History Literature / Meg

* TheDreaded: While the megs and later the Liopleurodon are this generally due to their size and ferocity, Angel holds a special dread for virtually all the main characters, and the fear of her escaping is a prvalent theme [[spoiler:until the Liopleurodon kills her]]. It's even revealed to be the reason for Bela and Lizzie's symbiotic behaviour, as their mother's scent led them to constantly swim in formation to give the appearance of a much larger animal.

** ''Generations'', traitor [[spoiler:Cyel Reed]] sneeringly proclaims he'll dance on [[spoiler:the cancer-stricken Terry's grave]] as Mac kicks him off the ship. Needless to say, his gruesome Megalodon-related death follows not long after.

** In ''Generations'', traitor [[spoiler:Cyel Reed]] sneeringly proclaims he'll dance on [[spoiler:the cancer-stricken Terry's grave]] as Mac kicks him off the ship. Needless to say, his gruesome Megalodon-related death follows not long after.

* ''Meg: Angel of Death 1.1 -- Survival'' (2020); first in a series of e-book novellas set between "Meg" and "The Trench".

* ''Meg: Purgatory'' (announced in April 2018; to be written after the third Loch novel) -- sequel to ''Generations''.
* ''The Loch: Heaven's Lake'' (announced in February 2019)

* AdaptationalSympathy: Downplayed but still present; in some ways Maggie is worse in the rewritten version of ''Meg'' than the original, but there are also a few scenes that present her side of why she wants away from Jonas so badly - seeing her husband become increasingly guilt-ridden and bitter after what happened in the trench, and withdrawing away from her into his megalodon obsession. Their final farewell before her death also has a hint of regret for the way things turned out.

** 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 -- one of these, the ancient sperm whale Livyatan melvillei, actually appears in ''Night Stalkers''. 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.

** 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.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Brutus, the 80ft Livyatan melvillei whale that proves such a headache in ''Night Stalkers'', escapes early in ''Generations'', setting up the possibility it'll clash with either Luna or the Liopleurodon pup -- then it turns up dead halfway through the novel, having beached itself in confusion at being away from its natural habitat.
* EntertaininglyWrong: The only reason Jonas goes along with Masao's plan to dive back into the Mariana trench is spotting what he thinks is a fresh megalodon tooth in the wreckage of their destroyed UNIS robot. Eager to prove the sharks are real, he dives down and retrieves it - only for it to be what's left of a giant albino starfish, to the hilarity of Terry, Heller and everyone else listening. [[MoodWhiplash Then an actual Meg shows up]]...

** 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. However, the rewritten book also has her note that he didn't make her life any easier after the accident, becoming increasingly bitter and angry at being railroaded by the Navy after the accident, and ignoring her dreams in favour of his megalodon research. It's still presented as [[ItsAllAboutMe a blatant attempt to get him to cooperate for her story]], but Jonas at least acknowledges the truth of what she's saying .

* LackOfEmpathy: After an accident in ''The Trench'' where Angel kills three high teens trespassing in the lagoon for a lark, Benedict Singer's representative Celeste suggests pre-emptively suing the dead kids' parents for loss of income, something a horrified Jonas turns down flat.

* SanitySlippage: Jonas spends most of ''The Trench'' convinced that capturing Angel was a huge mistake - jeopardising his marriage in the process - and, once she escapes, spends most of the book taking more and more reckless actions to put an end to her. It's only when he's nearly killed by hypothermic shock he decides to let it go, looking at it as God giving him a second chance.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Mac marroning Maren in the wastes of Alaska s treated as a satisfying LaserGuidedKarma moment considering Maren had been trying to ruin Jonas. The following novel, however, reveals that it wasn't just something to be shrugged off - it cost Maren most of his toes due to frostbite.

* VillainHasAPoint: One of Maren's many, many reasons for hating Jonas in ''Primal Waters'' is that the proceeds from Angel's performances didn't benefit anyone except him and his family, leaving other scientists with hopes of exploring the Mariana Trench and Philippines sea plate with nothing. It seems to have resonated - at the end of the novel, Jonas announces part of the profits from Angel's return will be used for exactly that.

** In ''Primal Waters'', something similar happens when a megalodon eats a grizzly bear. However, it's subverted when the shark gets indigestion afterwards.

* SanitySlippage: Jonas spends most of ''The Trench'' convinced that capturing Angel was a huge mistake - jeapordising his marriage in the process - and, once she escapes, spends most of the book taking more and more reckless actions to put an end to her. It's only when he's nearly killed by hypothermic shock he decides to let it go, looking at it as God giving him a second chance.

* 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.

* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: In 2015 Alten completely rewrote the original novel, changing numerous scenes, inserting Mac into the narrative much earlier and altering the ending (with Jonas blowing up the Meg from the inside by igniting the whale oil in its stomach, rather than cutting its heart out as in the original).

** 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.

* DefiniteArticleTitle: ''The Trench''.

* DefiniteArticleTitle: ''The Loch''

* BizarreAlienSenses: When Kwan begins his transformation, he gains electroreception, which he notes is like "feeling the heartbeats" of people in another room- not hearing them, but somehow able to distinguish them.

"Meg" is short for "{{Megalodon}}", the name of an actual, over-sized, prehistoric shark. (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.

* RealityEnsues: At the conclusion of ''The Loch'', Zach killed the now-crazed Nessie to save Brandy, True and Angus. The start of ''Vostok'' shows that by publicly revealing this he completely tanked Loch Ness' monster-dependent tourism industry, causing severe economic hardship for the locals.

[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9feae3bacd0a8ea39cf5dda3a4dbdde5.jpg]]

* ''Meg: Angel of Death 1.1 - Survival'' (2020); first in a series of e-book novellas set between "Meg" and "The Trench".

** 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 - one of these, the ancient sperm whale Livyatan melvillei, actually appears in ''Night Stalkers''. 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 - all the odder as mosasaurs subsequently appear in ''Hell's Aquarium'' and ''Night Stalkers''.

** ''Generations'' sees Lizzy's offspring Luna take on the offspring of the previous book's Liopleurodon - and [[spoiler:without the enormous size advantage of its parent, Luna kills it with ease]].

* 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 efficiently evolved shark - its greater maneuverability with its four flippers. [[spoiler:Cue [[CurbStompBattle Luna swiftly slaughtering it]].]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Brutus, the 80ft Livyatan melvillei whale that proves such a headache in ''Night Stalkers'', escapes early in ''Generations'', setting up the possibility it'll clash with either Luna or the Liopleurodon pup - then it turns up dead halfway through the novel, having beached itself in confusion at being away from its natural habitat.

* 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.]]

** In ''Generations'' [[spoiler:Cyel Reed]] is a traitor conspiring to kill off the last surviving megalodons of Angel's line. He's a sneering, money obsessed NoRespectGuy feeling slighted the much younger David is in charge - but makes the excellent point that the megs invariably escape when large enough, killing many people along the way, so why not off the last pups before the cycle repeats? Tellingly, it convinces Jackie, who had been ready to stop him up to this point.

* 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 Lizzy's last pup, Luna, 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.

** The original Meg gives birth to Angel and two other offspring (neither of which survive) in the first book before being killed, while Angel gives birth to two male pups at the end of ''The Trench'' - one of whom later impregnates her again in time to have given birth to a new brood for ''Hell's Aquarium''. This becomes a major plot point in that novel when it turns out that the Megalodon species has evolved to the point where the females inseminate themselves, basically disregarding the males to produce genetic clones of themselves.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Paul Agricola was introduced in the E-Book ''Meg: Origins'' - set prior to the first book but released after ''Hell's Aquarium''. If you've not read it, his sudden prominence in ''Night Stalkers'' can come across as a bit forced.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: ''Meg: Origins'' (and later ''Night Stalkers'') reveals that the reason that Jonas originally encountered a Meg in the Mariana Trench -- the event that ruined his career and set up the events of the first book - was because scientist Paul Agricola had accidentally lured it into the area while trying to get it to surface.

* 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 efficiently evolved shark - its greater manueverability with its four flippers. [[spoiler:Cue [[CurbStompBattle Luna swiftly slaughtering it]].]]

* 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).

** 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 ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' 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).

** There are many examples in the series where a megalodon defeats equally large and dangerous predators, but only the opening scene of the first novel qualifies (where a meg eats a ''TyrannosaurusRex'') because the marine reptiles are too obscure to the general public to be this trope.

** 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).

* ShoutOut: Alten clearly binged the ''Franchise/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' spinoff ''[[Series/SeaMonsters Sea Monsters]]'' prior to ''Hell's Aquarium'', as virtually every major predator from that series shows up in the book. The illustrations of the Liopleurodon in the book even use the same colour scheme as in the series.

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]].

* LegoGenetics: A key element of the plot, as shark DNA is incorporated into Kwan Wilson, resulting in his transformation into the title character.
* SharkMan: Kwan, the main protagonist, is turned into one.

* YourCheatingHeart: Terry's subplot in ''Primal Waters'' has her maritial problems with Jonas lead to cheating on him with younger marine biologist Joshua Bunkofske, though she realises the wrongness of it and stops (while he later gets eaten by Angel's male offsrping).

* TokenGoodTeammate: In ''Hell's Aquarium'' actress Lana Wood is the only member of the [[InNameOnly animal rights group]] to actually give a shit about the ethics of the meg pups being raised in captivity. Every other memeber of the group we see are motvated by either piggybacking off Angel's notoriety to become stars or financial benefit (one has a lucrative side business based on recovering and selling fresh megalodon teeth).

** Paul Agricola and Fiesal Bin Rashidi, the money-hungry {{Jerkass}}es responsible for much of the misery in ''Hell's Aquarium'' and ''Night Stalkers'' both [[spoiler:get killed by the Liopleurodon pup]] in ''Generations''.

* FreudianExcuse: ''Generations'' reveals that Jackie's reluctance to get close to David stems from her experiences with a deadbeat father that regarded her mother solely as a means of supporting her, then beat her into brain death when she refused to play along.