Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston
I am a fan of Crichton’s work and I was a little nervous to hear that the author’s unfinished work was going to be finished by another writer. Then I heard that the author doing the finishing was Richard Preston. This was cause for much joy since I loved Demon in the Freezer and The Hot Zone.
While I can’t say I loved the book, and I didn’t hate it, I was disappointed. The science was fascinating – a plausible way to shrink humans and other materials. The dangers were scary – bugs are REALLY scary when they are bigger than you are. But the plot was lacking. If you want to get people out of the way (as in dead) then you just get rid of them (as in murder). Don’t turn them into very tiny humans (half an inch tall – VERY tiny) and not squish them right away. Due to the villain’s delay in getting rid of them they end up dumped in the jungle. These are smart graduate students. Someone will survive simply because you don’t want them to. For a very smart villain he was pretty dumb.
On the plus side there were some great plot twists and action scenes. This would make an excellent movie. And if you wanted to know how deadly and amazing bugs are to other bugs, you can get a bug’s eye view and see how well you would fare in the microverse.
