackie. Numerous women are eaten by the sharks or the Liopleurodon because most of them are stupid and make bad decisions [the men do as well, but it seemed like the women were especially stupid and prone to die in this novel.

Jackie is a fellow scientist (marine biologist) and is in charge of keeping the giant sea monsters alive. She is also to provide a distraction for David so David can focus on the task at hand (capturing sea monsters) while forgetting about his dead girlfriend. She ends up falling in love with him and briefly considers moving to California to live with him and focus on keeping the infant Liopleurodon as well as the captured prehistoric sperm whale alive in their respective underwater pens. The Prince who owns the facility in Dubai offers her the chance to take over as head of all the monsters and oversee all day-to-day operations; to do so, she is expected to bed David every night so that he can perform in the Manta(s) in order to capture as many formerly-extinct creatures as possible. So, in a way, she is expected to bed somebody in order to get a long-coveted and much deserved promotion. It was really sad and really pathetic. In the end, her relationship with David falls apart due to his killing the Liopleurodon to try and save the two Megalodon sharks he considered "his pets" at the end of the novel. She ends up telling him that he will get over her, eventually (the implication being that David will get over Jackie just like David got over Kaylie, eventually).

I cannot say that I felt like the older woman dying because she was stupid in believing Bella and Lizzy would not attack her if she tried to swim with them. There are numerous people who do stupid things, male and female, and her friend was equally stupid in supporting her in her crazy desire to die (he dies as well). She goes out to swim with the sharks and thinks the one she is focused on is playing with her. What she does not realize is that the shark is playing with her like a cat plays with its food before it strikes! I did think it was "stupid" how the guy died, though. He is hiding under a pier, partially in the water and partially out while filming his female friend, when he realizes the other Meg is attacking him from "below". The other Meg is "attacking from below"?!? How's that work? It is not like the pier was built so that the very edge of it had support pilings that extended deep enough below the surface of the other Meg to attack like it did. It was shoddy writing and took away from the narrative. Neither of them really want to die, but they definitely had a death wish they were apparently unaware they had! (hide spoiler)]

The book does have a lot of contrived situations (view spoiler) to propel the narrative along. (view spoiler) I kind of felt like the author may have written himself into a few corners and needed contrived situations to get out of those corners.

There were definitely some crazy scenes in the book, that is for sure! (view spoiler)[I would have liked to have seen more sea creature versus sea creature battles in the book; the amount actually located therein was more of a teaser, an appetizer, than the "main course" in terms of enjoyment. For example, in one scene, a pod of killer whales decides to make a stand and attack the two sisters. The pod is decimated and the survivors flee. One of the fleeing Orcas jumps onto the back of a specially-modified vessel and crashes through the stern into the hold below. One of the Megs explodes from the surface and lands on the back of the vessel, forcing its head into the hold so it can eat both the Orca and the fish used as bait.

In another scene, two herds of sea lions swim off their island in the waters around Antarctica and swim to about a thousand feet down and start feasting on the carcass of a dead whale as well as some hideously described underwater scavengers when the Liopleurodon attacks. It swallows two bull sea lions without changing its speed or missing a beat! It was crazy! The creature decimates the two herds as well as sinks a research vessel studying the herd of sea lions. It is a small craft with a crew of two men; both men are eventually rescued by Jonas and the Scot from The Lock and some other novel involving time travel.

It was interesting to me that the Liopleurodon and the two Megalodons preferred to attack from the depths of the ocean, rising up like a runaway rocket or express train to catch their prey unaware. Perhaps more creatures than I realize behave in this fashion; it still struck me as interesting that the two creatures were so similar in nature.

I did find it funny that, in one sense, Bella and Lizzy driving the Orca pods out of their former habitat into knew waters may have actually saved the various pods. It had been speculated that the majority of the pods would be dead in five to ten years due to death by poisoning. Their natural prey was being poisoned by humans [inadvertently], and the consumption of their prey poisoned the Orcas in turn. So it was amusing to me to read about a scientist reluctantly claiming that the two Megs might have actually saved the lives of the Orca pods in the region by forcing them to flee their homelands and taking up residence elsewhere. I did think that was a clever play on "cause and effect" to find the "silver lining in the dark clouds" on the part of the author. (hide spoiler)]

Overall, I did like the book. I just did not care for the attitudes that Jonas and David in regard to the Megalodon sisters. The ending of the book really killed it for me; I was able to maintain my suspension of disbelief while reading and enjoy the book, but David's attitude really ruined it for me. I am glad that I read it, and I could see myself reading it again, despite its many, many weaknesses. ...more

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Sep 06, 2024 Aaron Krell rated it it was amazing

This book is also for those who love underwater horror, or prehistoric adventure. As it is a combination of both. This while taking place between Hell's Aquarium, and Generations, actually fills in the gaps between the two. I mean I accidently read Generations first then this, and I got say there are moments where you are on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend this book to any prehistoric, and sea monster fan. ...more

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