Are The Meg Series Books Based On A True Story?

Nah, the 'Meg' books are 100% fiction—but Steve Alten is sneaky good at making them *feel* real. The megalodon was an actual shark, yeah, but the idea it’s still lurking around? Total fantasy. What works is the way Alten weaves in real science about deep-sea pressure, marine biology, and even historical naval disasters to sell the premise. It’s like listening to a conspiracy theorist who’s done their homework: you know it’s nonsense, but you can’t help getting sucked in. The sequel novels go full sci-fi, but that first book? Almost plausible enough to make you side-eye the ocean next beach trip.

The 'Meg' series books by Steve Alten are pure adrenaline-fueled fiction, but what makes them so gripping is how they blur the line between reality and imagination. The concept of Carcharodon megalodon, a prehistoric giant shark, is real—scientists have found fossils proving its existence. But Alten takes that sliver of truth and runs wild with it, crafting a high-stakes underwater world where this ancient predator somehow survives in the Mariana Trench. I love how he mixes real marine biology with over-the-top action, like some mad scientist splicing a documentary with a blockbuster movie. The books even reference real deep-sea exploration tech, adding a layer of plausibility that hooks you.

That said, the human drama—Jonas Taylor’s trauma, the corporate greed driving the 'Meg' exploitation—is pure Hollywood. The science gets stretched thinner than a deep-sea diving cable, especially in later books with underwater cities and hybrid 'Meg' strains. But that’s part of the fun. Alten isn’t trying to write a textbook; he’s throwing you into a theme park ride where the drop is 60 feet of razor-sharp teeth. The movies lean even harder into camp, but the books at least try to anchor the chaos in real-world fears about the ocean’s unknowns.