Mega

Mega Series, Book 1

By: Jake Bible

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's Summary

There is something in the deep. Something large. Something hungry. Something prehistoric. And Team Grendel must find it, fight it, and kill it.

Kinsey Thorne, the first female US Navy SEAL candidate has hit rock bottom. Having washed out of the Navy, she turned to every drink and drug she could get her hands on. Until her father and cousins, all ex-Navy SEALS themselves, offer her a way back into the life: as part of a private, elite combat team being put together to find and hunt down an impossible monster in the Indian Ocean. Kinsey has a second chance, but can she live through it?

©2013 Jake Bible (P)2018 Tantor

So much fun!

I listened to the original recording of this audiobook and found it decent, but nothing thrilling. However, as a fan of Jake Bible I saw he had a following with this series. With a new narrator, and renewed enthusiasm from him and the base, I gave it another shot. I’ve made some stupid decisions in life, but this was not one of them!

Neil Hellegers crushed this performance. He brought an entirely new attitude to the characters that conveyed the type of enjoyment I was hoping for from the original. What a difference the right narrator can make!

Definitely Gonna Need a Bigger Boat;)

Great action/adventure read.... Finished in one sitting and was deliriously happy to see book 2 out the day after I finished this one... Tight plotting w/ exceptional characters, and I do mean characters... Especially liked the stoner smart alec brothers;). Personally like better than the standard shark fare out there... Military aspects come off well w/o overdoing it... Narration suits the story and adds to the experience... Worth the credit and a binge read;). You’ll wanna move right on to the second in the series...

Giant Sharks!

I’ve read the whole Team Grendel series and loved it. Now that I’ve started listening to audiobooks I knew this was a series that couldn’t be missed. Big sharks and people who get entangled in that world make for an exciting story.

Love a great big scary!

Mega
Mega Series, Book 1
By: Jake Bible
Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
I read this before but forgot to write the review.( I often read/listen to a few then review them all at the same time.) I bought the audible thinking I hadn't read it yet. I enjoyed it again! 😁
I liked the twists, action, suspense, and characters. The characters weren't as personable as other of his books.
The narrator was not right for this book in my opinion. He was okay and I could hear him as a narrator for other books but just not this one.

A little hokey but fun

A 70ft shark is far more believable than somebody shooting an rpg mid flight from a moving helecopter, but a decent story and a fun book to listen to.

where to start?

Genuinely have no idea what I thought of this. Its absolutely all over the place.

First off, for a book with a giant shark as its main selling point, there are only 2 shark attacks in the first 9 hours of this book. the shark is simply described as, a shark, 90 ft long, with a fin. That's it. Steve Alten's Meg this is not. The apparent main antagonist of the book is barely present, described or memorable. Every attack happens literally the exact same way and is written with the literary depth of a puddle.

The narrator is incredibly annoying, mis- pronouncing important words all over the place and he sounds like he's got some type of hyperactivity disorder. As a result every character sounds the same. which isn't helped by the author either...

The author appears to have a very limited vocabulary, there's a 10 minute or so exchange between characters and the only verb used when people speak is "said" the word "said" is said in this book far too many times, which again leads to the characters being flat and one dimensional, no matter how colourful the author attempts to make them with their obscene use of expletives. I'm no prude, I swear a lot, but this was just cringy, as are the many , many, many terrible failed attempts at humour. there's some genuinely terrible writing here. Hours are spent fleshing out characters that literally do nothing. There are too many characters that do nothing. The main baddy is basically Deus ex Machina'd in at the end after being barely present the whole book (genuinely don't even think they were mentioned more than once prior to the reveal). Most of the characters are just completely crass, unlikeable people.

Did I mention how many times the word "said" appears in this book? Because it's incredibly irritating.

All this aside though, there are some cool action sequences and I got through this pretty quickly and might see if the next in the series has more monsters to offer. This is kind of on the bad side of so bad it's good, like a step below a good straight to video action movie from the 80s. Like a knock off of a straight to video movie. What King of the Kickboxers is to Kickboxer, or maybe more appropriately for the modern age, like The Asylum didn't hire the worst writer for a change to make a film about navy seals and a megalodon. But still didn't hire the best writer either.

In short, mostly irritating and obnoxious with some good bits in it and barely about a giant shark at all.

Standard action story

B-movie action fare, riddled with clichés. The dialogue grates, especially the constant failed attempts at humour. There's very little shark action until close to the end, which is disappointing given it was the main selling point for me. For all that, there was just about enough in the story to keep me entertained whenever it was time to wash the dishes.

Bloody fin-tastic!

As a fan of shark stories I've been through everything from Jaws to Meg. I had doubts about this offering as I'd not heard of the author or narrator but on a whim I gave it a go and I'm so glad I did! Brilliant, layered story that is excellently paced mixed with interesting and likeable characters. Great job!