Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror

MEG

The cover of Meg.
Author	Steve Alten
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Meg
Genre	Science fiction/Horror
Publisher	Bantam Books
Publication date	July 1997
Media type	Print (paperback and hardback)
Pages	337 pp (paperback)
ISBN	(paperback)
OCLC	64574002
LC Class	CPB Box no. 2426 vol. 1
Followed by	The Trench

MEG is a science fiction novel by Steve Alten, and was first published in July 1997. The novel, along with its sequels, follows the under water adventures of a U.S Navy deep sea diver named Jonas Taylor.

The novel begins in the late Cretaceous, with a herd of Shantungosaurus being attacked by a Tyrannosaurus rex on a shoreline. The Tyrannosaurus rex chases a pair of Shantungosaurus into the sea and gets trapped in the mud. It is swiftly killed by a massive Megalodon.

In 1997, Jonas Taylor is a deep sea diver working for the United States Navy on a top-secret dive in the Mariana Trench. He sees a Megalodon, a massive ancient predator that is believed to be extinct. Because he is the only survivor he is disbelieved. He becomes a paleontologist and tries to prove that the Megalodon is real, but he is still considered a crackpot.

An old friend, Masao Tanaka, asks him to go back and help recover a UNIS (Unmanned Nautical Informational Submersible), which helps predict earthquakes, from the Mariana Trench. Again, they encounter a megalodon in the depths: the species has indeed survived, but is trapped in the Mariana Trench due to the 'cold water barrier' (the bottom of the Trench is heated by geothermal ducts, keeping the water warm, but that warmth has limited range and the far colder water above it keeps the sharks trapped there as the cold water would apparently have highly negative effects on the giant sharks unless traversed properly). A white bioluminescent (millions of years of adapting to the darkness of the trench lead to this evolutionary trait) male megalodon attacks them and kills Tanaka's son D.J. before being entangled in the metal ropes connecting the submarine to the ship, which start dragging the shark up. However, the male shark's vulnerable state prompts an even larger female megalodon to emerge and attack it, and as the female rips it apart, she is bathed in the shark's warm blood as she follows the entangled male upwards, the warm flood of liquid keeping the female protected from the cold water long enough for it to reach the warmer surface waters of the ocean, hence unleashing the megalodon anew on the ocean's ecosystem.