West Palm Beach, FL,  - She was the formidable creature that ever lived, a 70-foot, 50 ton shark with a mouth filled with seven-inch teeth. Thirty-five years after Steven Spielberg's blockbuster kept audiences out of the water, the prehistoric cousin of the great white shark in JAWS returns this summer in NY Times best-selling author Steve Alten’s MEG: Hell's Aquarium (Tor/Forge) the latest installment in his series about Carcharodon Megalodon (MEG for short). And MEG is not the only monster to resurface, in Hell's Aquarium we're introduced to some of the most terrifying sea creatures of all time, all occupying a lost sea located seven miles below the surface, hidden beneath the Philippine Sea Plate. In Steve’s action-packed and fast moving novel, readers share in heart-pounding adventures that are so vivid and real, it’s hard to believe you are not in the next seat heading towards the bottom of the ocean!

Alten, who read JAWS when he was a teen and soon after began "devouring" every shark attack story he could find, penned his first novel, MEG back in 1997 by Bantam Doubleday. Twenty-five years earlier, Doubleday had published Peter Benchley's JAWS. MEG also became a best-seller, sold in twenty-three other countries, and was optioned for a movie deal -- twice. With a new script, top producers, and $150 million in financing to boot, Alten is hoping to hear good news soon. Watch the Hell's Aquarium video trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzfcpVuUBTc and it's easy to see why moviegoers are excited to see another shark movie.

The reluctant hero in MEG is Jonas Taylor, a former Navy deep-sea submersible pilot who discovered Megalodon still alive in the unexplored depths of the Mariana Trench. Attempting to prove to the world the creatures are not extinct as once believed, he returns to the abyss seven years later, causing one of the sharks -- a pregnant female -- to surface. In the MEG sequels, the storyline shifts to a surviving "pup." Angel is the Angel of Death, a 76 foot, 100,000 pound Meg that is kept captive at the Tanaka Institute, an ocean-side aquarium in Monterey, California. In MEG: Hell's Aquarium, Angel has birthed five female pups, already so aggressive they cannot be kept together in one pen. (The novel's opening scene gives one a new perspective on the recent Orca attack in Orlando's Sea World.) 

As accidents mount, one solution presents itself in a Dubai royal prince who has built the world’s largest aquarium and wants two of the pup’s ‘runts’ in it with one condition – that Jonas’ son David must be their trainer.  David agrees to do it and moves to Dubai, unaware that he is being recruited for another purpose.  Under the Philippine Sea Plate lies a hidden world of the most terrifying sea creatures in history and the prince wants them all for his prized new aquarium – and that’s where David comes in since he is the only man capable of catching them!

Thirty-five years after reading JAWS as a teen, Steve Alten is passing the baton to tens of thousands of teens across the U.S. MEG: Hell’s Aquarium is part of Adopt-An-Author, a nation-wide secondary school (free) reading program that gets even the most reluctant teen to read. And the Meg novels are a big reason why. Visit this incredibly creative author at: www.stevealten.com to see what makes Steve Alten a sought-after guest on the Today Show, CNN and the Discovery Channel where he brings this thrilling deep sea expedition to life.



Steve Donoghue Open Letters: Arts & Literature Review:  “The Moby Dick of giant killer shark novels."

Andrew Tallackson, Entertainment Editor, The News-Dispatch: “A knockout.  Steve Alten’s imagination, his wicked wit, his rip-roaring sense of adventure are on full display here.  This is Alten at his delicious best.”

Chip Minemyer, Editor, The Tribune-Democrat: “Steve Alten’s monstrous Meg series grows more frightening, yet riveting, with each installment.  With Hell’s Aquarium, you’ll be tempted to read ahead, but don’t you dare skip one terrifying turn on this thrill ride!”