Book Review: Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten

This is a review of the Kindle version.

Sharks have evolved over millions of years and have evoked both fear and fascination in man since time immemorial. While man has visited outer space and scaled the tallest mountain peaks, our knowledge of the underwater life is extremely limited. It is estimated that we have only explored about 5% of the underwater world. It does not help that sharks (especially Great Whites) have quite a menacing physical appearance.

Steve has tapped into this widespread fascination and fear that sharks (extinct or otherwise) generally incite in us. Peter Benchley started it all in 1974 with his bestseller Jaws. Steven Spielberg created the concept of “Summer Blockbuster” with the immensely successful movie adaptation of the book.

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In Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, Steve wastes no time in establishing the physical supremacy of the Megalodon by having the shark munch on the King of All Land Predators, the T-Rex! This interesting encounter between the 2 predators happens in some prehistoric time and sets the tone for the rest of the book.

The story then shifts to the present and we meet the protagonist, US Navy deep sea diver turned Paleontologist Jonas Taylor. Jonas is in depression, after unintentionally causing the deaths of his two teammates in a deep underwater submarine operation. He is soon contacted by an old friend, Tanaka to investigate the presence of Megalodons in Mariana Trench. Tanaka owns a big aquarium and is keen on adding these prehistoric giants (should they exist) for the public display.

Steve Alten, the author

Reluctantly, Jonas joins the team comprising among others Tanaka’s son, DJ. DJ is killed by a Megalodon. Tanaka’s daughter, Terry wants revenge and soon it is man vs shark even as the Megalodon sets out on a killing spree targeting everything from whales to humans foolish enough to cross its path. Then there is Jonas's estranged wife (and news reporter), Maggie who wants to film the Megalodon and strike gold in her career.

The plot is indeed as silly as it sounds (!). It is by no stretch of imagination either high literature or even scientifically accurate, it does qualify as popcorn entertainment. I saw the movie Jaws long time back and have been quite fascinated with sharks ever since.

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Image Sources: Screenrant, The Authors Speak 

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Meg: Origins

Persistence

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Sherlock (BBC Series) - Cast and Crew

Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Gatiss in BBC's 'Sherlock'

This is my second post about the BBC series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson respectively.

Please click here to read the first post.

Mark Gatiss, in addition to being the co-creator of the series, also plays Mycroft Holmes and he brings the requisite command and wisdom that Mycroft has always been associated with. In a significant deviation from the Canon, the Holmes brothers seem to have considerable hostility towards each other.

Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson

Una Stubbs makes a bland Mrs. Hudson. Her characterization seems to be little bit inconsistent as she is reluctant to be a housekeeper initially (in “A Study in Pink”) but does so in “The Blind Banker”. Though not miscast, she does not exactly bring to mind the humble and caring Mrs Hudson, I came across while reading the books.

Rupert Graves’s Lestrade retains most of the characteristic traits of the character. He constantly needs Sherlock’s help to solve cases and is humble enough to admit it. Graves hits all these notes correctly to deliver a likeable Lestrade.

Rupert Graves as Inspector Lestrade

But not everyone in the Scotland Yard is a fan of Sherlock. Anderson (Jonathan Aris) and Sally Donovan (Vinette Robinson) are openly contemptuous of Sherlock. There is no love lost on both sides as Sherlock takes every opportunity to insult Anderson and even deduces an affair between Anderson (who is married) and Donovan. Aris and Robinson play their parts nicely and make sure that these two characters are the most loathed recurring characters in the series.

Vinette Robinson and Jonathan Aris as Sally Donovan and Anderson

Andrew Scott's version of Jim Moriarty is miles different from the Canonical version. I was initially not very keen on Andrew's portrayal but am slowly getting used to it.

Andrew Scott after winning the 2012 BAFTA award

For canonically accurate portrayals of Moriarty, I would recommend Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and The Mortal Fight. Both Jared Harris and Viktor Yevgrafov gave amazing performances that stayed loyal to their canonical roots.

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Lara Pulver portrays the highly modernized version of Irene Adler. Readers familiar with the original story A Scandal in Bohemia will recognize the changes made to the character as well as the story itself.

Lara Pulver as Irene Adler

Russell Tovey gave a great performance as Henry Knight, the BBC version of Sir Henry Baskerville. Tovey's performance was one of the highlights of the episode, that happens to be my favorite in the second season.

Russell Tovey as Henry Knight

Katherine Parkinson made her appearance in 'The Reichenbach Fall' as Kitty Riley, the reporter who unknowingly becomes a pawn in Moriarty's scheme to discredit Sherlock.

Katherine Parkinson with Benedict Cumberbatch

Last but not the least, the great Douglas Wilmer made a cameo appearance in 'The Reichenbach Fall' as an elderly gent in the Diogenes Club. He portrayed Holmes in the classic BBC series (1964-65). Wilmer is one of my all-time favorite actors to portray Sherlock and it was great to see him if only in a single scene.

Douglas Wilmer with Mark Gatiss

The background score by David Arnold and Michael Price is as critically acclaimed as the series itself. Rest of the crew delivers topnotch work as well. The series co-creators, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are proclaimed fans of the Sherlock canon and have incorporated a lot of references to the original works. These easter eggs are by themselves a celebration of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle.

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ImageSources: Cumberbatchweb, Tumblr, Wikipedia, Cumberbatchweb, Tumblr, Cumberbatchweb, Cumberbatchweb

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Markhor - The Wild Goat

Kingdom : Animalia

Phylum :  Chordata

Class :  Mammalia

Order :  Artiodactyla

Family : Bovidae
Genus : Capra

Protection status : Endangered

Diet : Grasses, Leaves, Flowers and Fruits

Habitat :  Cliffs and Grassy foothills

Life span : 12-13 years

The name is derived from the Persian word Mar - Snake and Khor - Eating. Both Males and female Markhors have horns. Markhors are usually active during morning and late afternoon. They are excellent climbers. 

Markhor is the national animal of Pakistan.

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Photo was taken at Columbus Zoo, Ohio.

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TV Review: Sherlock - "The Blind Banker"

Zoe Telford with our dynamic duo in 'The Blind Banker'

This episode is not a direct adaptation or a modern update of any of the Canonical stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) is asked by one of his classmates, Sebastian to investigate a case of office break-in.

Soon, Sherlock and Watson (Martin Freeman) discover that one of the bank employees is murdered in his apartment.  The police force is puzzled, as all the doors and windows are bolted from inside. Sherlock deduces that the man was being threatened and the break-in at the bank was done to send him a coded message.

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A journalist is murdered shortly and the killer’s modus operandi is quite similar to the previous one. Sherlock notices that the killer has to be extremely athletic to be able to commit both these crimes in high-rise buildings.

The trail leads to an international gang of smugglers called "The Black Lotus". The action-packed climax befits an action movie more rather than a Sherlock mystery.

The mystery itself is not upto the usual standards of Arthur Conan Doyle. But this drawback is offset by Freeman and Cumberbatch's excellent on-screen chemistry. Zoe Telford plays Sarah, Watson's boss. Her sense of humor makes her a perfect choice and she is a joy to behold on the screen.

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Image Sources: Cumberbatchweb, AustenProse

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Komodo Dragon - The Giant Lizard

The large, curved claws are used in self-defense as well as to eat food

Phylum :  Chordata

Class :  Reptilia

Order :  Squamata

Suborder : Lacertilia

Family : Varanidae
Genus : Varanus

Protection status : Vulnerable

Diet : Carnivore 

Habitat :  They live in hot and dry places, open grasslands and mostly in lowlands.

Komodo dragons are the  largest and heaviest lizards in the world. They are native to Indonesia and inhabit just four islands: Flores, Pandar, Rintja and the Komodo island. The scientific name of Komodo dragon is Varanus komodoensis. Komodo dragons are also called as Komodo monitors, Giant monitors, Land crocodiles and Oras. Their life expectancy is upto 20 - 40 years. Their sense of smell is the primary method of detecting food.

The Komodo dragon's saliva contains different strains of toxic bacteria that cause deadly infections in the prey. When it bites the prey, it injects the victim with a venom. Though the prey may not succumb to its injuries right away, the patient Komodo keeps following the animal with its immense sense of smell and eventually claims its victim.

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Photos were taken at Columbus Zoo, Ohio.

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TV Review: Sherlock - "A Study in Pink"

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman share excellent chemistry

The opening shots establish Dr Watson (Martin Freeman) as a man haunted by his war memories. As a result of his war injuries, Watson is aided by his walking stick. Compounding his already traumatized existence is the boredom and loneliness, which John tries to dispel by blogging. All this is about to change shortly, when he runs into an old friend, Stamford.

Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch), as we meet him, is whipping a corpse with a riding crop to find out if it is possible to inflict bruises on a dead body. His colleague, Molly Hooper (Loo Brealey) has a crush on him that appears to be completely unrequited.

No sooner than Sherlock and Watson have moved into 221B Baker Street that Watson starts noticing some truly bizarre things about his roommate. Holmes had already deduced a lot of information about Watson in their very first meeting and the presence of a human skull in the living room only serves to pique Watson’s interest even more.

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Soon Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves) visits them asking Sherlock for assistance in solving what appears to be the latest in a string of apparent suicides. The resulting investigation restores the much needed excitement and action back into the soldier’s life.

In addition to the investigation, Watson meets up with a stranger, who offers to bribe him in exchange for information on Sherlock. His powers of observation and deduction seem to exceed those of even Sherlock. Watson is convinced that he has met the archenemy of Sherlock.

This episode is based on A Study in Scarlet and has some significant deviations from the canon. While the modus operandi of the killer remains the same, his motivations are vastly different. What was originally a story of revenge has been modified to suit the story arc of this modern adaptation, which is to introduce Moriarty as a devious mastermind and the one man hell-bent on a mission to destroy Sherlock.

Loo Brealey as Molly Hooper with Benedict Cumberbatch

The series has always been marked by sharp wit and humor and this is apparent nowhere more than in this season (and series) opener. With a spot-on performance from Cumberbatch and a smart update of the Canon, this episode is just the right start to the series that would soon become a worldwide hit.

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Image Sources: Cumberbatchweb, three hares

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Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Wontner (1875 – 1960) starred as Sherlock Holmes in a total of 5 productions from 1931 to 1937: The Sleeping Cardinal, The Missing Rembrandt, The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes’ Greatest Case, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, and Silver Blaze. One of them The Missing Rembrandt is officially a lost film.

Wontner made a very stately Holmes and has a striking resemblance to Sidney Paget’s portraits. Wontner was 56 when he starred in his first Holmes adaptation and despite his advanced age, Wontner’s Holmes has a great sense of humor. Even while reading the Canon, I was always enamored by Holmes’s levity that came to the fore time and again in so many of Arthur Conan Doyle’s works.

A discussion of Holmes is never complete without Watson. Ian Fleming (not the author) played Dr Watson in all the productions excepting The Sign of Four, where Ian Hunter replaced Ian Fleming. Fleming plays Watson as nice but little bit dense. Thankfully he stops short of making his Watson a laughing stock a la Nigel Bruce.

Ian Fleming as Dr Watson

I have seen couple of Wontner’s movies: The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes and Silver Blaze. A noticeable feature is that Holmes’ archenemy Moriarty is the recurring villain in almost all of these movies.

In Silver Blaze, he engineers the disappearance of Silver Blaze in order to ensure the success of his client in winning the lottery. This adaptation takes a liberty, by setting the story 20 years after The Hounds of Baskerville. Henry Baskerville still resides at the Baskerville hall and has a young daughter, about to be betrothed. Tragedy strikes as the famed horse, Silver Blaze is missing and his trainer is found murdered. Inspector Lestrade suspects the prospective son-in-law of Baskerville. As luck would have it, Holmes and Watson are visiting Baskerville and Holmes solves the case. The rest of the plot is pretty faithful to the canon.

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Silver Blaze is my all-time favorite among the 56 short stories. The story contains 2 of my favorite lines of all time, regarding “The Curious incident of the dog at night” and “The sudden epidemic among the sheep”. Both of these lines appear verbatim in this adaptation much to the joy of the Holmes fan inside me!

Holmes and Watson decipher the message in 'The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes'

The “Triumph of Sherlock Holmes” is based on The Valley of Fear. Next to The Hound of Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear is my favorite novel. Holmes’s deduction of the identity of the victim and the murderer is in my humble opinion, one of the best works by Sir Doyle.

I have seen many different adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and unfortunately, there are very few adaptations of The Valley of Fear so far. Other than this one, the only others I have seen are the one with Ronald Howard in the 1954-55 series (titled “The Case of the Pennsylvania Gun”) and an animated adaptation in 1984 with Peter O’Toole voicing Holmes. Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Christopher Lee and Thorley Walters) as Holmes is also very loosely based on The Valley of Fear.

The adaptation with Wontner is probably the best of the lot and Professor Moriarty makes a direct appearance at the end. In the Canon, he sends a letter to Holmes instead.

This series is highly recommended for fans of Sherlock Holmes. Wontner is an excellent Holmes on-screen!

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Image Sources: The Baker Street Blog, Aveleyman, Mystery Movies Online

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Sir Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes