We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

I've been a fan of Steve Alten ever since I first read Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror back in 1997, but I usually reserve these books for summer reading and my Don't Go Near the Water reading challenge, so why I'm reading it right before Christmas when I should be reading Christmas Horror novels is a mystery to me.

Nightstalkers picks up shortly after the events of Hell's Aquarium. Thanks to all those eaten by the Megs, the Tanaka Institute is being inundated with lawsuits that are driving the institute into bankruptcy. Add to that the stress of knowing Angel's offsprings Bela and Lizzy are loose, so to say the situation is creating a strain on Jonas and Terry's marriage would be an understatement. David, Jonas's son, is depressed and suicidal over the death of his girlfriend, who was eaten by a Liopleurodon, and he feels that the only way to free himself from the nightmare he's trapped in is to kill the creature that caused it. What follows is more of what we've come to love about the Meg series -- aquatic dinosaurs long thought extinct wreaking havoc and eating people to their heart's content.

Reading one of the Meg books with its recurring cast of characters is like visiting with old friends. Fast-paced and action-packed, these books always hold me in their thrall. The only problem I had with this particular entry is the presence of Zachary Wallace, the central character of Alten's The Loch and its sequel, Vostok. Now, I loved The Loch, but Alten jumped the megalodon with Vostok, bringing in aliens, UFOs, and time travel, and, unfortunately, the author drags all that baggage into Nightstalkers, earning a number of eye rolls from me and causes enough of a distraction to lose half a star from the total rating, bringing what could've been a 5 star read to a 4.5. Don't let that minor glitch dissuade you from diving in and swimming with the megs. If you like creature features, or if you like plain ol' dinosaur mayhem, I definitely recommend checking out this series. 

They're Coming to Get You, Barbara...

Though thankfully, there's no Barbara within these pages. That would've been a bit much.

As much as I feel there's an oversaturation of zombie fiction out there, zombies will always have a special place in my heart because the first short story that I ever had published was a piece of zombie fiction. As a result, I sometimes feel the need to take a trip into some zombie-fied landscape, and what better trip to take than to take one created by the father of the modern zombie movement, George Romero.

The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus has been sitting in my TBR since the day it was published (August 4, 2020), but the itch to delve into another zombie-infested world eluded me until recently.Mind you, I was going into this book blind, having read nothing about it until the day I cracked the book open, so I can honestly say I had no idea what to expect going in. Would we be seeing the outbreak from the beginning, or since Romero's zombies have been around since 1968, would we be jumping in decades into the outbreak? I won't keep you in suspense -- we're witnessing the beginning of the outbreak. And the year isn't 1968. It's more contemporary -- 2023. October, to be exact.

Early on, I almost put the book aside several times. It felt plodding and directionless. Why? We were introduced to a large cast of characters and given backstory for just about every character introduced. You would just be getting caught up in the action, then suddenly have to put on the brakes on as we're provided their backstory. Even characters that are introduced and killed off within the same chapter have an extensive history that we learn before they die. Then, about halfway through, there's a time jump of ten years and we're given a year by year summary of things Etta Hoffman has learned and documented. While interesting, it's just slightly less tedious that the first half of the book. Then there's another time jump, this time only four or five years, at which point many of the characters we were introduced to in the first part have come together, and it is here where the story starts gathering steam. While the first half took me several weeks to get through, I finished the second half in a matter of days, and it's for that reason I would recommend it. But it's not for everyone. Why?

First off, if you're one who likes a happily ever after ending, DO NOT read this book. It's bleak as hell, and it paints a rather dismal picture of humanity. Second, if you're one of these "I'm only 20 pages in, but can you let me know if it gets better" readers, DO NOT read this book. As I already stated, the book is slow and plodding in the beginning and you'll be asking that question with every chapter. It's saying something when I contemplate putting a book aside (which would never really happen. I tend to finish what I start, and there's only a handful of books that I actually ended up not finishing). And third, if gore turns your stomach and makes you want to stop reading, DO NOT read this book. While it's tame when you compare it to today's extreme horror fiction, it does have its moments. BUT if you're a fan of all things zombie, then this one is definitely worth checking out. 4/5 stars