I have enjoyed most of Alten's stories. I gobbled up his MEG series as quickly as I could even when they go so laughably goofy. They were so entertaining. The Loch was another thrill ride with a good dose of explainable reality.
Then we get The Grim Reaper story followed by The Omega one and everything has changed.
With Vostok it appears to promise a sequel to The Loch with another monster story. (Heck, the cover has a giant Croc head.) But what we get is a big tease - using the fan base of his sea creature tales to pump in something else.
The beginning of the book gives us the tease, "hey look I'll give you your underwater creature chase." But then it takes an abrupt turn into totally unrelated territory.
This book really shouldn't have sea creatures in it. It's about something else entirely.
Again, don't tar and feather me yet. I don't fault him for including those things in his stories. Authors can present any kind of agenda they wish. And it's not like Alten is a bad writer. I enjoy his books. He has tremendous skill!
I'm just worried at the direction this is going. Vostok is only a sequel because it has the same character from the Loch. It's painfully connected to the MEG series because of shoehorning in the main character from those books.
If the next MEG book is layed out and presented in the same way as Vostok was, I'm through with Alten. Which is a shame. He had a great niche and a fantastic storytelling ability.
This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Rebel Press.