Meg: Origins by Steve Alten

Preface
    Meg was my first and most important novel, as it launched my career as an author. The inspiration to write the story originated back in 1975 when I read Jaws as a teenager. Peter Benchley’s novel made me want to “devour” everything I could about Great White sharks and the true accounts regarding their attacks on man.
    Read about Great Whites and at some point you’re bound to discover their prehistoric cousin, Megalodon . Meg s were quite real, easily the most fearsome creatures ever to have existed. And yet hardly a word was written about them, at least when I was a teen.
    Flash forward to the summer of 1995.
    I was a married man in my mid-thirties, struggling to support my wife, her two kids, and our newborn daughter when I picked up a Time magazine, and on the front cover was the Mariana Trench. The article revealed the mysteries of the abyss, hydrothermal vents, and the wondrous life forms found in this unexplored realm… and the acorn of an idea took root. What was the name of that huge shark I read about as a teen?
    A year later my first novel, Meg, was sold to Bantam Doubleday, the company that had published Jaws . Within a few months Meg was optioned to publishers in twenty-five more countries. Since then, Meg and its sequels have sold three million copies worldwide, with thousands of middle and high school reading, science, and English teachers using the book as part of their curriculum to encourage teens to read (see www.AdoptAnAuthor.com ), completing the circle that began when I read Jaws .
    As for a Meg movie… fingers crossed for summer 2013!
    So why, after four Meg books and a fifth one to be written, did I write a prequel? First, because the story lent itself to a prequel. This was what happened to Jonas Taylor seven years
before
the first book began—the back story that changed his life (and mine). And it was fun to write, allowing me to create details that I could tie into
Meg 5: Night Stalkers
. Most of all, the prequel gave me the opportunity to give something back to my readers. If you’ve never read any of the Meg books, then this story should whet your appetite for things to come.
    I encourage you to visit my website ( www.SteveAlten.com ) where you can register to receive free monthly updates and even enter contests to become a character in one of my future novels.
    Pleasant dreams.
    —Steve Alten, Ed.D.
July 2011

Acknowledgments
    It is with great pride and appreciation that I acknowledge those who contributed to the completion of the
Meg
prequel.
    First and foremost, a special thanks to my friend and literary agent, Danny Baror of Baror International, as well to his assistant, Heather Baror-Shapiro. My gratitude and appreciation to my personal editor, Lou Aronica at the Fiction Studio ([email protected]) whose advice was invaluable, and to reader/editors Barbara Becker and Sally Shupe.
    To Scott Gere and Mike Donovan at Gere Donovan Press for publishing this e-book, as well as
Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror
, the full story that follows the prequel. Special thanks for a (fingers-crossed)
Meg
movie to producer Belle Avery, Tony Lui, and Peter Chang.
    Very special thanks to my friend, graphic artist Erik Hollander, whose iconic chapter images really set a tone for the reader.
    Finally, to my wife Kim and our children; my mom, and to my father, Lawrence Alten, who passed before its writing. Y.A.M.H.

Reader’s Companion
    This e-book edition is accompanied by a bonus Reader’s Companion , provided by the author as an enhancement to the original text.
    You’ll find author commentary, supplemental photos and video content, additional information, and more. You can follow along as you read each chapter, or wait until you’re finished—no spoilers, guaranteed!
    Visit www.SteveAlten.com for instructions and access.

Prologue
    Aboard the H.M.S. Challenger
Philippine Sea
October 5, 1874
    CAPTAIN GEORGE NARES stood defiantly on the heaving gun deck, his weight giving at the knees