Thursday, June 16, 2016

Cryptozoological fiction: Steve Alten's MEG: Nightstalkers

OK, I finished my first read of MEG: Nightstalkers. 


Alten's latest is full of creature action, indeed a little overstuffed, and the chemosynthetic ecosystems presented would have to be orders of magnitude more productive than known examples to support a food chain allowing for giant-predator populations. (I'll give him a pass on the last such ecosystem we visit, though, because he's conjured up some invertebrate predators that may be unrealistic but are among the creepiest, scariest things in all of monster fiction). There is also a science fiction thread that makes sense only if you've read his novel Vostok.  
I always nitpick mistakes in technology in fiction.  I recently worked on whale-tracking technology, and the tech to track a whale 13,000 feet down, or under an ice sheet, in real time (as opposed to using pop-up tags that archive data) is too much to ask: marine tracking devices have very low power, under 1 watt, because otherwise they'd drain the batteries too fast. A character says at one point (correctly) that they can't track a whale in a subterranrean river deep under an ice sheet, then says on p.318 that they can.   
The old characters are all here, of course, and the game of "who will get eaten?" remains suspenseful to the end. Overall, the characterization is a bit below that in Alten's best novels, Sharkman and The Loch
There's kind of an arms race between Alten and Max Hawthorne over who can write the biggest creatures. Hawthorne's latest novel takes a a funny poke at Alten's "puny" Megalodons, and Alten pushes back by making his Liopleurodon not only bigger than Hawthorne's but saying it  surprised scientists because the fossil evidence is for creatures only half as large.  Hawthorne has been arguing that one fossil supports a gigantic pliosaur,  so this could be a dig on Alten's part. I'm not sure whether this is deliberate, but it's a fun connection to make. In general, I have the same criticism of Alten and Hawthorne I always do: even if you set side the implausible circumstances needed for undiscovered survival up the present day, I think the creatures are too big, too smart, and too emotional. But if all you want to do is enjoy the adventure, you can set that aside as being within the purview of a novelist and go with it.  
In sum, this is a crowd-pleaser for Alten (and  Hawthorne) fans: exotic locations, giant predators, lots of blood, and a mix of heroic and stupid characters (who are sometimes the same person) getting in and out of hair's-breadth scrapes. Alten turns his fondness for pop culture and reality TV up to 11, and that's always fun, and my favorite predator of all time, Dunkleosteus, gets a couple of pages. If what you want is a slam-bang, ocean-spanning monster adventure, you'll enjoy diving into this one. 

8 comments:

ted said...
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ted said...

The difference between them is that Hawthorne acts like a Dan Brown of paleontology, he makes up his own facts, is a slef-claimed expert and argues his research is serious and solid while no paleontologist specialised in plesiosaurs will acknowledge him. They're rather embarassed when Hawthorne uses some names for his pseudo-science posts.... While Alten repeatedly responded he only writes SF and does not pretend to publish scientific material, nr he tries to convince his readers about the existence, present or past, of oversized ancient predators. He's even somewhat conservative with the size (mass wise) of his megs. Modern research accepts an upper body mass approaching 100 tons while Alten megs never exceeded 50 tons :)

I'm not a fan of the scientific liberties taken by Alten, I don't like the super-oversized pliosaur mania since WWD, these animals were big but far from whale-sized, megalodon and Livyatan are by a long shot larger marine predators comparatively, but I respect that he does not pretend to be anything else than a SF writer.

Matt Bille said...

I can't figure out how you can cut a tunnel with lasers, either. Lasers, by definition, cannot spread out like flashlight beams to make a tunnel. But it's a fun book.

ted said...

Yup, Alten uses too much of pure SF stuff in the Meg series he once used in his other novels. But I rather focuse on the paleobiology field. Here again, too much liberties but at least not intended to be factual or near-factual like his main competitor who argues blue whale-sized pliosaurs and Triassic Krakens are a scientific reality.

Matt Bille said...
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Matt Bille said...

Agreed. Although the ancient sperm whales growing so much larger than their estimated 17.5m in a restricted underwater / under-ice ecosystem makes me wonder: Bergmman's rule,as Alten says correctly, applies as a general postulate to living in cold climes, but it doesn't work in isolation: restricted space and food matter, too.

ted said...

I haven't finished the book yet, the super-size of Livyatan is explained by Bergmman's rule?

Alten once said me that he enlarged some of the beasties so that they provide adequate competition for his Megs.

Matt Bille said...

Invoking Bergmann's Rule is ok, although it's more of a guideline: lots of exceptions.