''With the storytelling sensibilities of Crichton and Cussler, Alten sure knows how to write a thriller.'' --Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author, praise for the author ''Alten combines meticulous research with riveting storytelling to craft a new genre -- the historical science fiction thriller.'' --Washington Daily News, praise for the author ''Vostok's greatest moments describe beautifully alien worlds filled with sea creatures that might have evolved had natural history followed a different course.'' --BooklistAbout the AuthorSteve Alten is the New York Times and International bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the MEG series about Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70-foot, 100,000 pound prehistoric cousin of the Great White shark and Domain trilogy, a series about the Mayan Calendar's 2012 doomsday prophecy. His work has been published in over thirty countries and is being used in thousands of middle and high school curriculum as part of Adopt-An-Author, a free teen reading program, which he founded with teachers back in 1999. does the new york times publish books Vostok (MEG)
80 of 88 people found the following review helpful. Very DisappointedBy Nilesh NimkarThe Loch easily features as one of my top ten favourites.Imagine my excitement when I heard the sequel to The Loch was coming out. This book went from good to bad to horrible very fast. This book is NOT a creature feature like The Loch although it does appear to start off like that. Imagine your favourite movie, say Jurassic Park which featured a rampaging creature. Now imagine the sequel is coming out after a long time and you go to watch it. Instead of what you expected you see one creature for the first five minutes then you have to listen to the lead character lecture on his brand of religion and spirituality, about aliens who have advanced technology which can save us but we are not worthy, about physics that suddenly turns metaphysical. And then suddenly the movie turns about UFOs and time travel and saving the earth from military people who are all mean and the creature is still missing till the end credits roll. You get the idea of how this book is.The author has taken a very good property and ruined a second time, first being the Domain series with the book Phobos. In this book too he rehashes a lot of elements of Phobos including the exploding caldera, wise old aliens, "creator" and his light etc. Multiple time I found myself checking if I had received a book that was misprinted and that was infact two or more books in one.Being a long time fan of Steve Alten and having loved some of his previous work like The Loch, Meg, or even the recent one like The Omega Project, I was hugely disappointed by this book4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. The underwater creatures are gripping!By BooI'm a huge Steve Alten fan...have been since the first Meg novel was released. The Meg series is one of my all-time favorites. I also really enjoyed The Loch. Alten is at his best when he's writing about the creatures of the deep. The underwater creatures in this book are absolutely gripping...he did it again. I could not put this book down. Having said that, I could have done without the alien twist. It wasn't as awful as I've seen some reviews mention, but I'd have preferred the story embrace the sea creatures more and the aliens less. Either way, I really enjoyed this story, which is the sequel to The Loch, and I'd encourage others to give it a shot.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Disappointing...By Yolanda S. BeanWhen I first heard that there was going to be a sequel to The Loch, I was genuinely excited. And then, when I learned that the latest book in the MEG series would also tie the two series together, I was even more thrilled! The titular Vostok refers to a submerged lake in Antartica, where the prologue begins. With maps, and a very thorough summary of The Loch (as well as references tying this in to the MEG universe), the book is initially engaging - though it is disappointing to see just how short-lived Wallace's happily ever after really was...Unfortunately, this more recent book still shows the same type of editing errors - formatting problems and and verb tense inconsistencies. And women certainly are not depicted here as real people - Brandy appears to have undergone quite a massive personality change from her first appearance and the sexpot scientist's "threat" is eye-rolling... and while I had hoped that once the plot got to the actual animals, it would improve, it doesn't improve nearly as much as I wished for. The relationships between the people and their interactions are eye-rolling and while the underwater life is the best part of the book, that too is spoiled by this entirely ridiculous political/ancient aliens element. It adds a trippy level of weird propaganda to it that slows the pacing down so much...And ultimately, the ending's "twist" feels not only overly convenient, but completely unsatisfying and also shockingly abrupt. I had been looking forward to catching up on the MEG series next, but after this disappointment I am not... I wish he had stuck to just creature-feature and left the wackadoodle stuff in the editing bin...