Released
in 2011, Meg Origins is chronologically the first in Steve Alten’s Meg series
but it was written and released three years after Hell’s Aquarium (the forth
installment/book) which was released in 2009. Meg Origins was penned as a thank
you from the author for the support for the Meg series.
Meg
Origins is a prequel set in the seven years prior to the events of Meg A Novel
of Deep Terror where Jonas Taylor was at the height of his career as an
aquanaut and working for the US Navy as a highly regarded and respected submersible
pilot.
The
book’s prologue starts 100 years before when the HMS Challenger discovers the
deepest part of the Mariana Trench which is named the Challenger Deep after the
ship itself. After dredging the bottom, the crew come cross fossilised
Megalodon teeth and from looking from the specimens, they discuss the possibly
of a Megalodon still being alive and during this leads to a sweet nod to Peter
Benchley’s novel Jaws where one crew member says to another “ We’re gonna need
a bigger boat!”
The story
then goes to where Jonas wakes up from a startling dream and he’s called into
the sick bay for a medical for an upcoming pre-dive for a forth descent. At
this point, Jonas has already been on three previous dives and is mentally and
psychically exhausted. The physician of record Frank Heller who is performing
Jonas’s check up is pressed by the Commanding Officer Richard Danielson to
allow Jonas to go on the forth dive despite his exhaustion. Jonas says this outright
and directly to Danielson knowing his current condition, it would potentially compromise the
mission and its crew but Danielson insists that Jonas “man up” after telling
him to get some caffeine as well as the Antivert and the shot of B-12 prescribed
by Heller for his vertigo and fatigue.
Jonas argues his point about the conditions
in the Marina Trench and about his backup pilot Royston being nowhere near
ready for a dive at those depths. Danielson disagrees strongly and tells Jonas
that he will be piloting the submersible and if he doesn’t, he will be issued a
court martial and the backup Royston would replace him. Forty minutes later,
Jonas is onboard the DSV Sea Cliff going through the pre-dive checklist before
taking the dive into the Marina Trench and the encounter that will change his
life forever.
Meg Origins
is a short and sweet story. I came to reading it having just read and finished the
first book Meg A Novel of Deep Terror. Although that it isn't a requirement to
enjoy or understand it, what it does add is an extra level of closure to them.
By itself, it tells the story of how several different factors came together at
the same time to trigger the fateful encounter between Jonas Taylor and the
Megalodon on his Navy dive onboard the Sea Cliff and the aftermath of the incident.
It brings back some familiar faces and fleshes out the major characters including the two scientists who were travelling with Jonas on the Sea Cliff at the time of the decent as well as Jonas’s best friend James “Mac Mackreides expanding on his military service and the events that lead to his discharge and confinement in the psychotic ward of the military where he meets Jonas. The story as a whole lends incredible emotional impact, and a lot of fill-in-the-gaps understanding, to the original story.
It brings back some familiar faces and fleshes out the major characters including the two scientists who were travelling with Jonas on the Sea Cliff at the time of the decent as well as Jonas’s best friend James “Mac Mackreides expanding on his military service and the events that lead to his discharge and confinement in the psychotic ward of the military where he meets Jonas. The story as a whole lends incredible emotional impact, and a lot of fill-in-the-gaps understanding, to the original story.
If you
haven’t read any of Steve Alten’s books, Meg Origins would be a good place to
start and give you as the reader an idea what to expect in the other entries in
the Meg series as well as his other works.
Meg Origins is available only as an e-book but can be found in all e-books formats at about 99p (UK) or 99 cents (US) in price so a nice cheap novel for you to sink your teeth into.
