The first book in a new series of seafaring creature feature novellas, William Meikle’s Sea Hunters: Shonisaurus is a briskly-paced, action-packed blast of oceanic monster-hunting fun. Ex-Royal Navy lieutenant John Seton and his motley crew are international monster hunters-for-hire, and when they’re commissioned to hunt down the beast that destroyed a handful of multi-million-dollar yachts, it seems like a simple job given their skills and expertise. This beast might not be John’s great white whale, the obsession that has driven him ever onwards since his fateful departure from the Navy, but a job’s a job and the money’s good. It’s only once they’re in the thick of the action, however, that they realise their quarry might not make this an easy hunt after all.
There’s something very satisfying about this sort of straightforward creature feature, in which sweary, no-nonsense sailors – mostly Scottish and Irish – battle monsters, bicker amongst themselves and face down terrible odds with little more than their wits and their guts (ok, ok…and a few depth charges). Meikle really is a master of the genre, and while Shonisaurus basically does what it says on the tin it does it in tremendously enjoyable style. Told in first person from Seton’s perspective, setting it apart a little from Meikle’s third-person S-Squad stories (along with a slightly lighter tone – more adventure than horror), it makes no effort to be subtle but rather throws the reader straight into the dangerous life of seaborne monster hunters. There are thrills, there are spills, there are angry words and a lot of coffee and whisky, and enormous definitely-not-actually-extinct ichthyosaurs. What’s not to like?
Obviously the monsters will be the main attraction for a lot of creature feature fans, and there’s a lot to be said for simply sitting back and enjoying the action. It’s the human characters that support all the action though, and while the crew might be relatively lightly-drawn – with the exception of Seton (whose obsessive hunts have inevitably landed him with the nickname Ahab) – their particular combination of comfortable, familiar tropes and cliches are exactly what you want in this sort of story. And even within the constraints of a novella there’s still room outside of the main action for amusingly outdated cultural references, a few relationship dramas, musings on the merits (or otherwise) of naming monsters and debates over whether it’s really right to kill historically and scientifically important prehistoric creatures just to save a bunch of spoiled rich partygoers.
All told, if you like a good monster story and a tight-knit crew of hardy, sweary, whisky-drinking sailors, and especially if you’ve enjoyed Meikle’s other work, then this is absolutely worth picking up. Hopefully book two won’t be too far away!
See also: my review of Infestation, the first book in William Meikle’s S-Squad series.
Sea Hunters: Shonisaurus is out now from Severed Press – check out the links below to order your copy:
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