OT- Steve Alten

[bloodstone]

     I know Steve Alten doesn't write fantasy but his books are still really good.  He is my favorite suspence / creature writer.  I have The Loche, and my brother has the current MEG seiries, which is going to be made into a movie either this summer or next.  I can't remember which.  The fourth book is also coming out soon.  For all I know, they have the same release date.  
      The MEG books are about a speicies of prehistoric great white shark that has survived in the Mariana Trench.  Everything breaks loose when they rise to the surface and wreak havoc.  Theese books contain some swearing and a fairly grafic discription of people's deaths, but it is not over-done or a blood fest.  It is more the impressions of the person the story is following at that time.
     The Loche is also a moster story set in and around Loche Ness.  It contains a fairly sound theory about the Loche Ness Monster.  I'm not saying I belive it, but the scientific jargon, even if it is made-up, sounds more plausable then some I've heard.  Also sometimes the creature isn't the real monster.  Environmental issues are present in all of his books I have read.

[Cordilow]

Environmental issues sure are getting popular these days. They've been present for ages, but for some reason they're popular now. Interesting. It's probably due to energy prices and politics. I'm not saying that the popularity of it has anything to do with Steve Alten's reasons for including environmental topics. I've noticed that a lot of fantasy writers do this, including Terry Brooks (one of my favorite authors). It does lend itself well to fantasy, seeing as the environment typically has a lot to do with the settings and ideas in many fantasy stories.

I'm for the environment, myself, although when something becomes popular, all sorts of new issues and hidden meanings tend to arise, I've noticed. I hope this time, it's more benign than I suspect.

Stories about animals past and present are often great. I don't believe I've ever read a novel about the Loch Ness monster. That sounds quite interesting.

I moved your post here since you declared that it wasn't fantasy. I hope this isn't troublesome.

Thanks for the post. It's good to hear about stuff like this.

[Cordilow]

This post is entirely off the topic of books.

Cordilow wrote:

I'm for the environment, myself, although when something becomes popular, all sorts of new issues and hidden meanings tend to arise, I've noticed. I hope this time, it's more benign than I suspect.

Let's not say that I suspect malignant things about the popularity of pro-environmentalism. The only potentially bad thing that comes to mind is the commercialism of it (which really doesn't care one way or another as long as it makes economic sense), although that's not all bad, as it does integrate it into people's minds more steadily, and safely.

It's kind of sad that environmentalism has to be associated with a certain branch of political parties, though, as that pretty much guarantees that a large portion of those in the opposing parties will oppose it longer than they otherwise would, although it is good in that a large portion of those in the supporting parties will be for it.

So, in essence, the things I thought, aren't directly associated with environmentalism, but are more associated with political intrigue and commerce.

I do admit, I felt weird and suspicious about all this 'going green' stuff out there—I'm not sure where it came from or who was behind it—but if people go for it, I guess it's a good thing from what I can tell, as long as they do it in good ways.

I got a 'green' external hard drive the other day (that's not why I got it, but I guess it's a plus). I'm not sure how green it actually is, but it's made out of 100% recyclable materials, and the adapter is extremely light (which might mean it takes less power). I guess companies finally realized that some people think about this sort of thing. Wild. It's probably because of the economic crisis people are talking about as much or more than things like gas prices. I don't know. Whatever helps.