TOTALLY BELIEVABLE PLOT- NEVER A DULL PAGE,AMAZING, INTERESTING. MY TEEN AGED GRAND DAUGHTER INSISTS ON READING THESE AS SOON AS I FINISH...SOME TIMES EVEN BEFORE!! ;)

I had no issues with this order. It was delivered on time in good condition.

Meg: Primal Waters is the latest Megalodon popcorn-fest from the fertile, albeit somewhat turgid imagination of Steve Alten. Once again, Marine Biologist Jonas Taylor finds himself pitted against Carcharodon Megalodon, the prehistoric ancestor of the Great White Shark. (One would imagine that after his experiences in Meg: A novel of Deep Terror, and The Trench, Taylor would have taken up residence in Iowa, or some other similarly landlocked state, but as my grandmother was fond of saying, some people never learn.)

Primal Waters starts some 18 years after the The Trench, with Jonas and his wife playing flustered parents to a couple of kids right out of cliché' central: The sexy teen tramp, and the too-smart for his own good son with a hankering for adventure. The fun begins when Jonas is propositioned to appear on a reality show called Daredevils, which is, in reality (pun intended.....), an elaborate ruse to lure Taylor to his death at the jaws of yet another Megalodon. Meanwhile Jonas wife, Terry, is off on an adventure of her own, trying to recapture the escaped Angel, the Antagonist of the previous book. In case two Megs weren't enough, Angel is being pursued by her amorous son. Me so horny!! And speaking of horny, Mr. & Mrs. Taylor each engage in a dry-humping almost-affair, and I suppose the fact that neither one consummates the relationship is supposed to be reassuring and sweet, but I just found the casual manner they adopt to be kind of creepy and off-putting. Not exactly the way to endear readers to your characters, Mr. Alten.

Alten isn't much of a prose stylist, and his characters have always been extremely two-dimensional and Primal Waters is no exception. The addition of "The Daredevils" doesn't do much for the book; they're all virtually interchangeable, and when they start to become fish food, it's hard enough to recall which one just got chewed on, let alone muster up any sympathy for them. The mystery villain behind the reality show/snuff movie conspiracy is another example of Alten's sloppy storytelling: While Alten happily regurgitates the events of the previous 2 novels ad nauseum, he NEVER tells us just why this guy hates Taylor so much, aside from a few nebulous references that he never expands on. I suppose it would be easy enough to check my copy of The Trench, but......who cares? If the author couldn't make more of an effort, why should I? The book is saved by the frequent use of shocking, savage, grotesque violence, which is just what the Doctor ordered....If only there were more of it, and it were used on characters we actually gave a damn about.

The book is peppered with the ridiculous set-pieces we've come to expect from Alten, including a shark attacking a World Series game (!) and a parasailer dipping in and out of the jaws of an attacking Meg. The stuff of mindless summer blockbusters, to be sure. The stuff of a worthwhile reading experience.......? Probably not. Primal Waters ends with the promise that " Jonas Taylor will return." Whether or not that is a threat is up to you.

When they came out onto the market a few years back, Alten's first two Meg novels were instant hits. They were new in their action pace, main character (read: the Meg!) and setting (deep oceans). As such, I found them absolutely reinvigorating and spent nightly hours jumping from one page to the next in order to absorb as much material as possible.

Then, a few years later, came "Meg, Primal Waters". I guess I must have gotten used to the main theme, characters and related features, as I did not manage to feel any emotion in the reading, beyond boredom perhaps. The hero is getting older, much more mentally than physically I should say. That's interesting but well... how should I say it... it's not nearly enough to generate any kind of excitement, is it? Will the next book of the Meg saga feature Jonas Taylor fighting the Meg in a wheelchair or a go-cart?? That would be funny, if nothing else!

Yes, true, Taylor's private life is a real mess, and about to get even worse, and that too is a faithful portrayal of our daily life. The Meg... erh... the MEG's are as violent and ruthless as ever -no change here, which is nice. There is a few interesting addition to the previous books with, for instance, the use of the media on sea -with its subsequent carnage. However, all of these things fell way short of making me want to read any potential follow-on book in this saga and/or from the same author. Quite simply, I am convinced that Alten has now reached his limits in terms of imagination and motivation towards his subject. The author's other venture into exploring Nessie's mystery was also quite lukewarm.

It might be a temporary low point in Alten's career as a writer. Let's hope so, as I would give the highest priority to putting my hands back on as thrilling a book as the first two of the Meg saga!

This book is one of my personal favorite books. I stumbled across this series in my local library and instantly was sucked in; I couldn't wait for each book. When I got to this book I felt like I knew each of the main characters and could understand what they were thinking. Steve Alten makes you really feel the emotions of the characters and what is happening. By the end of the books you don't really hate the sharks you just have a very healthy respect for what they are and what they can do.