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Sharc
Dramatic upheaval ensues when the world's largest prehistoric shark escapes captivity. Men put their lives in jeopardy to capture it, the press is getting in their way, and time is running out. In this non-stop adrenaline surge of action, anger and fear, the first floating aquarium is the scene of unprecedented carnage.
Maxwell Baxter is intent on fulfilling his greatest ambition yet. In the midst of international financial negotiations to raise money to complete his ARC with the Governor of California being entertained on his private yacht , the Megalodon terrorises everything in the Pacific, no matter what their size.
The world is watching them fail at their quest, but swimming with sharks has never been more perilous or drenched in suspense.
Maxwell Baxter is intent on fulfilling his greatest ambition yet. In the midst of international financial negotiations to raise money to complete his ARC with the Governor of California being entertained on his private yacht , the Megalodon terrorises everything in the Pacific, no matter what their size.
The world is watching them fail at their quest, but swimming with sharks has never been more perilous or drenched in suspense.
276 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 27, 2012
4 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 23, 2023
REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2013/08/10/a...
DID EVERYONE ENJOY THEIR MOTHERSHARKING SHARK WEEK!?!
Last year to commemorate the best television watching week of the year I reviewed Peter Benchley's Jaws and compared it to the film version from Steven Spielberg. And while the shark didn't follow anyone to the Bahamas to roar at them it just didn't live up to the film version, probably because everyone was too busy being terrible people and not enough time getting eaten alive.
So this year I decided to switch things up and read a non-Jaws centered novel and I did it in the easiest way possible, by seeing what I could borrow for free on my Kindle. Enter Sharc, a cautionary tale about why not to take presumed extinct giant sharks and try to lock them in confined spaces. Aka why we shouldn't keep letting billionaires play with science. HASN'T JEFF GOLDBLUM SUFFERED ENOUGH!?!
NOTE: I don't know much about Paul Rudd the $0.99 book Kindle author besides his inability to spell the word "shark" so for the length of this review I'm going to assume it was written by Paul Rudd the actor.
The novel opens with accounts over the years of various sea monster sightings as well as evidence that yes, previously extinct species have been discovered (see the coelacanthe) so if course it's entirely plausible that the prehistoric Carcharodon Megalodon could be roaming the ocean. Or you know, those dudes that reported these things could have just been super drunk. Don't pretend no one gets drunk on the ocean. I've seen it happen.
Paul Rudd then introduces his audience to a billion characters we have to keep track of, some of whom only have a POV for two or three pages because he may not be Paul Rudd after all but George R. R. Martin trying to write the shark epic he always dreamed of. You know, instead of finishing up A Song of Ice and Fire like he should be doing. Work on The Winds of Winter, your prequel Westeros novel A Feast For Sharks can wait.
Thankfully we don't have to wait long for the Megalodon to show up, but don't expect him to start eating people right away. First Paul Rudd needs to teach you all about the ARC (Aquatic Research Facility) which is built by insane billionaire Maxwell Baxter. Read: an even more crazy/manic version of John Hammond, who instead of two precocious grandchildren has an actor/singer teenage son who also has connections with shark hunting members of the military. Who happen to also have access to tons and tons of chum. Because that's what this book is all about.
In addition to housing a crazed 45-foot shark, the ARC also serves as a giant floating hotel and resort since it's a great idea to have vacationers stuck on a man-made island in the middle of nowhere with a dangerous and very intelligent shark swimming around. Unfortunately they don't try to use his obviously massive intelligence to find a cure for Alzheimer's and he gets out and goes on a mass killing spree instead. Sometimes killing random characters only mentioned in passing, sometimes taking out main characters but mostly killing whales and destroying boats. Which according to the Discovery Channel's fake documentary that opened Shark Week is 100% accurate.
Arnold Schwarzenegger also plays a prominent role, touring the facility for the Vice President who wants the go ahead to support the completion of the ARC. Which kind of works since the novel was set in 2010 but doesn't work because he never once says "I'll be back" or rescues anyone while yelling, "Come with me if you want to live!"
Which may be because that while the novel takes place in 2007 and 2010 I have a sneaking suspicion it's set in an alternate history version of America. Mostly because the Megalodon didn't go extinct, the Vice President is a sassy pants woman who I loved and humanity has never been to space. PAUL RUDD MENTIONS THAT HUMANITY HAS NEVER BEEN TO SPACE IN THIS BOOK FEATURING A GIANT MAN-EATING SHARK. And then that plot point was never brought up ever again. Really.
As if this wasn't enough, in a scene stolen out of Jaws 3, the shark is drawn back to the ARC to wreak havoc on its civilians. Although not in 3-D. In my head it looks a little something like this. NOVEL GOLD!
Unfortunately while it's an interesting premise it has the opposite problem of Jaws. Whereas in the original shark novel I wanted more shark and less people, in Sharc I found myself annoyed that we didn't get enough of the main characters. I was especially invested in the love story between the ARC's head scientist in command, Dr. Samuel Clifford and his awesome German assistant and oceanographer Claudia Metzer. Since the focus was spread so thin I was completely deprived of reading about what I imagine to be their amazing fan fiction type romance. Nor do I ever get to find out what becomes of Claudia. WHAT HAPPENED TO CLAUDIA PAUL RUDD!?! WHAT HAPPENED!?!
Instead I had to read about one-off characters with terrible names like Daryl Moxy, Jason Mabius, Captain Steve Rogers (which I will let go if it was actually Captain America), Colonel Cain Starr-Jordan, Sterling McDonald and Claus Piccard.
And don't even get me started on the 15 endings. Peter Jackson may have also helped Paul Rudd write this novel. There were a lot of shark-covered hands in this pot.
THE GOOD:
-Really loved the author in The Perks of Being a Wallflower
-Wasn't the worst Kindle novel in the world
THE BAD:
-Constantly smells like sex panther
-Not enough focus on the good characters who weren't terrible
-GRRM talked way too much about characters who didn't matter
-Peter Jackson could have limited the endings
DID EVERYONE ENJOY THEIR MOTHERSHARKING SHARK WEEK!?!
Last year to commemorate the best television watching week of the year I reviewed Peter Benchley's Jaws and compared it to the film version from Steven Spielberg. And while the shark didn't follow anyone to the Bahamas to roar at them it just didn't live up to the film version, probably because everyone was too busy being terrible people and not enough time getting eaten alive.
So this year I decided to switch things up and read a non-Jaws centered novel and I did it in the easiest way possible, by seeing what I could borrow for free on my Kindle. Enter Sharc, a cautionary tale about why not to take presumed extinct giant sharks and try to lock them in confined spaces. Aka why we shouldn't keep letting billionaires play with science. HASN'T JEFF GOLDBLUM SUFFERED ENOUGH!?!
NOTE: I don't know much about Paul Rudd the $0.99 book Kindle author besides his inability to spell the word "shark" so for the length of this review I'm going to assume it was written by Paul Rudd the actor.
The novel opens with accounts over the years of various sea monster sightings as well as evidence that yes, previously extinct species have been discovered (see the coelacanthe) so if course it's entirely plausible that the prehistoric Carcharodon Megalodon could be roaming the ocean. Or you know, those dudes that reported these things could have just been super drunk. Don't pretend no one gets drunk on the ocean. I've seen it happen.
Paul Rudd then introduces his audience to a billion characters we have to keep track of, some of whom only have a POV for two or three pages because he may not be Paul Rudd after all but George R. R. Martin trying to write the shark epic he always dreamed of. You know, instead of finishing up A Song of Ice and Fire like he should be doing. Work on The Winds of Winter, your prequel Westeros novel A Feast For Sharks can wait.
Thankfully we don't have to wait long for the Megalodon to show up, but don't expect him to start eating people right away. First Paul Rudd needs to teach you all about the ARC (Aquatic Research Facility) which is built by insane billionaire Maxwell Baxter. Read: an even more crazy/manic version of John Hammond, who instead of two precocious grandchildren has an actor/singer teenage son who also has connections with shark hunting members of the military. Who happen to also have access to tons and tons of chum. Because that's what this book is all about.
In addition to housing a crazed 45-foot shark, the ARC also serves as a giant floating hotel and resort since it's a great idea to have vacationers stuck on a man-made island in the middle of nowhere with a dangerous and very intelligent shark swimming around. Unfortunately they don't try to use his obviously massive intelligence to find a cure for Alzheimer's and he gets out and goes on a mass killing spree instead. Sometimes killing random characters only mentioned in passing, sometimes taking out main characters but mostly killing whales and destroying boats. Which according to the Discovery Channel's fake documentary that opened Shark Week is 100% accurate.
Arnold Schwarzenegger also plays a prominent role, touring the facility for the Vice President who wants the go ahead to support the completion of the ARC. Which kind of works since the novel was set in 2010 but doesn't work because he never once says "I'll be back" or rescues anyone while yelling, "Come with me if you want to live!"
Which may be because that while the novel takes place in 2007 and 2010 I have a sneaking suspicion it's set in an alternate history version of America. Mostly because the Megalodon didn't go extinct, the Vice President is a sassy pants woman who I loved and humanity has never been to space. PAUL RUDD MENTIONS THAT HUMANITY HAS NEVER BEEN TO SPACE IN THIS BOOK FEATURING A GIANT MAN-EATING SHARK. And then that plot point was never brought up ever again. Really.
As if this wasn't enough, in a scene stolen out of Jaws 3, the shark is drawn back to the ARC to wreak havoc on its civilians. Although not in 3-D. In my head it looks a little something like this. NOVEL GOLD!
Unfortunately while it's an interesting premise it has the opposite problem of Jaws. Whereas in the original shark novel I wanted more shark and less people, in Sharc I found myself annoyed that we didn't get enough of the main characters. I was especially invested in the love story between the ARC's head scientist in command, Dr. Samuel Clifford and his awesome German assistant and oceanographer Claudia Metzer. Since the focus was spread so thin I was completely deprived of reading about what I imagine to be their amazing fan fiction type romance. Nor do I ever get to find out what becomes of Claudia. WHAT HAPPENED TO CLAUDIA PAUL RUDD!?! WHAT HAPPENED!?!
Instead I had to read about one-off characters with terrible names like Daryl Moxy, Jason Mabius, Captain Steve Rogers (which I will let go if it was actually Captain America), Colonel Cain Starr-Jordan, Sterling McDonald and Claus Piccard.
And don't even get me started on the 15 endings. Peter Jackson may have also helped Paul Rudd write this novel. There were a lot of shark-covered hands in this pot.
THE GOOD:
-Really loved the author in The Perks of Being a Wallflower
-Wasn't the worst Kindle novel in the world
THE BAD:
-Constantly smells like sex panther
-Not enough focus on the good characters who weren't terrible
-GRRM talked way too much about characters who didn't matter
-Peter Jackson could have limited the endings
August 14, 2016
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback copy from Paul Rudd in exchange for an honest review.]
In some respects, Sharc reads a lot like a B list action movie, but at the same time Paul Rudd remains fully aware of this and occasionally pokes fun of himself in his writing. The comparisons to Jaws, the allusions to James Bond, etc. show that he didn’t take himself too seriously when writing Sharc, which is a good thing. It definitely helped me buy more into the premise and just enjoy the book for what it was rather than constantly nitpick over plausibility.
Sometimes the constant changing of points of view annoys me, but Paul Rudd managed to toe the line between head-hopping and moving the plot forward. The point of view changed often enough to make things interesting, but not so much that I couldn’t connect with the characters either. In fact, some of my favourite characters include the spoiled rich boy Tyler Baxter and the diver Morgan. Both have great character arcs and are just overall interesting characters. I wouldn’t go so far as to call them amazing, but the characters were good in that they were well-developed and changed throughout the story.
There are quite a few subplots throughout Sharc, but they don’t distract from the main plot: the fact that there’s a prehistoric shark on the loose. In fact, the subplots with the development of the ARC and the characters’ struggles just add to the tension the shark creates throughout the book. With the shark, it’s like waiting for a shoe to drop because you know it’s going to strike, but you don’t know where and when. You don’t even know if you can stop it. So I suppose Sharc could also be classified as horror, in that when you think about it, the idea of a great big shark swimming around devouring humans is pretty terrifying.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Sharc by Paul Rudd. You just really have to take it for what it is: a plot-based thriller, not necessarily hard science fiction.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars for Goodreads rating purposes.
In some respects, Sharc reads a lot like a B list action movie, but at the same time Paul Rudd remains fully aware of this and occasionally pokes fun of himself in his writing. The comparisons to Jaws, the allusions to James Bond, etc. show that he didn’t take himself too seriously when writing Sharc, which is a good thing. It definitely helped me buy more into the premise and just enjoy the book for what it was rather than constantly nitpick over plausibility.
Sometimes the constant changing of points of view annoys me, but Paul Rudd managed to toe the line between head-hopping and moving the plot forward. The point of view changed often enough to make things interesting, but not so much that I couldn’t connect with the characters either. In fact, some of my favourite characters include the spoiled rich boy Tyler Baxter and the diver Morgan. Both have great character arcs and are just overall interesting characters. I wouldn’t go so far as to call them amazing, but the characters were good in that they were well-developed and changed throughout the story.
There are quite a few subplots throughout Sharc, but they don’t distract from the main plot: the fact that there’s a prehistoric shark on the loose. In fact, the subplots with the development of the ARC and the characters’ struggles just add to the tension the shark creates throughout the book. With the shark, it’s like waiting for a shoe to drop because you know it’s going to strike, but you don’t know where and when. You don’t even know if you can stop it. So I suppose Sharc could also be classified as horror, in that when you think about it, the idea of a great big shark swimming around devouring humans is pretty terrifying.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Sharc by Paul Rudd. You just really have to take it for what it is: a plot-based thriller, not necessarily hard science fiction.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars for Goodreads rating purposes.
December 31, 2012
Very entertaining B-movie action. Gotta love a Megalodon on the rampage.
October 26, 2016
The entire time I read this book I could see it as a movie in my head. I really like books that do this so Sharc was no exception. This thriller with some pop culture mixed in kept me intrigued and I wondered what was going to happen to the mega shark. Although I wouldn’t normally read this genre, I loved it. Totally not what I expected, I enjoyed immensely as it headed towards its action-packed ending. Paul weaves an easy to read story and I found drawn to all the characters while hoping the shark wouldn’t eat them! If you like a good thriller that borders on horror then you will enjoy this book as much as I did. Jaws eat your heart out!
August 16, 2014
There are some critters you regret you missed, like mammoths and woolly rhinos and I think I could have been very fond of brontosaurus, And who could have resisted a dodo?
But....megalodons...I'm just not missing them on tiny bit and Paul Rudd's nail biting tale is not making me feel any cuddlier about them.
A terrific read, but scary.
But....megalodons...I'm just not missing them on tiny bit and Paul Rudd's nail biting tale is not making me feel any cuddlier about them.
A terrific read, but scary.
August 1, 2015
Very good book
Lots of action and interesting ScienceDaily . Stuff.and love sharks .drama action.Gore .good story and well written I would recommend this
Lots of action and interesting ScienceDaily . Stuff.and love sharks .drama action.Gore .good story and well written I would recommend this
May 15, 2021
I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I've always liked sea monster stories, be it dinosaurs, sharks or giant cephalopods and so I was looking forward to this one.
The first thing I'll say that I liked is that the book is presented almost entirely from the human point of view. A few books I've read have scenes from the creatures POV and it never works as it humanised something that should be a Michael Myers of the ocean, striking suddenly and unseen. Here we witness the many deaths and destruction from a wholly human perspective and it works so much better.
Also, the author does away with extrenuous threats, so there are no spies, no pirates or gun runners impeding our heroes and so it fits more I to the world as we know it and it is all the more scary for it.
Speaking of the heroes, I really liked the majority of the cast but there was an awfully big cast to follow and, while he does a great job at narrating the book, there were simply too many for anyone to be expected to offer a distinct voice to each one but things would've been much worker without such a good reader! While they're not all hugely deep, it is always a brave move by the author hen people you view as indespensible or central can end up fish food and more than once I was shocked by this happening.
So yeah, a really good book with some awesome gore, a real sense of dread and threat and some very brave moves. Highly recommended to lovers of undersea horror.
I've always liked sea monster stories, be it dinosaurs, sharks or giant cephalopods and so I was looking forward to this one.
The first thing I'll say that I liked is that the book is presented almost entirely from the human point of view. A few books I've read have scenes from the creatures POV and it never works as it humanised something that should be a Michael Myers of the ocean, striking suddenly and unseen. Here we witness the many deaths and destruction from a wholly human perspective and it works so much better.
Also, the author does away with extrenuous threats, so there are no spies, no pirates or gun runners impeding our heroes and so it fits more I to the world as we know it and it is all the more scary for it.
Speaking of the heroes, I really liked the majority of the cast but there was an awfully big cast to follow and, while he does a great job at narrating the book, there were simply too many for anyone to be expected to offer a distinct voice to each one but things would've been much worker without such a good reader! While they're not all hugely deep, it is always a brave move by the author hen people you view as indespensible or central can end up fish food and more than once I was shocked by this happening.
So yeah, a really good book with some awesome gore, a real sense of dread and threat and some very brave moves. Highly recommended to lovers of undersea horror.
June 23, 2014
This is entertaining but it isn't a top drawer novel. I love "monster from the deep" stories and sharks fascinate me to the level that I wonder if I'm not a reincarnated shark attack victim. This should have been right up my alley - it wasn't, but having said that it isn't a bad read by any means. The story has a lot of jumps in it and the characters are not fleshed out enough to make you care about them. The shark action is good but there wasn't enough of it - too much rambling about people who I didn't care about enough to get really worked up when they presented themselves as shark food.
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June 28, 2013I...just can't finish it. I saw it compared to Steve Alten's MEG series and that drew me cause I liked that series, but I'm almost 20% and just bored. The writing is okay, but kind of clunky. I don't know enough about the characters or what's going on to give a damn yet, and this is a fair ways into the story. I've got too many books to read to force myself to finish one I'm not enjoying. Others will probably feel differently, and I wish them the best with it.
May 28, 2013
This was ok kind of like watching a made for tv movie on the sci-fi channel. Which is why it took me so long to read it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews