Steve Alten

Origins

Gave this a go when I saw that all except for 2 are currently included with audible. Just in time to head into October spooky reads, and I love some scifi shark horror.

This prequel novella sets out to show what happened on the Mariana Trench mission that cost two scientists their lives and almost killed Jonas Taylor as well. The audio includes a preface where the author mentions wanting to finally give the reader the inside details, as well as adding Easter eggs for book 5. Personally, this part did not really work for me, but it was nice to go back to. (I still think the prequel should be first in the audio, then Meg…).

The Easter eggs do not work for me because it gets confusing even though it’s short. Especially with the audio. The scientists are actively discussing megalodons and calling Jonas crazy, meanwhile in the first book it makes it sound much more cut and dry. He was overtired and on a dive he shouldn’t have been. During the dive, he caught a glimpse of a gigantic shark head, panicking, he rushed them to the surface. The meshing of meg talk with that makes the credibility of calling him a crackpot seem less likely for me personally.

Also this book really amped up the old men talking about women’s bodies style of writing. I get that people actually do talk like that, but it’s so heavily present in this and that’s just unnecessary. I’m here for sharks, not misogyny.

Personally a 3/5*, didn’t scratch the itch I was looking for.

C. J. Daley 

Gave this a go when I saw that all except for 2 are currently included with audible. Just in time to head into October spooky reads, and I love some scifi shark horror.

This prequel novella sets out to show what happened on the Mariana Trench mission that cost two scientists their lives and almost killed Jonas Taylor as well. The audio includes a preface where the author mentions wanting to finally give the reader the inside details, as well as adding Easter eggs for book 5. Personally, this part did not really work for me, but it was nice to go back to. (I still think the prequel should be first in the audio, then Meg…).

The Easter eggs do not work for me because it gets confusing even though it’s short. Especially with the audio. The scientists are actively discussing megalodons and calling Jonas crazy, meanwhile in the first book it makes it sound much more cut and dry. He was overtired and on a dive he shouldn’t have been. During the dive, he caught a glimpse of a gigantic shark head, panicking, he rushed them to the surface. The meshing of meg talk with that makes the credibility of calling him a crackpot seem less likely for me personally.

Also this book really amped up the old men talking about women’s bodies style of writing. I get that people actually do talk like that, but it’s so heavily present in this and that’s just unnecessary. I’m here for sharks, not misogyny.

Personally a 3/5*, didn’t scratch the itch I was looking for.

Origins

Reviews