I am familiar with Steve Alten’s work, so I have been following his newsletter, waiting for this book to be released. Vostok is the sequel to The Loch and the prequel to Meg 5: Nightstalkers. I cannot get enough of his stories. (You can see the books and review links below)
AWESOME!! cover. It looks so real to me. I feel like the croc is swimming towards me, getting ready to open its mouth and eat me. Bring it on. (On the hardcover, it is embossed and looks 3D.)
MY REVIEW
Steve Alten writes some amazing creature stories that arise deep from the ocean’s floor. I have had Vostok sitting on the arm of my couch, where I couldn’t help but keep looking at it longingly, wanting so badly to pick it up and begin reading…but, I made myself wait. I wanted to savor the moment and bask in my anticipation. This creature story takes a wild twist that I never saw coming but I jumped aboard for the amazing ride through Steve’s creative and imaginative, out of this world, adventure.
In Antarctica, help is sparse, so when the Aussies asked for someone to check out something they discovered, Thomas Nilsson a marine biologist responded. They wanted him to identify not one, but two species of creatures. It’s over Thomas’ head, so who better to call in than, Zachary Wallace, the marine biologist who solved the mystery of The Loch Ness monster.
We will meet with some familiar characters from The Loch and Meg novels and I was happy to see them again. Welcome back, my friends. Of course, that doesn’t mean Steve might not kill you off. He is not afraid to make a character…disappear.
We will be going under the ice cap to Vostok Lake. When they drop the sub through the hole, I could imagine what that would feel like. I am very averse to small, tight places, let alone an under the water ice world that Steve describes so well I can see it. It made me think of Lost World, but instead of jungle and heat, picture ice, water and cold. His description of the mountain coming up from the water with the ice, like a sky, overhead make me scream MOVIE! The words opened before me as if I was watching the action. And, yes, there is plenty of that.
Thomas had died twice before, so imagine his terror facing it again…and again. He had dealt with drowning and giant creatures of the deep that wanted to eat him. How in the hell did he end up doing it again? LOL
Steve Alten has me engrossed, reading as if this is history unraveling before my eyes. Well, who knows what creatures dwell in the deepest oceans. New discoveries are being made all the time.
Throw in big business and the government, what chance does humankind have?
Now, comes the really, really, really nice spin – ALIENS. Who are they and what do they want? I did not expect this, but went with it and enjoyed the ride. Sometimes, an author will take a spin that ruins the book for me, but Steve pulled this off. I am curious how he will pull everything together in Meg 5: Nightstalker and eager to find out!
This quote sums up big business and government to me:
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“There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from and checks and balances, and free from the law itself.
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Senator Daniel Inouye, Iran-Contra hearings
Do the elite work their hardest to keep the herd distracted? I feel there are some messages in Steve Alten’s stories, subtle, yet ones that should already be obvious to us.
If you could go back in time and change events, would you? What would it take for you to do it? This made me think of a Person of Interest episode where the machine ran through all the different scenarios, trying to find the groups best chance of survival.
There is so much more going on than I anticipated. It flows so smoothly at times I find myself relaxing too much, being jerked back into the story letting me know I wasn’t getting off that easy. If you found a UFO would you run toward it or away from it?
Steve Alten is a superb storyteller, weaving the genres together like water down a lazy stream, pulling me in, deeper and deeper (critters, aliens, conspiracy, betrayal, big business and government corruption, fantasy science fiction and horror) creating an amazing novel that will stick with you long after reading and will leave you anticipating the next book, Meg 5: Nightstalkers
Just two pages left and I read this:
“It’s a Nessie dildo so women like you can go –“
I busted out laughing.
I received this first edition hardcover of Vostok by Steve Alten for an honest review. Thanks so much, Steve and Rebel Press. It looks beautiful on my bookshelf, with the other Steve Alten books I own.
5 Stars
Buy Links: Amazon / Barnes & Nobles
I am so excited to have Steve on my blog today, sharing his thoughts on inspiration and writing.
INTERVIEW
How did you do research for your book?
You begin with a concept and hit the Internet.
Which was the hardest character to write?
Kwan Wilson in SHARKMAN. He’s a paraplegic. I spent time interviewing a neighbor who was also wheelchair bound.
The easiest?
Dr. Vincent Cope, Boca Raton gynecologist in my comedy novel, DOG TRAINING THE AMERICAN MALE (written under the pen name L.A. Knight). A man after my own heart.
In your book, VOSTOK you make a reference to JFK being assassinated because he was going to shutdown MAJESTIC-12. How did you come up with this idea?
By interviewing Dr. Steven M. Greer, the foremost authority on Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
What made you write a book about a subglacial lake in Antarctica?
The facts about Lake Vostok are just amazing. VOSTOK is located two-and-a-half miles below the ice cap in East Antarctica, the coldest, most desolate location on Earth. Vostok is a six thousand square mile liquid lake, over a thousand feet deep, left untouched for more than 15 million years. Marine biologist Zachary Wallace has been recruited to join two other scientists aboard a tiny 3-man submersible tethered to a laser which will journey 13,000 feet beneath the ice into this unexplored realm to discover Mesozoic life forms long believed extinct – and an Extraterrestrial object of immense power responsible for the evolution of modern man.
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
TV, newspapers, dreams…
There are many books out there about….What makes yours different?
I wouldn’t say different, I’d say additive.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Don’t write about what you know, write about things you like to read and do the research.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Steve. I look forward to reading more of your work…and soon. 🙂
SYNOPSIS
East Antarctica: The coldest, most desolate location on Earth. Two-and-a-half miles below the ice cap is Vostok, a six thousand square mile liquid lake, over a thousand feet deep, left untouched for more than 15 million years. Now, marine biologist Zachary Wallace and two other scientists aboard a submersible tethered to a laser will journey 13,000 feet beneath the ice into this unexplored realm to discover Mesozoic life forms long believed extinct – and an object of immense power responsible for the evolution of modern man.
In this sequel to The Loch and prequel to the upcoming MEG 5: Nightstalkers, New York Times best-selling author Steve Alten offers readers a crossover novel that combines characters from two of his most popular series.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Alten is the New York Times and International bestselling author of fourteen novels, including the MEG series about Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70-foot, 100,000 pound prehistoric cousin of the Great White shark and Domain trilogy, a series about the Mayan Calendar’s 2012 doomsday prophecy. His work has been published in over 30 countries and is being used in thousands of middle and high school curriculum as part of Adopt-An-Author, a free teen reading program, which he founded with teachers back in 1999.
Prizes: One of 100 (or more) print copies of VOSTOK Open internationally. Ends April 18.
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