I love to read junky summer adventure books while at the pool and this author's first two books met this criteria perfectly. This book however did not. It was way way way too long. And boring. And loaded with details, completely unneeded details. Also the descriptions and stereotyping of Dubai was grossly over the top.
I may need to check out another book from this author but this book just didn't work for me. ( )

MEG: Hell's Aquarium
by Steve Alten
One of my frivolous delights is a monstrous-type book to read at night like a late night B movie I use to watch as a kid! Popcorn and a monster book at night is so devilishly fun! A no-brainer, just lots of thrills and fascination! Especially if it's an extinct creature! This is perfect for that category! Lots of suspense, giant megalodon, and more giant creatures! Unpredictable and exciting! Great narration! ( )

From Amazon:

Steve Alten's epic fish story continues in Hell's Aquarium, fourth of the MEG novels. The Tanaka Institute's captive Megalodon, Angel, has birthed a litter of pups. Two—Mary Kate and Ashley—are destined for a home in a massive new attraction being built in Dubai, but only if Jonas' son David agrees to serve as their trainer.

And why wouldn't he? For the brash young 20 year-old, it's an opportunity to strike out on his own and prove himself, applying the knowledge he's gained working alongside his father. Once in Dubai, however, the job proves very different from what was described back home, and here…there be dragons. The next generation of Taylor to take up the mantle of deep-ocean submersible pilot may be coming into its own much sooner than expected!

My Thoughts:

Steve's research on prehistoric sea monsters seems to be very through. Then his ability to be able to wrap an exciting,entertaining,informative and suspense filled fictional story around all this fact made this the best MEG in the series. If you thought MEG's were really bad, just wait till you see what Steve presents in this episodic adventure in "Hell's Aquarium". The first half sets you up, the last half you can't put it down. The only problem that I saw with the book was it had a multitude of grammatical errors. I would have thought a major publishing house would have been more careful. ( )

Hell's Aquarium by Steve Alten is the fourth novel in his Meg series. (There is a fifth novel planned: Meg: Night Stalkers.) Obviously, since this is the fourth outing of Alten's Megalodon, readers of the series know what to expect - bloody attacks and narrow escapes from huge primal predators from the sea.

Hell's Aquarium follows the set pattern of the Meg books and perhaps even ramps the action up a little bit more. It was most certainly packed full of action and was fast-paced. Alten does an admirable job researching his antediluvian creatures from the deep. (I guess I'm accidentally on a cryptozoology kick.)

Alten is certainly a competent writer, but for some reason there seemed to be a few more exclamation points than he normally uses this time out! Perhaps he's taken a hint from Matthew Reilly's playbook, huh! If a gazillion ton creature is chasing another one and our protagonists are right in the path of soon-to-be-carnage, I think we all sort get that it's pretty darn exciting! If it's the megladon ramming it's pen or eating a meal, yeah, that's exciting too, but we don't need quite so many exclamation points!

That minor annoyance aside, I actually got this book because the Movie Dude wanted to read it. I'm going to be passing along all the Meg books to him. While the series was fun, I may be done with it. Not that I want to discourage anyone else from reading the Meg novels. They certainly are full of action, narrow escapes, and bloody carnage. Those of you who want to read the Meg books are going to read them anyway. This was comparably a good addition to the series.
highly recommended for Meg fans; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
( )

And I thought JAWS was a frightening experience. This was book 4 in a series of MEG books about a huge prehistoric great white shark that made the JAWS shark look like a goldfish. From beginning to end this book was none stop action and suspense and had a body count that I stopped counting. I highly recommend this book to anyone that loved the JAWS movies or the movie The Deep Blue Sea. Awesome book!! ( )