Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston is less science, more technology. The novel was discovered among Crichton’s archives after he passed away and Richard Preston, who was given all the various notes, jottings and documents, was assigned to complete it. This is therefore in a sense, Crichton’s final novel and Preston has done a wonderful job of tying it all up neatly in the trend similar to that of the master story-teller.
Nanigen MicroTechnologies is a nanotech company and has developed a revolutionary shrinking technology that apart from reducing particles and machines to tiny sizes, can also reduce human beings to a fraction of their size. Nanigen can also reverse the process and restore things to their original sizes, humans included.
The bodies of three men are discovered in a locked office. There seems to be no sign of struggle, but closer inspection reveals that their bodies are covered with ultra-fine razor-sharp cuts.
There is plenty of material to leave contemplating on the wonders of science, and also on the fascinating aspects of nature. A bunch of seven graduate students from Cambridge in Massachusetts, shrunk to about half an inch tall, fall foul of Nanigen and are in a race to save their own lives. They flee into the thick green shrubbery in the rainforest of Hawaii. You can well imagine the plight of humans in reduced sizes when faced with insects and creatures that have the relative sizes of dinosaurs. The unfortunate seven students have several run-ins with that are hair-raising.
The students however have acquired various survival skills and pool their knowledge of poisons and chemicals to tackle the many dangers they face in their quest to retaliate and fight back against the enemy that is out to destroy them. They are experts in insects, arachnids, poisons, venoms, and the chemicals exuded by different plants and animals.
Still, there is no way the bad guys at Nanigen will let them all reach civilization, and the society of full-sized humans, so that they can expose the company’s evil deeds to the world. There is death, suspense and tragedy, scary encounters with spiders and other creepy crawlies, as the protagonists learn the invisible language of nature. But this is how Crichton has always kept his books going. Preston is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author. The publishers chose well.
Micro
by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston
HarperCollins Publishers
Rs.299