Scan barcode
A review by ajediprincess
Micro by Michael Crichton
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book was amazing. Honestly, I cannot say enough good things about this book. I can also look at it objectively, irrespective of my fanaticism, and see its faults and where it could have been better (more on that later). Micro was published posthumously under Michael Crichton’s name and Richard Preston finished his partial manuscript. Apparently, Crichton wrote approximately one third of the book. I didn’t realize until after I finished reading that this book has been incredibly polarizing. Some readers loved it, some readers hated it, and some were so upset that they couldn’t even finish it. I personally loved it. I loved it so much I actually read it twice. I often do that with television shows I really enjoy. As soon as I finish watching them for the first time, I will watch them again immediately, just to try to pick up on things I may have missed upon first viewing. That’s how it was for me with this book and it was well worth both back-to-back reads.
Quick, mild SPOILER ALERT (Just skip the next paragraph between the stars):
********
The main idea for this book is nothing new. Indeed, in the last 70 years, there have been numerous iterations of the concept—Land of the Giants, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ant-Man, and even the recent video game Grounded all play with this same idea. But regarding thrilling, narrative form, I feel this is the best exploration of this concept I have ever seen. The general idea, living people being scaled down to the size of a millimeter, and the fact that it actually happens in this story may immediately induce eyerolls from readers, but I beseech you to give it a chance. Suspend your disbelief enough to read the book and immerse yourself in the story. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised. The dangers the characters encounter when a microscopic scale becomes “life-size” for them are all based in real science and ecology. It’s truly terrifying at times. An alternate title for this book could in fact be, Damn, Nature, You're Scary. It makes me grateful that as of yet, this kind of thing is just not possible and evermore grateful that I was not born an insect.
********
It’s difficult to talk about this book without giving anything away. Suffice it to say, I think this story was absolutely incredible. The narrative begins as a bizarre, inexplicable locked room murder mystery in Honolulu, HI. But it quickly shifts gears to focus on the research endeavors of seven graduate students in Cambridge, MA and an invitation they receive to come work at the illustrious and somewhat clandestine tech company, Nanigen, and their research base on Oahu. Another crime occurs just before the researchers arrive, involving the disappearance of someone connected closely to both Nanigen and one of the grad students, and this lays the groundwork for the inciting incident and the truth (well, part of it) behind what’s really going on at Nanigen Technologies. What follows is a gripping, horrific adventure of survival involving teamwork, trust, ingenuity, betrayal, and perseverance. Relationships are tested, lives are threatened, boundaries are crossed, and the mystery of what happened in that locked room in Honolulu is ultimately solved. I couldn’t stop thinking about this story, even when I didn’t have the time or chance to be reading it.
This book was so intense, so cinematic, that I honestly cannot believe it’s not already a movie. The script practically writes itself. The setting is deeply immersive. I felt at times I could feel the sticky, humid heat of the tropical Hawaiian environment. I could sense the vast, immeasurable dread of being lost in the unforgiving wilderness. The characters, who may at first blush seem kind of boring, are so unique in personalities and approaches that the diverse cast would be engaging and compelling on film also. Each grad student has a specific scientific focus and area of expertise, which helps them contribute to the trials and challenges they face as the narrative progresses. The antagonist too, while absolutely psychopathic, is believable, charming, and charismatic. It’s interesting to see how far a person will go to save their own skin, throw others under the bus, and secure the thing they want most. Greed and self-interest will do that to a person. Indeed, we see it happen to more than one character before the story ends.
This book is also incredibly uncomfortable at times, with vivid descriptions of horrific and terrifying injury and death. There are moments that explore ideas that, in the context of the story, are both plausible and deeply, physically disturbing. These scenes may make some readers squeamish. Know too that much like Jurassic Park this is not a predictable story. There are tense moments that end in ways the reader may or may not expect and more than once I found myself reacting audibly with shock and surprise to what I was reading. Thankfully, there was nothing that was so graphically disturbing I couldn’t bear to read it, nor was there anything that gave me nightmares, but this was indeed a techno-thriller and I was captivated completely by the story until the very end.
This is not to say that there weren’t things about the book that I wished were different. The prose, for one thing, was inelegant and even clumsy at times. It wasn’t distracting, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. Second, there were so many different ideas incorporated into this story that by the time it ended, I felt there was much left unresolved. So much that it could be the foundation for a sequel. Perhaps this was the intention, to leave it wide open and feeling hauntingly unresolved in the long term, but it made me wish there was a follow-up novel that simply doesn’t exist. I also felt that while each character, such as Erika, Jenny, and Amar, had specific and useful specialties in their areas of scientific study, these skills and this knowledge were not used to their fullest advantage. I honestly feel like there could have been more direct applications for their individual strengths in the narrative itself—not just that they are super smart, but I felt it missed the opportunity to incorporate things that only they would know from being experts in their field. There were also things mentioned in the first part of the book that I felt sure would show up later ala Chekov’s gun that disappointingly never did. It was overall, a very tight story, but I did think there were quite a few missed opportunities to make it even better. However, even these gripes could not ruin the experience for me.
With the close of the Jurassic franchise this year, Universal now has need for another big, thrilling blockbuster and I humbly submit that Micro has the potential to fill this void. It has everything one could want in this kind of action-packed movie—intriguing mystery, nail-biting suspense, interesting, sympathetic characters, amazing sequences and set pieces, real danger, fascinating science, dystopian abuse of power, etc. With the technology we have today, one need only get ILM and Steven Spielberg on the phone to set the ball rolling on this diamond in the rough! I digress, but truly, I loved this book and I hope that others will too. It may not be on the same level as some of Crichton’s earlier work, but it’s a damn good story and not one I will soon forget.
Quick, mild SPOILER ALERT (Just skip the next paragraph between the stars):
********
The main idea for this book is nothing new. Indeed, in the last 70 years, there have been numerous iterations of the concept—Land of the Giants, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ant-Man, and even the recent video game Grounded all play with this same idea. But regarding thrilling, narrative form, I feel this is the best exploration of this concept I have ever seen. The general idea, living people being scaled down to the size of a millimeter, and the fact that it actually happens in this story may immediately induce eyerolls from readers, but I beseech you to give it a chance. Suspend your disbelief enough to read the book and immerse yourself in the story. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised. The dangers the characters encounter when a microscopic scale becomes “life-size” for them are all based in real science and ecology. It’s truly terrifying at times. An alternate title for this book could in fact be, Damn, Nature, You're Scary. It makes me grateful that as of yet, this kind of thing is just not possible and evermore grateful that I was not born an insect.
********
It’s difficult to talk about this book without giving anything away. Suffice it to say, I think this story was absolutely incredible. The narrative begins as a bizarre, inexplicable locked room murder mystery in Honolulu, HI. But it quickly shifts gears to focus on the research endeavors of seven graduate students in Cambridge, MA and an invitation they receive to come work at the illustrious and somewhat clandestine tech company, Nanigen, and their research base on Oahu. Another crime occurs just before the researchers arrive, involving the disappearance of someone connected closely to both Nanigen and one of the grad students, and this lays the groundwork for the inciting incident and the truth (well, part of it) behind what’s really going on at Nanigen Technologies. What follows is a gripping, horrific adventure of survival involving teamwork, trust, ingenuity, betrayal, and perseverance. Relationships are tested, lives are threatened, boundaries are crossed, and the mystery of what happened in that locked room in Honolulu is ultimately solved. I couldn’t stop thinking about this story, even when I didn’t have the time or chance to be reading it.
This book was so intense, so cinematic, that I honestly cannot believe it’s not already a movie. The script practically writes itself. The setting is deeply immersive. I felt at times I could feel the sticky, humid heat of the tropical Hawaiian environment. I could sense the vast, immeasurable dread of being lost in the unforgiving wilderness. The characters, who may at first blush seem kind of boring, are so unique in personalities and approaches that the diverse cast would be engaging and compelling on film also. Each grad student has a specific scientific focus and area of expertise, which helps them contribute to the trials and challenges they face as the narrative progresses. The antagonist too, while absolutely psychopathic, is believable, charming, and charismatic. It’s interesting to see how far a person will go to save their own skin, throw others under the bus, and secure the thing they want most. Greed and self-interest will do that to a person. Indeed, we see it happen to more than one character before the story ends.
This book is also incredibly uncomfortable at times, with vivid descriptions of horrific and terrifying injury and death. There are moments that explore ideas that, in the context of the story, are both plausible and deeply, physically disturbing. These scenes may make some readers squeamish. Know too that much like Jurassic Park this is not a predictable story. There are tense moments that end in ways the reader may or may not expect and more than once I found myself reacting audibly with shock and surprise to what I was reading. Thankfully, there was nothing that was so graphically disturbing I couldn’t bear to read it, nor was there anything that gave me nightmares, but this was indeed a techno-thriller and I was captivated completely by the story until the very end.
This is not to say that there weren’t things about the book that I wished were different. The prose, for one thing, was inelegant and even clumsy at times. It wasn’t distracting, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. Second, there were so many different ideas incorporated into this story that by the time it ended, I felt there was much left unresolved. So much that it could be the foundation for a sequel. Perhaps this was the intention, to leave it wide open and feeling hauntingly unresolved in the long term, but it made me wish there was a follow-up novel that simply doesn’t exist. I also felt that while each character, such as Erika, Jenny, and Amar, had specific and useful specialties in their areas of scientific study, these skills and this knowledge were not used to their fullest advantage. I honestly feel like there could have been more direct applications for their individual strengths in the narrative itself—not just that they are super smart, but I felt it missed the opportunity to incorporate things that only they would know from being experts in their field. There were also things mentioned in the first part of the book that I felt sure would show up later ala Chekov’s gun that disappointingly never did. It was overall, a very tight story, but I did think there were quite a few missed opportunities to make it even better. However, even these gripes could not ruin the experience for me.
With the close of the Jurassic franchise this year, Universal now has need for another big, thrilling blockbuster and I humbly submit that Micro has the potential to fill this void. It has everything one could want in this kind of action-packed movie—intriguing mystery, nail-biting suspense, interesting, sympathetic characters, amazing sequences and set pieces, real danger, fascinating science, dystopian abuse of power, etc. With the technology we have today, one need only get ILM and Steven Spielberg on the phone to set the ball rolling on this diamond in the rough! I digress, but truly, I loved this book and I hope that others will too. It may not be on the same level as some of Crichton’s earlier work, but it’s a damn good story and not one I will soon forget.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma