Her name is Yoko Krono, and she’s just one of a dozen prehistoric sea creatures ready to meet you on a 24-7 virtual vacation the entire family will enjoy. Welcome to www.SeaMonsterCove.com, arguably one of the most original and ambitious entertainment venues ever imagined. The creative force that recruited an international team of 3D animators, 2D artists, engineers, actors, producers and an ancient shark museum curator is Steve Alten, author of the NY Times bestselling MEG series, the source material for the 2018 summer blockbuster, The MEG, starring Jason Statham.

“The story that runs through every offering at Sea Monster Cove, from our Virtual Aquarium Experiences (VAEs) where visitors can interact with the most terrifying sea creatures that ever lived, to our two new interactive video games and two TV series (Where Sea Monsters Roam and The Adventures of Snowflake & Layla), came to me back in December of 2019,” Alten recalls. “I remember waking up at 4 a.m. and lying in bed enjoying a rare moment of peace and calm — no rigidity or tremors. (Alten was diagnosed 15 years ago with young-onset Parkinson’s disease). Out of nowhere the beats for an entirely new prehistoric shark and sea monster adventure series hit me. So I dragged myself upstairs to my office and began searching for the key to the entire story — a remote island that somehow I knew was out there — and there it was, Maug.”

Enter www.SeaMonsterCove.com, and you are guided through a quick history of Maug, a remote (and very real) island located in the Northern Marianas. What lies beneath Maug became the basis of Alten’s story — a 380 million-year-old aquifer filled with the most terrifying sea creatures that ever lived.

“There are two major complexes on Maug Island,” Alten explains. “Sea Monster Cove holds six marine habitats that date back to different eras in our history, while the O-Quarium is home to our star attraction, Snowflake.” Snowflake may sound meek, but the albino Mako shark is a 63-foot, 25-ton monster best viewed via one of the suites at the Black Demon Inn, a 5-star hotel with suites that back up to the main tank. Snowflake is waiting for you there, circling outside your bedroom window.

At SeaMonsterCove.com, the special effects are motion picture-worthy, and the wildlife doesn’t just swim around in benign circles; in fact, they seem quite aware that you are watching them, and some of them clearly do not like it, especially when you enter their domain to do a little “cage diving.” In each of these heart-pounding, 360-degree experiences, the user controls the viewing angle, attempting to track the attacks as they happen (there are day and night versions available). The action is nonstop and the creatures so real that it is easy to lose yourself in a two-hour reprieve from reality.

Other features at SeaMonsterCove.com include Alten’s episodic TV series, Where Sea Monsters Roam; an animated TV series, The Adventures of Snowflake & Layla; and two original video games, Run Layla Run and Where Sea Monsters Roam. There’s also an education center and a private library offering enhanced versions of Alten’s novels as well as teacher curriculum materials for distance learning.

And Alten isn’t quite done with movies yet. The MEG sequel, MEG-2: The TRENCH, is in pre-production, as is The LOCH (a thriller about the Loch Ness Monster) along with one other underwater feature, which cannot be announced just yet (but the enhanced version of the novel is available in the website’s private library). Steve Alten is also the founder and director of the nonprofit Adopt-an-Author teen reading program, considered by many educators to be the most effective tool to get reluctant readers to read.