Leviathan

by Jared Sandman

Kept hidden from mankind forever, it is about to surface.

When it rises up, the mighty are terrified.

After a rash of violent attacks throughout the Caribbean, marine biologist Kelly Andrews captures evidence of an unidentified predator in the Atlantic. Something unknown to science, something altogether new . . . or else something very old.

It makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea.

Billionaire Oscar Wright also learns of the sea monster's existence, which he considers to be the Biblical Leviathan. Driven mad by grief, the old man devotes his vast fortune to kill the beast for a personal vendetta, harvest its hide as the ultimate trophy.

Nothing on earth is its equal—a creature without fear.

Two separate expeditions race across the ocean to find the creature. And when it's discovered, one thing becomes clear: mankind no longer tops the food chain.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Novels, Thriller

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 17, 2010

About the author

I was born in the Midwest and moved to Florida after school, where I now live in the Tampa Bay area. I'm currently working on my seventh novel. Visit my website, www.jaredsandman.com, for free stuff or follow me on Twitter (@JaredSandman).

Reviews

[Michael Fierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I was searching for 'beasts of the Bible', an offshoot branch of cryptozoology I think is interesting, I came across this.

I thought the cover was cool depicting what I thought was a large 'barnacled' prehistoric whale.

After searching for books in a genre I ignored up to that point: tech-thrillers, I'd finally gathered as much info I could on modern thrillers that combined science with cryptid horror (or, at least, adventure -doesn't always have to have horror elements in it for me to like!) in hopes that maybe I would be into this genre afterall. I loved Jaws and Jurassic Park so I thought maybe I could really get into some of them.

I was right.

After researching dozens of books I narrowed it down to about 30 I was interested in. I purchased about 12 of them. I read 2 I liked before jumping into this one.

Funny how some of these books get called tech-thrillers. Many skip over most of the science or keep the story a bit removed from the tech that would realistically be involved in a story of such. I was surprised - especially when seeing how young the author looks on the back cover - that this a solid tech-thriller containing what felt like some good plausible science utilizing gear and equipment that felt fully realized.

I remember seeing the title, Leviathan, and to me it looked like a whale on the cover, and I thought, "this looks like a nice upbeat adventure I can read some sunny day" -thinking this was maybe about a whale with a religious purpose...a 'misunderstood beast' tagged with killing and destruction it had actually never committed.

Jeezus was I wrong!

Before this I read Kronos by Jeremy Robinson about a vicious Kronosaurus dinosaur. I thought from that cover it was going to be similar in tone to Meg, and in some ways it was. However, whereas that book I had perceived was more of a bloodbath - and it had its share - was decidedly not. But this book was the opposite.

It all starts off with a bang! Or, more truthfully, a few rips, a few tears and a few swallows -And right then I realized I was holding a horror book in my hands, wut wut!(?).

Seeing what looked like a teenage kid on the back cover fooled me into thinking it would be juvenile, maybe badly written.

It was not.

Jared Sandman is in a writing field dominated by authors, most of them with degrees in biology, oceanography, geology, etc., It takes a considerable amount of knowledge to tackle a novel like this regardless of its fictional content. Combining his scientific understanding with a natural storytelling ability results in a very enjoyable debut.

The characters are well portrayed and felt I could see this developed into a good film.

I was drawn to our main protagonists, Kelly Andrews, a Doctor of Marine Biology and Evan Hale, a former Biologist and Specialist in identifying known and unknown animal species, and felt true hatred for the uncaring, heartless and original antagonist in the character of Oscar Wright, a billionaire investor and Empire all of his own making.

I won't entirely give away what the creature is because that's part of the fun.

*Note to any over-sensitive Bible thumpers interested in reading this: No lessons from The Book of Job or The Book of Enoch here so you can put away your torches or go find some lousy Dan Brown novel to wave your torch at. The Leviathan of this tale is either not all that religious or on Sabbatical.

Planning to read another book by this author sometime.

**The cool cover art is by Ruth Taylor.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fun, entertaining and an all around good read! The plot was quick paced, and the book was over before I was ready for it to end.. If a sequel ever should be written (*hint hint*) I'll definitely be buying it! This story was good enough, I'm going to be looking for and likely buying more from this same author in the future.

[Krisdach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing, written for the SyFy Channel type of book.

Started out this decent character development but the obviously insane enemy and some blatantly erroneous decisions start adding up about half way through and things go downhill from there.

Unsatisfying ending is just the cherry on top.

[Marcie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leviathan by Jared Sandman is a thrilling novel. The main setting of this novel takes place in the Atlantic Ocean. This is where the mysterious creature with a voracious appetite lurks in the water. Two people are out searching for this mysterious creature for very different reasons. The hunt is on but who is hunting whom?
Leviathan has some very interesting characters in it. Oscar Wright is a multi-millionaire searching for the Leviathan. He believes the Leviathan is the same creature mentioned in the book of Job. Oscar would like nothing better than murdering the creature to smite God. He is out for vengeance and he won't let anything get in his way. Oscar is a cantankerous human being. The only person he seems to care about is himself. He does not hesitate to manipulate and sabotage Kelly Andrews. Kelly Andrews is a scientist. She's searching for the sea creature not to destroy it but to study it. Kelly makes some pretty risky choices along the way. She's willing to take the chance to get close to the sea monster. I like Kelly's character. She frustrated me at times with the crazy choices she made. She's driven by passion and like Oscar she's not going to let anything get in her way. In a way Kelly and Oscar's characters mirror each other. They are in a cut throat competition to get to the creature first.
I would also consider the Leviathan a character in this novel. The Leviathan is as mysterious as the ocean it lives in. There are many questions that surround this creature such as: Why is it here? Where did it come from? Is it going to eat me? The Leviathan seems to be an intelligent animal that is at the top of the food chain. Jared Sandman did a great job with making the Leviathan as realistic as possible.
The storyline in this book is a whirlwind of suspense. It has some exciting, action packed scenes. I really enjoyed reading Leviathan. I found myself lost in this race to capture this unique creature.
This is definitely what I would consider to be a page turner. Jared Sandman does a great job describing each scene to make you feel like you're part of the book. If you like action and adventure with a bit of science fiction thrown in, I would recommend this book. The next time I go to the beach I'm going to try not to think about the Leviathan. This book is fiction but still, you never know what's out there.

[Sid Payne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am giving Leviathan only a single star. The concept was very interesting but the execution of the story leaves much to be desired. The author made several basic mistakes that caused me to lose interest in the story. If you cannot get basic details down correctly, then the rest of the story becomes suspect. I can suspend disbelief about the fantastic sea creature, but there has to be some reality. First mistake was in the use of radio terminology. One never says “over and out” when talking on the radio. Over means you are finished talking and are expecting the other side to talk. Out means you have finished speaking and no reply is expected. The conversation is over. “Over and out” is just nonsense. Next mistake was the description of the Coast Guardsman as “first class privates.” There is no such rank in the Coast Guard nor in any United States military service. In addition, no such lowly ranking personnel would be put in charge of even a small boat. There would be at the very least a non-commissioned officer in charge. Then there is the problem with the patrol boat. The USCG does have an 87-foot patrol boat, but its complement is 10 crew members not two as written in the story. Nor does the patrol boat go 30 knots, its top speed is 26 knots. Another problem with the story is the fact that the Naglfar always seems to sneak up on the Aurora. Is no one monitoring the radar? There appears to be serious lack of bridge crew on the Aurora. There should be a helmsman, maybe a lee helmsman, plus lookouts and other watch personnel. When the author has the two ships meet and people go from one ship to the other, the author has them use a gangway or boardwalk. One cannot do this at sea if the vessels are moving. Even if the vessels are stopped, the sea will cause the ships to move around. The ships would have to be secured together with fenders deployed to be able to employ a gangway for passage of personnel. For these reasons and others, the story was, to me, ruined. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

[Dave Pope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good deep sea killer creature yarn. To start with there were errors relating to grammar but the writing improved drastically around a quarter of the way in or I stopped noticing any errors. If you've read the "Meg" series of books or 'Jaws' and the Peter Benchley novels about sea creatures this is in a very similar vein but it is a good read all the same. Go out in a boat and capture or attempt to kill a giant predator while it wreaks havoc with the good and bad guys in the story - 'same old, same old' except I love this kind of story involving the sea and the things that could be lurking in it.

[Kevin Kraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty well written, really. A bit too much unnecessary profanity. The Leviathan I found to be...not as impressive as the biblical description, unfortunately. That was disappointing. Good characters.

[Dave Ussed · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have given this a 1 star had it not been for that astoundingly absurd motivation the antagonist had that was played straight without an once of irony.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was recommended to me because I enjoyed the Meg series and I am highly disappointed. The story could have been interesting but it failed on so many levels. The only characters that seemed developed and interesting were killed off quickly and we were left with flat, illogical and inconsistent characters. The story was very much so about two of the main characters and not about the creature at all. Throw in a bunch of religious themes couple with more inconsistencies and it was a chore to get through. Also the author should stick to male main characters because he does not write female ones well. That character was so bothersome. Scientists who do not know how to use logic or prepare for anything are also annoying. I don't really have anything positive to say other than the idea behind the book could have been interesting.

[Preeti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite knowing I was probably going to be mad while reading this book, I did it anyway. I needed something light and dumb after reading Kindred, and I don't know that you can get much further from that book than this one.

And ohhh, did this book deliver on the stupidity. I took some notes while reading to try to document the scientific inaccuracies and general mistakes, and I think I started to go crazy. Reading through these notes, I see myself starting to lose it as the book goes on. There is a lot of cursing. So why did I finish it despite wanting to throw it multiple times while reading? I can't even give a good answer to that.

I would highly, highly recommend that you skip this one if you want to keep your brain cells.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some problems

First I liked this story. There some unknown animal killing people and trashing research equipment. Then you add in a multi- millionaire, who has his own agenda for the animal. The plot was good and you have a cast of good characters that are likeable. But my problems with this story are more of technical things. First the ranks were not for the Coast Guard they are Army. The second thing was a Luger is not a revolver if the author meant Ruger then it could be a revolver once is a typo but twice is a mistake. I know this is nitpicking but I do like a certain amount of accuracy in my reading. But it still was a good story.

[Mia Darien · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets a two rather than a one because it was competently enough written that I did get through it, and I was curious about how it would go. The What of the creature was interesting.

That's about as much good as I can say, unfortunately. For me, character is really important. That's my biggest problem with this book.

All writers begin with cardboard cutouts, copied from other things. It's our starting place, but we're supposed to then mold them, add things, tweak it, make them three-dimensional and original in their own right, and I didn't see that in almost any character here. (We also should like our main characters, or at least care if they live or die.)

These characters were stereotypes, two-dimensional, and inconsistent.

I was on the fence about our female main character--whose name I've already forgotten and I just stopped ten minutes ago...Kelly? I was on the fence about her, finding she did have strength but she was also a moron and kinda childish. The last chapters proved her to be a total child and a bitch.

There was no real growth to any of them, no changes based on what they'd experienced. We were Told there were bonds formed, but they were static and forced.

The idea is an interesting one, and Sandman is competent in his prose, but his character writing needs some improvement, in my opinion. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you and you want an interesting monster tale with a vengeance twist, then you'll likely enjoy this book. Unfortunately, it really wasn't for me. And as ever, I hate having to say that.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a decent story and worth the kindle price to buy. I did enjoy the time I spent in Mr. Sandman's world but I felt this book fell short in a few ways. Little too much character development on people whose only contribution to the main story was lunch for the leviathan. I would like to have seen a little more action in the action scenes as well. But still I would recommend this book do kill some time on a plane or a lazy Sunday afternoon.

[Babuir · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, you look at the cover and think "oh, another B-grade horror movie in a book." That's what I thought and that's why I bought it. Let me tell you-if you've ever had any views about religion, this book blows it all away as it threw me for a loop and ultimately made me take a look at my own relationship with "God" or whatever master deity you want to call it. For a simple horror novel to do that, you know it has to be powerful. Trust me, you won't be disappointed on this one.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a terrible read! The characters were juvenile with very little redeeming moral virtue. There was no satisfactory resolution to the main plot. Writing style was verbose and tedious! The story was interesting enough to make me want to see how the story ended, but I don't recommend this book to anyone.

[Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book under my recommendation list on my Kindle. I thought that it would be more Biblical than it was, but it was fine that it wasn't! The book was great either way! The imagery was great, which is what I look for in a book. The characters were great and I felt that I could relate to the characters.

[Thai · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book, a waste of the $1 something I spent buying it for my kindle. The characters were flat and boring, the writing was weak and I couldn't get in to it. It's supposed to be about a monster and yet, it was so tired and rushed.

[Randy Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read! Lots of action,

[Ranette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt this was a worn-out theme about creatures in the ocean that attack humans.