IN THE DEPTHS, SOMETHING WAITS … Acclaimed film director Jake Bentneus pilots a custom submersible to the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Pacific, the deepest point of any ocean of Earth. But something lurks at the hot hydrothermal vents, a creature—a dinosaur—too big to exist. Gigadon. It not only exists, but it follows him, hungrily, back to the surface. Later, a barely living Bentneus offers a $1 billion prize to anyone who can find and kill the monster. His best bet is renowned ichthyopaleontologist Sean Muir, who had predicted adapted dinosaurs lived at the bottom of the ocean. But Muir is in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison for the death of his wife on a dive meant to confirm his theories. That doesn’t matter—Jake Bentneus has the means to get Muir out. He also has the means to put him back in prison forever if he doesn’t kill Gigadon. With a mind badly warped by a year in solitary confinement, can Muir solve the mystery of his wife’s death while also traveling to the bottom of Challenger Deep to hunt and kill this impossible dinosaur? If he wants to remain a free man, he’ll have to do both. He’ll have to learn everything there is to know about PREHISTORIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIGHT THEM
The title gives it away so I can safely say that I love reading about sea monsters, prehistoric sea monsters especially. I knew nothing about this one going in but I'm very happy that I read it.
It has a good suspenseful start, kicks it up a notch then slows down in the middle to go back in time a few years. At first, I didn't like this flashback and while I'm still on the fence about it (and about placement in the book), it fits the story well enough. The ending felt a little anticlimactic to me. Perhaps a cliffhanger would have worked well here - read the book and see how you feel.
All in all, besides the overuse of "ha", this was a fun read that kept my attention. If you're into sea monsters or prehistoric life, pick it up and give it a shot.
When famed film maker Jake Bentneus pilots a custom submersible to the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Pacific, he finds that life does adapt and there is a hot hydrothermal vent at the bottom. Swimming in these thermals he discovers things that shouldn't exist. Pre-historic beasts. He sees Megladons but he also sees something that devours the Megladon in one bite. It's ginormous!! He names it Gigadon. In the Submersible Jake decides to get the heck out of there but the Gigadon follows him. Something happens to Jake and he barely survives. Now, a year after the accident, he offers a $1 billion reward to whomever kills Gigadon and brings his head to his hospital in Guam. Can they kill something that has adapted to live in the depths of the ocean?
I really enjoyed this! I went in with no expectations and ended up enjoying the ride. It's the type of book that reminds me of those movies on the sci-fi channel. You know the ones where you think they will be stupid, but you end up watching till the end and find that you enjoyed it. A guilty pleasure!!
Anyway, this was a fun and entertaining read. It's well written (if you suspend disbelief) and well researched. I love a good deep sea adventure, especially if there are prehistoric beasts in them and this one had them in bounds. There is a lot going on apart from the beasts. There is mystery, suspense and science. While the start of the book is slow enough, it plods along at a decent pace. I listened to it in two days!! The characters are varied and well developed. I pretty much liked them all. The descriptive writing was another plus. I could picture the dinosaurs perfectly!! It would make a good movie!!
In all, a good read and I must check out more from this author.
S. W. Salzman sounded like he enjoyed reading this. He was enthusiastic and energetic and it made for a great listen. He had plenty of tones and voices and even did the female voices really well. I thoroughly enjoyed his performance!!
I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.
I stumbled across this book while browsing, it was the cover that interested me then of course the description. The combination of the fact that I'm a Jurassic Park fan and my son's interest in Sharks and Dinosaurs made this book irresistible. I do love a good adventure.
So we have scientists who believe of the possibility of finding prehistoric beasts in the depths of the ocean and as they try to go deep where no one has been able to go before an accident occurs and the research mission is stopped.
Later, film director Jake Bentneus pilots a submersible that can reach the deepest point of the ocean, and while on a live broadcast he discovers creatures of the deep, one of which is the Megladon, the biggest predator known, but something else is there and it's big enough to devour the Megladon in a single bite. How big is that thing? What is it? It is the biggest scientific discovery and it's following Jake to the surface where it bites the submersible leaving Jake a dead man.
Jake's body might be dead but his mind is not and what he really wants is to see Gigadon dead, so he offers 1 billion dollars as a reward and the hunting begins.
Fun, fast, and a bit over the top, this was a good enjoyable read.
I enjoyed the scientific talk and description, this was my favourite part.
But I had a few issues, first of all what happened to Jake, it's like the author kept going and didn't know when to stop, it was just too much and too exaggerated, too unbelievable.
And then there is the killing of the Gigadon, it is one of the greatest discoveries in the scientific world, are they just going to stand by and watch as others gather around to kill it!
I had a problem with that bit, I wish it was just hunting it for research purpose.
I went into this book with no expectations and it was a fun adventure that I enjoyed.
Everyone is on the hunt for gigadon the super huge beast that pretty much killed famed film director Jake Bentneus and who is now offering a one billion dollar prize to the person or team that brings him the head of gigadon, including his own dream team.
Author Navikov has a way with story telling. The non-stop action, suspense, and twists all were awesomely placed, with the horror sprinkled all around. The characters are all well defined and play well off of each other and if you have the audio narrated by S W Salzman than you are really in for a treat, as he has voices for each character and Slip Jack's voice is pretty cool. Salzman can easily suck you into the story like you are on Spit with the team, just by listening, his voice is mesmerizing, and well worth the audiobook.
Great fantastical story. There are some very annoying missed editting errors such as referring to defence meaning prosecution etc. But overall well written xx
I listened to an audio version which is not currently listed on Goodreads.com so I am placing my review here.
This is a prime example of "don't judge a book by its cover" but first an important note: I can see how some people could enjoy this book. This book is essentially "drama" because it adds some big emotional twist to every aspect of its story. That is not for me and, perhaps if I had read the book description more carefully, I would not have bothered. But who writes a book about a "prehistoric beast" to tell a family drama about a wrongly acused man losing his wife???????? And that is just the first of the dramatic story lines, which is why I only got half way through this book before giving up. Now back to the review:
By the title this book should be action-adventure or monster centric. It is not. The initial encounter with the "prehistoric beast" is first turned into a tragedy and then later a court room drama and, from a legal perspective, a poorly written one, but to explain I have to give a SPOILER so skip the rest of this paragraph if you care about such things. Wife dies in submersible and husband is convicted of murder because there was sabotage and a lover. Yet no one thinks to look at the lover who had EVEN MORE OPPORTUNITY THAN HUSBAND to commit the sabotage. That is the first thing the both defense counsel and prosecution would have looked into since it was the most obvious flaw in the case. But beside that these courtroom scenes are written for television having the husband convicted on a small amount of circumstantial evidence because the author couldn't be bothered to do a better job of it. Frankly this seems clearly to be a case of cart before horse- author decided on a story line and did the bare minimum to get there.
Then the story skips ahead to a James Cameron character- someone who has made billions making movies and spends that money investigating the deep sea. After a very dramatic encounter with the prehistoric beast the James Cameron character puts a bounty on the head of the beast, which was one cliche too many for me and I quit reading.
Bottom line: Book cover intentionally misleading resulting in this book being a waste of time for action-adventure readers.
I didn't care for the over long descriptions and flashbacks. The story dragged before and inbetween any of the action with the monster appeared.
However, when the action did happen it was both a funny and witty read and I enjoyed those part of the story. Too bad I had to skip two thirds of the book in order to enjoy that.
I will probably try another of the author's books to see if the story is more tight.
Dinosaurs at the bottom of the Challenger Deep 7 miles below the surface of the Pacific. A well written story based on some shaky science which you soon accept for the sake of the plot and the concern for the fate of the characters. True monster slaying as in the old legends. A cut above the usual cryptid novel and well worth a read.
It took me so long to realize this was one because the techno was so...unimpressive?
The whole Muir story is painful, unnecessary and frustrating. The lengthy courtroom scene? OMG, just say both lawyers were tricky and ended up discussing a plea-bargain. Don't spend 2+ hours (audiobook) on it. Why would you put someone guilty of man-slaughter in solitary confinement?
So much exposition, then explanations of expositions, then reminders. Yes, I know the f-ing cable carries the radio signal, don't beat me over the head with this detail.
The monster was cool. I gave up 1/3 of the way through.
A scientist gets blamed for his wife's murder and goes to prison. A billionaire almost loses his life after his discovery of prehistoric creatures lining in the Marianas Trench. What started as a mixed up confusing first chapter got better but never fully achieved its potential. After enjoying "Spinosaurus"I had high hopes for this one but it ended up disappointing me.
Why would a billionaire explorer seek vengeance on a creature that was only surviving. Scientists don't become Ahab. The lack of respect for this amazing discovery is totally ridiculous.