Alten Knows How To Bring The Action
I've been a reader of the MEG series for quite some time. I remember picking the first MEG book out at the local library in my hometown and thinking "what the heck is this?" I was enthralled. I grew up loving dinosaurs and sharks and this felt like the perfect combination of the two. Fast-forward probably 10-15 years and you have me now - I still love dinosaurs and sharks and now the MEG series. Alten has been writing these for years now and I've enjoyed each one of them in their own way. In book four (Hell's Aquarium) Alten introduces not only a new character but a whole new group of them from an underwater lake. Nightstalkers picks up where that left off (with a slight intro that got me back up to speed). And just goes pedal to the metal from that point on. Nightstalkers is right on par with the other MEG books along with Alten's non-MEG books. There was even a small scene that would end up being a hint to his newer book Undisclosed (zero-point energy). Alten knows how to weave ancient history (old dinos/sharks/animals/fish) and technology into a seamless and entertaining joyride of a book. Nightstalkers is full of action and a lot of "breath-holding" scenes where you're really not sure how anyone is going to make it out alive. I like books like that. Sure, sometimes they can be mindless, but every time Nightstalkers would slip into that Alten would throw a curveball with some new science or technology. I also particularly liked that one of the characters had Parkinson's - since Alten himself also has this ailment. It just felt like a nice inclusion and a way to write about it without shoving it in your face (it wasn't the main character or anything like that). Overall, MEG: Nightstalkers was an action-past, slightly mindless, entertaining piece of fiction. What more would you expect featuring prehistoric sharks!? I was given a free copy of this book - it has not affected my review in any way.