A Novel of Deep Terror
Published: July 1997
Author: Steve Alten
Genres: Action, Animal, Creature Feature, Fiction, Horror, Sea Adventures, Suspense, Thrillers
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Useful search related words & keywords:
Steve Alten, Jurassic Park, Jonas Taylor, Mariana Trench, Peter Benchley, Great White, Page Turner, Years Ago, Deep Sea, Deep Terror, Character Development, Prehistoric Shark, Giant Shark, Megalodon, T-Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Paleontologist, Marine biologist, Jaws
Summary:
A Tyrannosaurus rex slips into the water while hunting a herd of Shantungosaurus in the novel's prologue, which takes place during the Late Cretaceous Period, and is soon ambushed and consumed by a megalodon.
Jonas is working with the US Navy deep under the Mariana Trench in 1997. His mission is top secret and entails the study of hydrogen nodules in order to solve any future energy crisis via nuclear fission, but it was his third dive in eight days and he was weary, despite being checked out by the Navy's top medical officer, Doctor Heller.
Jonas looks in terror as a megalodon emerges from the depths while on the dive. Jonas panics and surfaces as quickly as possible to escape, but the scientists are killed as a consequence; unfortunately, the Navy does not accept his allegations, calling him a lunatic and destroying his career while simultaneously covering up the medical officer's error. Years later, Jonas is still trying to establish that what he witnessed was true. This has also caused Jonas to distance himself from his estranged and separated wife, Maggie, and has resulted in her having an affair with his millionaire buddy Bud Harris.
Later, he is approached by an old acquaintance, marine researcher Masao Tanaka, who has misplaced a remote submersible that monitors seismic activity in the Mariana Trench and is hoping to recover it. Over the objections of Tanaka's daughter, Terry, Jonas agrees to assist Tanaka, seeing this as an opportunity to show that the megalodon still lives.
When Jonas and Tanaka's son, DJ, arrive at the Trench, they dive in small submersibles. A male megalodon emerges from the depths and, despite Jonas' efforts to distract it, kills DJ. Jonas looks on in terror as the megalodon becomes entangled in the steel wires that link DJ's sub to the ship. As the megalodon is dragged to the surface and its organs and flesh are torn apart by the cables, Jonas notices a second megalodon emerge from the Trench, a much bigger female lured by the efforts of her dying partner.
She strikes and feeds on the male as he is dragged to the surface, his hot blood shielding her from the chilly water barrier that had previously prevented them from joining the larger ocean.
Jonas and Tanaka are concerned about the potential for an imbalance in the ocean's ecology as a result of the reintroduction of a megalodon after a million-year hiatus. While Jonas and Tanaka are attempting to locate the megalodon, the female appears off the shore of Maui and kills many surfers. She also assaults a helicopter used by Jonas to pursue her at night after finding that thousands of years of dwelling in the depths of the Trench has caused the sharks to acquire bioluminescent white skins, and she destroys a military submarine headed by Taylor's former commanding commander.
Jonas and Tanaka realize the female megalodon is pregnant and are desperate to catch her before she gives birth. Maggie takes advantage of this opportunity to improve her profession by filming the shark from within a shark cage as she swims to California to give birth. The shark gives birth to three pups during her journey north. Maggie uses a dead whale to entice the shark in the Farallon Islands, capturing it on video but inadvertently causing it to attack her cage. Despite his best efforts, Jonas is unable to stop the shark and save Maggie, resulting in the beast eating her as she attempts to flee.
Jonas and Tanaka hunt down the female shortly after she assaults a whale-watching boat. After tranquilizing and trapping the shark, Taylor's furious superiors and Maggie's lover attempt to kill it with a homemade depth charge, prompting the shark to awaken and rampage, murdering hundreds of witnesses and bystanders, including Taylor's superiors. While the megalodon is on the loose, Jonas flies a submersible down her throat and into her stomach, where he uses an old megalodon tooth he keeps as a good luck charm to cut into the meg from the inside and cut off the whole blood supply to the heart.
Then, with Meg dead, he utilizes the beast's leftover hydrogen stores to escape the beast's stomach. He manages to flee but gets trapped on the jaws' edge. He shakes free and rises to the surface, fractures forming over the glass. He swims to the surface after exiting the escape pod and is rescued by a tourist vessel. As Jonas is taken away to be treated for decompression sickness from his struggle with the adult shark, the survivors in Jonas and Tanaka's team catch the last surviving megalodon pup, and they are delighted about the opportunity to study this thought-extinct species in the flesh. Angel, the Angel of Death, is the moniker given to the juvenile megalodon.
Rating: 100/100
Recommended: 100/100 Yes.
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