History Literature / Meg

* EyeScream: Angel's mother is blinded via bright light in book 1. [[spoiler: Lizzy is blinded in one eye in ''Meg: Night Stalkers'' in a more violent fashion (she gets a shotgun blast in the eye). Bela doesn't fare so well either - her eye is later noted as hanging out of its socket after being on the losing end of a battle with a ''Liopleurodon''.]]

** Taken UpToEleven in ''Hell's Aquarium'', which gives us a 122ft, 100-ton Liopleurodon -- a good five times the length and ''50-100 times the weight'' of the actual historical ''Liopleurodon''. This is justified InUniverse as being an evolutionary adaptation to cold water living, but this still violates the SquareCubeLaw, as a ''Liopleurodon'' that size would weigh well over two hundred tons.

* AntiHero: Angel. She may be TheDreaded to the human characters for her appearances in the series , but she's frequently shown to be the lesser evil against the kronosaurs (in ''The Trench''), her male offspring (in ''Primal Waters'') and the ''Liopleurodon'' (in ''Hell's Aquarium'').

** Despite Steve Alten claiming to have done the research, this trope was readily apparent from the opening scene of the first novel, where a ''megalodon'' eats a ''TyrannosaurusRex'' that waded into a shallow sea chasing prey. Ignoring the bizarre reasoning for this scene, ''Carcharocles megalodon'' didn't exist until tens of millions of years ''after'' the dinosaurs went extinct. They also were ''not'' twice the length of the largest Tyrannosaurs, as the novel claims. Alten poked fun at himself using this trope in the rewritten version, where the whole thing turns out to be a fictitious "[[CoolVSAwesome clash of the titans]]" made up by Jonas to give his lecture audience an idea of the Meg's capabilities, going on to present the correct time period information for both (this error was not fixed in the sequels however).
** Also in this scene, ''Tyrannosaurus'' is shown hunting ''Shantungosaurus''. Although the two continents were closer during the Cretaceous, the two dinosaur genera are still only known from different continents (North America and Asia, respectively) and slightly different times (''Shantungosaurus'' is known only from slightly earlier strata than ''T. rex'').

** ''Shastasaurus/Shonisaurus'' is presented with large, sharp teeth, chasing after prey like an active predator, while the real animals lacked teeth and probably engulfed relatively small, soft-bodied prey whole.

** And [[SequelEscalation finally]], ''Generations'' gives us a 187-foot ''Titanoboa''. Not only is it a [[MisplacedWildlife deep-sea]] predator, it is about 5 times the length of the largest estimates for the real thing, and is large enough to swallow a two-man submersible ''whole''.

* CoolVSAwesome: Megalodon vs. ''Kronosaurus'' in ''The Trench'', and a super-sized (read:bigger than a blue whale!) ''Liopleurodon'' vs. Angel in ''Hell's Aquarium''.

** The ''Liopleurodon'' in ''Hell's Aquarium'' plays it straight but subverts it at the same time -- it's shown to easily kill Scarface in the book's opening, but only because it was able to ambush the meg while it was distracted by a kill. When it faces Angel, it almost loses despite greater manueverability and the size difference (Angel is 74ft and 50 tons, the ''Liopleurodon'' is 122ft and 100 tons) as Angel has a significantly more lethal bite. It's only able to deliver the killing blow when Angel gets accidentally trapped in the supertanker's netting.

** In the same book [[spoiler: the ''Liopleurodon'' and Bela face off. Bela is much smaller and less experienced than Angel was, and the ''Liopleurodon'' kills her by crushing her skull.]]

* DidntThinkThisThrough: The now-[[spoiler:land-hopping]] Liopleurodon charges into Luna's pen to confront her in the climax of ''Generations'', then swiftly realises that the relatively small tank cancels out its greatest advantage against the more efficient shark - its greater manueverability with its four flippers. [[spoiler:Cue [[CurbStompBattle Luna swiftly slaughtering it]].]]

* KilledOffForReal: Angel in ''Hell's Aquarium'', at the jaws of the same ''Liopleurodon'' that previously killed her son Scarface. [[spoiler: The ''Liopleurodon'' then kills Angel's daughters Lizzie and Bela in ''Night Stalkers'', and is subsequently killed by David Taylor, but both the sharks and the ''Liopleurodon'' have surviving offspring - until ''Generations'', where the Lizzy's last pup kills its Liopleurodon rival.]]

** In ''Primal Waters',' Michael Maren uses an underwater drone discharging special signals in order to lure Angel's son Scarface into attacking. During the final attack sequence (as Maren is provoking Scarface into attacking the reality TV crew and wiping out all witnesses to his crimes) Jonas works out what's going on when he sees the drone, manages to snag it and dumps it in the helicopter cockpit of a very surprised Maren. Scarface attacks almost instantly and drags the entire helicopter underwater, drowning Maren.

** The species of the Panthalassa sea can also do this -- [[spoiler: the escaped ''Liopleurodon'' gives birth mid-way through ''Night Stalkers''.]]

* NonMaliciousMonster: For all the death and destruction they cause, all of the {{PrehistoricMonster}}s in the series -- the various megalodons, the kronosaurs, the ''Liopleurodon'' -- are simply acting on their instincts to find food, reproduce and survive. Even the ''Liopleurodon'' [[spoiler:killing Kaylie in the fourth book]] is portrayed as a total accident, with David's quest for vengeance in ''Night Stalkers'' being entirely one-sided. The only exceptions seem to be Bela and Lizzy, and it's not clear how much of their shown intelligence and maliciousness is Jonas projecting onto them.

* PrehistoricMonster: As the series has gone on, more and more of these have been introduced. Aside from the titular Megalodons, there have also been Kronosaurs, a giant ''Liopleurodon'', Mosasaurs , ''Livyatan melvillei'' (an 80ft ancient sperm whale with a lower jaw shaped like an orca's) and most recently a near-200ft Panthalassa variation of ''Titanoboa''. Interestingly, aside from the prologue to the first book, no actual dinosaurs appear.

** ''The Trench'' has the first megalodon's offspring Angel, who is even bigger than her mother, as well as a family of ''Kronosaurus''.

** ''Hell's Aquarium'' introduces the Panthalassa Sea, a primordial ocean hidden beneath the seafloor filled with all sorts of prehistoric sea creatures, including mosasaurs, ''Dunkleosteus'', ''Shonisaurus'', and a one-hundred ton ''Liopleurodon''. And Angel has also birthed a litter of pups, who are growing fast.
** ''Nightstalkers'' has two of Angel's pups, Bela and Lizzy, the ''Liopleurodon'', as well as the ancient sperm whale ''Livyatan melvelli'' (with minor appearances by a family of ''Shastasaurus'' and a mosasaur).

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Over half of the fourth novel sees David, Jonas's son, try to save/protect his girlfriend from the abyss and their less than scrupulous employers. Near the end it looks like he has succeeded as they narrowly escape the abyss. She is then promptly eaten by the ''Liopleurodon'' (by accident, no less). It's... jarring to say the least.

* TimeSkip: There's an 18-year gap between ''The Trench'' and ''Primal Waters''.

* KilledOffForReal: Angel in ''Hell's Aquarium'', at the jaws of the same ''Liopleurodon'' that previously killed her son Scarface. [[spoiler: The ''Liopleurodon'' then kills Angel's daughters Lizzie and Bela in ''Night Stalkers'', and is subsequently killed by David Taylor, but both the sharks and the ''Liopleurodon'' have surviving offspring - until ''Generations'', where the last Megalodon pup kills its Liopleurodon rival.]]

* From the same book, one minor character has his asshole ex-wife and her boyfriend board his yacht so they can catch a home-run record-breaking baseball from a nearby game that they can then sell on for millions. When the ball comes their way, they jump into the water and physically assault him to get it, leaving him to climb out cursing - then Angel arrives, attracted by the vibrations of so many people in the water trying to recover the ball, and eats them.

* DefiniteArticleTitle: ''The Trench'' and ''The Loch''.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: In ''Generations'' Terry is calm and collected after [[spoiler:learning she has cancer]], being solely concerned with ensuring Jonas and her children and ready for her eventual death.

** Zigzagged with the Megalodons themselves. Being alpha predators, Megs see their own young as future competition -- Angel's mother devours the runt of her litter of pups shortly after birth, and Angel attempts to do the same when her two male pups are born. However, when Lizzy and Bela both give birth in ''Night Stalkers'' they claim the Salish sea as a nursery, [[CurbStompBattle massacring]] the local orca pods to give their pups a fighting chance. More notably, when Paul Agricola captures one of Bela's pups, the enraged shark and her sister attack his boat in a futile attempt to rescue it.

** David plays it straight with Bela and Lizzy, outright trying to save them from [[spoiler: the Liopleurodon]] in ''Night Stalkers''. In ''Generations'' he begins to form a bond with their surviving pups the same way.
* PrehistoricMonster: As the series has gone on, more and more of these have been introduced. Aside from the titular Megalodons, there have also been Kronosaurs, a giant ''Liopleurodon'', Mosasaurs and most recently ''Livyatan melvillei'', an 80ft ancient sperm whale with a lower jaw shaped like an orca's. Interestingly, aside from the prologue to the first book, no actual dinosaurs appear.

** Jackie deliverately overdoses in ''Generations'' out of guilt at misjudging Brutus' awakening, which subsequently sank the ''Tonga'' and killed many of her friends. Fortunately, Monty makes sure she survives.

* LaserGuidedKarma: In ''Primal Waters',' Michael Maren uses an underwater drone discharging special signals in order to lure Angel's son Scarface into attacking. During the final attack sequence (as Maren is provoking Scarface into attacking the reality TV crew and wiping out all witnesses to his crimes) Jonas works out what's going on when he sees the drone, manages to snag it and dumps it in the helicopter cockpit of a very surprised Maren. Scarface attacks almost instantly and drags the entire helicopter underwater, drowning Maren.

* OutsideContextProblem: The Lio pup turns out to be able to briefly [[spoiler:survive on land]] in ''Generations'', something which gets both [[spoiler:Paul Agricola and Fiesal Bin Rashidi killed]].

* JerkassHasAPoint: Jonas' first wife Maggie is manipulative, greedy and openly tries to makes Jonas look like a lunatic in order to get a favourable divorce agreement. But she's also canny enough to use Jonas' findings on Megs and studying Great White behavioural patterns to realise the first Meg is heading towards the Farallon islands long before Jonas does.

* VillainousLegacy: Celeste dies in ''The Trench'', but her memory is what inspires Maren to construct his elaborate revenge scheme in ''Primal Waters''. And once he dies, his notes on the Panthalassa Sea lead to its exploration and the Liopleurodon getting released into the world's oceans.

** David plays it straight with Bela and Lizzy, outright trying to save them from [[spoiler: the Liopleurodon]] in ''Night Stalkers''.

* TheTheTitle: ''The Trench'' and ''The Loch''.

* ''Generations'' not only introduces a Panthalassa subspecies of Megalodon whose average member is bigger than Angel (who was enormous by the standards of her Mariana Trench genetic line), but near-200ft aquatic Titanoboas.

* GreaterScopeVillain: The Arab conglomerate (including [[HarsherInHindsight Osama Bin Laden]]) that backs Benedict Singer's organization.

* KilledOffForReal: Angel in ''Hell's Aquarium'', at the jaws of the same ''Liopleurodon'' that previously killed her son Scarface. [[spoiler: The ''Liopleurodon'' then kills Angel's daughters Lizzie and Bela in ''Night Stalkers'', and is subsequently killed by David Taylor, but both the sharks and the ''Liopleurodon'' have surviving offspring.]]

** The megalodon Scarface is on the receiving end in the first chapter of ''Hell's Aquarium''. Having spent the previous novel terrorising Jonas and Dani, it is swiftly and unceremoniously killed by the ''Liopleurodon'' to show how dangerous it is.

* ''Meg: Angel of Death 1.1 - Survival'' (announced for December 2019); first in a series of e-book novellas set between "Meg" and "The Trench".

* ''Meg: Night Stalkers'' (2016) -- set six months after ''Hell's Aquarium''.

* AbusiveParents: Kwan's father, "The Admiral." Before the events of the book, his last interaction with Kwan was to come to the hospital and tell him the car accident that killed his mother was entirely his fault and his paralysis was "God's penance;" Kwan mentions the only reason he came to the hospital at all was to ''sign a 'do not resuscitate' order.'' Later, when Kwan becomes the titular Sharkman, The Admiral decides he is useful and manipulates Kwan into trusting him. It seems like his feelings might be genuine, until Kwan uses his enhanced senses to overhear a conversation where The Admiral [[WhatYouAreInTheDark barely protests against his son's execution]], [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness agreeing that he is no longer useful]]. Overall, he may be one of the worst parents ever put on paper.

"Meg" is short for "{{Megalodon}}", the name of an actual, over-sized, prehistoric relative of the Great White. (Although its size, strength, intelligent, and probably its ferocity are frequently exaggerated in the books; that, and it ''glows''.) The books detail the adventures of Cmdr. Jonas Taylor (and later, his family), a former member of the Navy who came face to face with the shark while diving in the Mariana Trench, [[{{RealityEnsues}} reacted about]] [[{{ScrewThisImOuttaHere}} the way you might expect]], and was drummed out of the Navy for allegedly going insane. Later, having become a marine biologist obsessed with proving he isn't crazy, Jonas ventures back into the trench, meets the shark again, and accidentally unleashes it. Terror, thrills, and more all ensue.

And we ''do'' mean ''ensue''. These books delight in taking their narrative about humans going up against giant sharks everywhere and anywhere they can think of, no matter how crazy, unrealistic, or controversial it may be. ''Franchise/IndianaJones''--caliber exploits by members of the human cast tend to be the result, with a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome or SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}, or both, often capping it all off at the finale.

The series is also becoming notable as one of Steve Alten's outlets for issuing a TakeThat against whomever he's mad at, and there seem to be a lot of them. The result may well qualify as BadassDecay for many readers, and although Steve Alten has improved as a writer tremendously since he wrote the first ''Meg'' book, the series has arguably declined in quality as Alten continues to supplement the series that [[AdamWesting everyone still associates with him]].

And yet, the series at its peak is affable in its cheesiness to the point of being like an old B Movie--SoBadItsGood, if you will, and there's just something about a man slaying a shark by [[spoiler: letting himself be swallowed and then cutting up the shark's organs using one of its lost teeth]] or a shark attacking [[spoiler: a baseball game, of all things]] that has the ability to put a smile on readers' faces, even as they shake their heads.

A film adaptation has been in some truly memorable DevelopmentHell since 1997 under the now defunct Hollywood Pictures. In the mid-2000s, New Line Cinema held the rights to the series with Jan de Bont (Of ''Film/{{Speed}}'' fame) and Creator/GuillermoDelToro involved. Creator/EliRoth later came onto the project, but it fell through. Principal photography finally began in October 2016, with Jon Turteltaub as director and Warner Bros. scheduled to release the [[Film/TheMeg film]] in March 2018 before being bumped back to August 2018.
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The initially unrelated ''The Loch'' features another scientist, Zachary Wallace, whose career is nearly destroyed when an expedition to the Sargasso Sea to find a giant squid leads to disaster. Months later, Dr. Wallace, suffering from a crippling fear of the water, is forced to return to his native Scotland in order to support his father, who is on trial for murder and claims the [[StockNessMonster Loch Ness Monster]] was the real killer. This forces Zach into confronting his own inner demons and, after tracking it down, Nessie itself. The book's sequel brings characters from both ''Meg'' and ''The Loch'' together, CanonWelding the two series.
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Also initially unrelated, ''Sharkman'' was made a part of the series when scientist Barbara Becker was mentioned in ''Meg: Night Stalkers''. It features Kwan Wilson, a promising young athlete paralyzed by a car accident, who agrees to a risky treatment involving shark stem cells that could repair his damaged spine. Unfortunately, Dr. Becker's treatment also mutates Kwan into a [[SharkMan humanoid shark-like being]].

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* BadassGrandpa: Jonas and Mac are both in their 60s by the time of ''Primal Waters'', and still manage numerous death-defying stunts to save people from the megs.

* ''Meg: Purgatory'' (announced in April 2018) -- sequel to ''Generations''.
* ''The Loch: Heavenly Lake'' (announced in February 2019)

And we ''do'' mean ''ensue''. These books delight in taking their narrative about humans going up against giant sharks everywhere and anywhere they can think of, no matter how crazy, unrealistic, or controversial it may be. ''Franchise/IndianaJones''--caliber exploits by members of the human cast tend to be the result, with a CrowningMomentOfAwesome or CrowningMomentOfFunny, or both, often capping it all off at the finale.

** It's explained the Kronosaurs (and later, other marine reptiles) are able to survive in the Mariana Trench because they evolved gills. However, no animals have ever re-evolved gills after having lost them, and in any case, it's heavily implied this change happened very quickly in response to the K/Pg-extinction, when it would probably take millions of years for a chance this reversion could occur. What's even more unbelievable is this happened independently numerous times, as it's stated to be a potential "natural transition" for sea reptiles.

** As an addition to the error in the original novel, the megalodon is claimed to have existed for at least 70 million years and notably, to have faced absolutely ''no'' competition from other predators across that entire period of history. This is ''an absurd'' statement, as if it had existed during the Cretaceous, mosasaurs would most definitely have provided serious competition for the shark, and after they went extinct there would have been many other large marine predators to coexist alongside (many of which easily rivalled if not equaled megalodon in size), some of which did indeed live during the real life period of time that the creature existed. That's without getting into the fact that one of the theorised contributions towards megalodon's extinction is that it faced competition from other smaller more adaptable marine predators, such as killer whales and even its distant relative the great white.

** Pliosaurs had already become extinct a while before the end of the Cretaceous (the youngest known pliosaurs lived around ninety-million years ago, while the end of the Cretaceous occurred sixty-six million years ago). They had been replaced by mosasaurs by then.