Product Description

The Philippine Sea Plate... the deepest, most unexplored realm on the planet. Hidden beneath its ancient crust lies the remains of the Panthalassa, an ocean that dates back 220 million years. Vast and isolated, the Panthalassa in inhabited by nightmarish species of sea creatures long believed extinct.

Tanaka Institute, Monterey, CA.:

Angel, the recaptured 76 foot, 100,000 pound Megalodon, has birthed a liter of pups -- five females -- far too numerous and aggressive to keep in one pen. One solution: A Dubai royal prince is building the largest aquarium in the world and seeks to purchase two of the "runts."

The deal hinges on hiring Jonas Taylor's 21 year old son, David, to be their trainer. Jonas reluctantly agrees, and David is off to Dubai for the summer of his life-- --not realizing he is being set-up to lead an expedition that will hunt down and capture the most dangerous creatures ever to inhabit the planet!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9205 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 342 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781935142041
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Hell's Aquarium will unlock a prehistoric hunger within you for the next in the series... NOW!
As an enthusiast of both paleontology and ichthyology the MEG series has been a staple of my literary diet. The first book established a mythos that I adored, the second remains one of my all-time favorite novels, and the third is quite plainly a fun read of non-stop excitement.

For the sake of candor, I should admit that since having read the third book and the preview for Hell's Aquarium online, I have been apprehensive regarding this book and specifically the newest terrifying denizen of the deep in the MEG series - the Liopleurodon. In point of fact, I think the only reason that I didn't enjoy the third book as much was because I couldn't get around the fact that there was supposedly a predator existing in the depths of the Philippine sea in excess of 120 feet! Immediately a nagging voice was unearthed in the back of my mind, screaming, "There is no such creature known to exist!" Following that, the online free preview both tantalized me with Steve's writing style and the characters that I have come to adore, and caused me to be still more unnerved, discovering the 120-foot monster to be a Liopleurodon with a skull in excess of 30 feet! I became confused instantaneously; the series with such an eye to attracting fans of prehistoric aquatic fauna is featuring a grossly paleontologically inaccurate specimen, hyping the Liopleurodon to more than twice the size of what we know for even the largest specimen of this pliosaur? However, with tens of millions of years for this animal to evolve if left undisturbed in a subterranean sea, who is to say that its size couldn't increase? I remained hopeful that Steve would provide an explanation... and provide he did! My one fear and quibble for the book laid to rest in an evolutionarily plausible fashion, I may now go back and reread Primal Waters so that I can fully appreciate that book without being concerned with an inaccurate leviathan of ludicrous proportions!

With "the bad" (if the above worry could even have been considered as much) out of the way, I should move on to the good... which literally is the ENTIRE book. Hell's Aquarium is the singularly most enthralling novel I have read since The Trench, steering the series into uncharted waters of infinite possibility. Angel is back in all her rapacious, cantankerous glory, but the creatures I found myself yearning to read about just as much as Angel were her offspring, particularly her larger two female pups, Belle and Lizzy, referred to by the Tanaka Institute staff as "the sisters". What's compelling about the sisters is that we see them not only as Megalodons but as animals with distinct personalities which make them memorable and enticing for the reader. Long have we seen Megalodons as fiercely territorial and solitary; now we see the sisters in a symbiotic predatory relationship. Belle is the brawn to Lizzy's brain. Lizzy appears strategic and calculating in attacks, while Belle is pure, unbridled primal fury.

All of the main characters are back, with David now 20 years old and donning the mantle of main protagonist (Jonas coming in at a close second). This book seems to groom David as the Taylor we'll be following most closely in future books as Jonas advances in years and becomes less capable of taking on these apex predators and coming out unscathed. A glut of new and memorable characters are present, including bi-polar Monty whom David befriends on his trip to Dubai, their relationship echoing that between Jonas and Mac. From the Monterey bay to Dubai, this book ceaselessly churns out intrigue and action in a manner that fans of the series will swarm about as if it were chum!

One "Hell" of a Ride
Steve's research on prehistoric sea monsters is beyond belief. Then being 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. Be prepared for one Hell of a Ride !!

MEG SERIES HAS SWUM AS FAR AS IT SHOULD GO
Call it 2.5 stars!

I've enjoyed the previous 3 books in Steve Alten's MEG series. Each book has a variety of pros and cons but when all is said and done they're proven page turners.

Meg: Hell's Aquarium continues the tradition of being a flawed and yet entertaining page-turner. There's nothing better to read by the pool, ocean, or toilet (any body of water will suffice) than a book where hapless humans will be devoured gruesomely by giant sea creatures. This time around Alten delivers some classic cinema worthy moments and paints some truly stellar imagery of enormous sharks and other beasties.

The problems that Alten faces (as he has faced with his previous novels and why he lost some stars in my review) are triple fold: EDITING, SCIENCE, and WOMEN.

Hell's Aquarium definitely needed another pass by an editor with a red pen. There are some glaring errors in grammar. When words are missing letters and when sentences have extra words...there's a problem. The first error hits on Page 3 and the mistakes come at a decent enough pace to possibly label the work amateurish. With published novels it's all in the delivery and there are some mistakes here.

Now I realize that in books of this nature we're almost talking science fiction...but even I understand that humans need to decompress before returning from deep levels in the ocean...and yet here not so much the case. I think Alten would be well serviced to hire some form of scientific fact-checker on his next book to at least catch the glaring errors. Giant monsters I can handle.

Women...oh boy. Steve Alten would be better off if none of his novels ever contained a woman...ever again. Every female character in the MEG series has played out exactly the same way: they are attractive (bordering on HOT), they come on to the male way too fast, they are smart and cocky, they don't listen, and then they need to be rescued (usually by a male). Heck in Primal Waters the main character of Danielle Taylor was so annoying that in this novel she's limited (and rightfully so) to less than 15 pages...that's the best move Alten has managed with females. I didn't buy the core relationship in Hell's Aquarium because it just felt "been there done that" and yet too much of the story needs us to accept this bond between characters to truly experience the journey.

Now, with all that said you'd probably think I hated this book. Nope. In fact I read it through in a couple of sittings, had a smile on my face and was entertained. However, the drawbacks would probably keep me from recommending this book to my friends. If you've never read the series stick to MEG and THE TRENCH and you'll have a better time.