Meg: Generations

Picking up immediately where Meg: Nightstalkers left off, the Liopleurodon offspring has been moved to a holding tank aboard the Dubai-Land transport ship Tonga for its journey to the Middle East. While the Crown Prince’s investors gawk at the creature, below deck in the tanker’s hold, another captured beast is awakened from its drug-induced state and goes on a rampage. The vessel sinks, the Lio escapes… and three distinct plots emerge:

• The hunt to recapture the Lio.
• The hunt to capture and pen any surviving Megalodon pups birthed by Lizzy and Bela in the Salish Sea.
• A Stage-IV death sentence of cancer that will force Jonas Taylor to return to the most frightening location on Earth – the Panthalassa Sea.{{cite news|last=Alten|first=Steve|author-link=Steve Alten|title=Steve Alten: April 2016 Newsletter|url=http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs163/1010981879241/archive/1124287301358.html|website=SteveAlten.com|access-date=April 1, 2016|date=April 1, 2016}}{{cite news|last=Brehmer|first=Nat|title=5 Other Monsters from Steve Alten’s {{‘}}Meg{{’}} Novels That We’d Love to See on Screen|url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3515987/5-monsters-steve-altens-meg-novels-wed-love-see-screen|website=Bloody Disgusting|access-date=August 16, 2018|date=August 16, 2018}}{{cite news|last=Harrington|first=Naomi|title=Steve Alten Shares Sneak Peek Excerpt from New Thriller {{‘}}Meg: Generations{{’}}|url=https://vampiresquid.co.uk/steve-alten-shares-sneak-peek-excerpt-from-new-thriller-meg-generations|website=Vampire Squid|access-date=March 14, 2018|date=March 14, 2018}}{{cite news|last=Borders|first=Meredith|title=Primer: What You Need to Know About Steve Alten’s {{‘}}Meg{{’}} Series Before Seeing the Movie|url=https://litreactor.com/columns/primer-what-you-need-to-know-about-steve-altens-meg-series-before-seeing-the-meg|website=Lit Reactor|access-date=August 10, 2018|date=August 10, 2018}}{{cite news|author=Fabien|title=MEG Books in Order: How to read Steve Alten’s series?|url=https://www.howtoread.me/meg-books-in-order-how-to-read-steve-altens-series|website=How To Read Me|access-date=July 14, 2021|date=July 14, 2021}}

Critical reception for Generations was mixed-to-positive, meeting with praise from most reviewers. Publishers Weekly complimented the "predictable" nature of the novel, stating that "Series fans who won't mind more of the same will be pleased.".{{cite news|last=Baror|first=Danny|title=Review: MEG: Generations|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781250621528|website=Publishers Weekly|date=March 19, 2020|access-date=March 19, 2020}} CannonballRead complimented "the most memorable character in MEG: Generations [as] the meg Luna, the albino granddaughter of Angel, who has the bizarre habit of rising out of the water to stare at the full moon", stating that "If Alten pivoted and wrote a children's book about Luna and her adventures I would totally buy it because she is adorable and at this point the only character I don't want to see get eaten.", while otherwise criticising "spending about 200 pages wrapping up Meg: Nightstalkers plot arc and introducing character after character after character who serves no purpose whatsoever other than to get eaten or supply exposition and contribute to the word count.".{{cite news|last=DFC|first=Tyler|title=There's always a bigger fish. MEG: Generations by Steve Alten|url=https://cannonballread.com/2021/11/meg-generations-tylerdfc|website=CannonballRead|date=November 9, 2021|access-date=November 9, 2021}}

The Book Shark praised the "back to basics" approach of the novel in "eliminating a lot of the craziest science fiction stuff [from previous novels] in favor of giant sea monster moments", ending up "an average entry in the series and not one of the standouts", with the "chief complaint with this book continu[ing] to be the over reliance of the Liopleurodon storyline which has never seemed as interesting to me as the megalodon stuff."{{cite news|last=Barrel|first=Frank|title=Review: "Meg: Generations" by Steve Alten Review|url=https://booksharkblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/07/meg-generations-by-steve-alten-review|website=The Book Shark|date=November 7, 2019|access-date=November 7, 2019}} Creature From the Black Lagoon meanwhile criticised the novel as "just a hot mess[…] a difficult, and not very enjoyable, book to read. Too much was going on, too much of it felt like either filler or shoe horned into the plot. The book started off solid but just rockets straight off the rails and never gets back on.".{{cite news|author=The Creature|title=Review: Generations by Steve Alten|url=https://creaturefromthebooklagoon.wordpress.com/2021/07/22/review-generations-by-steve-alten|website=Creature From the Black Lagoon|date=July 22, 2021|access-date=July 22, 2021}}

{{main|Meg: Purgatory}}

A sequel, Meg: Purgatory, is available for pre-order from the author's website.

{{portal|Novels}}

• Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror
• List of underwater science fiction works

{{reflist|1}}

• [https://www.stevealten.com/meg-generations Meg: Generations novel homepage]

{{The Meg (franchise)}}

{{Steve Alten}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Generations, Meg}}

Category:2018 American novels

Category:2020 American novels

Category:Meg series

Category:Novels by Steve Alten

Category:American science fiction novels

Category:Headline Publishing Group books