Micro: A Novel

By Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

In Jurassic Park, he created a terrifying new world. Now, in Micro, Michael Crichton reveals a universe too small to see and too dangerous to ignore.

In a locked Honolulu office building, three men are found dead with no sign of struggle except for the ultrafine, razor-sharp cuts covering their bodies. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot, nearly invisible to the human eye.

In the lush forests of Oahu, groundbreaking technology has ushered in a revolutionary era of biological prospecting. Trillions of microorganisms, tens of thousands of bacteria species, are being discovered; they are feeding a search for priceless drugs and applications on a scale beyond anything previously imagined.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited by a pioneering microbiology start-up. Nanigen MicroTechnologies dispatches the group to a mysterious lab in Hawaii, where they are promised access to tools that will open a whole new scientific frontier.

But once in the Oahu rain forest, the scientists are thrust into a hostile wilderness that reveals profound and surprising dangers at every turn. Armed only with their knowledge of the natural world, they find themselves prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power. To survive, they must harness the inherent forces of nature itself.

An instant classic, Micro pits nature against technology in vintage Crichton fashion. Completed by visionary science writer Richard Preston, this boundary-pushing thriller melds scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction to create yet another masterpiece of sophisticated, cutting-edge entertainment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Nov 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9780062094735

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was the author of the bestselling novels The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery, Jurassic Park, Sphere, Disclosure, Prey, State of Fear, Next and Dragon Teeth, among many others. His books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide, have been translated into forty languages, and have provided the basis for fifteen feature films. He wrote and directed Westworld, The Great Train Robbery, Runaway, Looker, Coma and created the hit television series ER. Crichton remains the only writer to have a number one book, movie, and TV show in the same year. Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and author of the New York Times bestselling Robopocalypse and its sequel Robogenesis, as well as ten other books. He recently wrote the Earth 2: Society comic book series for DC Comics. Wilson earned a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as master’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. He has published over a dozen scientific papers and holds four patents. Wilson lives in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews for Micro

[mhanover10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

No matter what anyone else says, I enjoyed this book. As I was reading it I felt like it could be a movie. It makes you wonder, are there people out there creating the equipment to shrink people, can you really survive out in the world that small and are there really crawly things that small in the dirt? Yikes. I thought it was an enjoyable read.

[bravenewbks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This read like miax of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None) and the old movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. No, seriously. Gory and fantastical and fun.

[angelajmaher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was taken aback when I first started reading this; it had a distinctly unfinished feel to it. Then I discovered the book had been incomplete at the time of the author's death and was finished by another author. I suspect as much of the original material was conserved as possible, but it's resulted in sections of stilted dialogue, characters that at times are more caricatures, repetition, and areas where the pacing is out.Either it improved in later parts of the book or I got used to it. The book is good enough to keep you interested, full of action and twists. If the author had lived to polish the story himself, it would have been an excellent book. As it stands, it has its faults, but its a good tale, and still better than a lot of books out there. The science has been well researched too, which is always good to see.If the plot appeals, stick with reading the book.

[delightedlibrarian · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Reading it now... too many flashbacks to "Honey I shrunk the kids". And at least so far the villin is too 1 dimensional.

I finally stopped about halfway through... Interesting idea, way to melodramatic. Actually now that I really think about it once the only character I liked was killed, I decided to stop reading. I finished by reading the summary on Wikipedia.

[benkline · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sadly for what might have been Crichton's last (pre-posthumous mostly finished) work, I feel I'm being generous giving this 3 stars. Its not a HORRIBLE book by any means.... but basically if you've read any of his previous works, you could foresee where this was going.

Also, if you've seen any formulaic Hollywood action movie.... you know exactly how this pans out. Nothing really to throw out there, other than technology and different insects at you.

I think the only "loop" that is thrown is the survivors of the students who get shrunken down. As an opposite to this, it was pretty obvious that Eric was never really dead.

It was a decently fun romp, that, apparently took me roughly a year to finish. Didn't quite realize I let this shelf so long and gone back to read other books. This was pretty much just a typical action book that was set in the "micro" world, and because of that, it allowed Crichton/Preston to use insects almost like aliens, where throwing out a different random bug to attack or a bird, or Vin Drake who was mustache-twirling evil, just to try and throw "curveballs out of nowhere" at the protagonists. But sadly it was all too pretty much straight forward and formulaic.

[guide2_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

So many bad or unbelievable ideas, that I could not make it past the first half of the book.

[petrichor8 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Preston did a great job of finishing what Crighton started. I could definitely see this going to the big screen

[chndlrs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Honey, I shrunk Jurassic Park.

[szbrooks1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The writing was done well, but it lost me in some places .

[jsopcich-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was optimistic that this could be as good as 100% Crichton, but I was wrong. The story was hard to believe and had no depth of character.

[My · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

False protagonist
Disappointing, I was 61% reading
So I stopped.
But it is how the author wants
But I don’t like it.

[nonfictionfan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Regardless of my username, I do enjoy the occasional fiction book. I tend to rate books by how often I look at what page I'm on, similar to someone looking at their watch while watching a film. I think I was past page 100 before I took a look...sign of a good book. Being a Crichton fan in the first place also helps. :-)

[karencollyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Some great stories from Michael Crichton. I always think that this is my favourite ... until I read one of the others! I love them all.

[bxwretlind · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It took too long to get into this book and there were far too many stereotypes with regard to Hawaiian culture. I did rather enjoy the descriptions of the micro world like many other Crichton books, however Preston was not a good choice to complete it.

[marklacy-355086 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Sorry I wasted money on this. I had hoped for something original. Miniaturization of people? That's at least as old as "Fantastic Voyage" from the 1960s! Not to mention, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" etc. I was willing to overlook writing that wasn't that great if the ideas were stimulating. No such luck. Gave up on it.

[Michael · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Descent book. I was skeptical at first due to how it seemed the author was setting up characters to play certain roles from the beginning, in a simple way(f that makes sense). I also thought it was going to be pretty tame when it came to graphic scenes but I was wrong on that count as well .Turned out to not be as simple as I first thought. This book is intriguing, entertaining, and educational in fun way. I recommend this read

[shack70-958873 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not the best Michael Crichton book I ever read...

[Daniel Beecher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cool this book is, Yoda does think so. Likes this book Yoda does, yes, hmm...

[aagbay-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Micro is book much like the many that have come from Michael Crichton. Sadly, he died before he finished the novel, and Richard Preston picked up from where he left off. While Micro is still part of Michael Crichton's work of novels, it doesn't feel the same as the rest. Richard Preston did a great job on trying to recreate the same feel, but it doesn't live up to the other books. I could see the ideas and promise of the book, but the actual book only grazed the surface of what could have been.The premise of the book is simple. A high tech corporation develops groundbreaking technology: they can shrink living creatures and objects down to the micro world (hence the title). Something goes wrong and now a group of graduate students are thrown into an unfamiliar and dangerous world, fighting for their very survival. If this sounds very familiar, it should. The basic plot of the book very similar to that of Timeline, another of Crichton's stories. The whole idea of going into the micro world has endless potential for a thrilling book.The book starts off fairly slow. There is a lot of build up to the main plot of the book. Almost all of the characters are thrown at you at the very beginning of the book, creating a very confusing first quarter or so of reading. While the very act of introducing these characters early on is not that bad, the personalities of them are what make it so hard. Some characters are very well developed throughout the story, while some just are dragged along for the ride. Vin Drake, the chilling investor in the company is one of the better characters. Preston found a way to really bring out his cold and calculating mind and I felt a real loathing for him. Many times I found myself angry at what he did. But, Preston left some of the characters really underdeveloped, such as Danny Minot, one of the graduate students thrown into the dark, dangerous world. He was a bit plain and although Preston tried to bring across his personality, it seemed a bit forced and unnatural.Preston did, however, bring in a lot more scientific fact into the story. Micro is littered with small passages explaining some nuance of insects or poisons. While not exactly boring, I found these little tidbits a bit distracting from the hectic pace of the story. I am intrigued by science behind the characters actions, but it didn't feel like they added a whole lot to the story. They were added in more for the sake of having something to talk about than to explain bigger ideas.All in all, Micro doesn't exactly feel like a Michael Crichton book. I can see his influences in the writing and in the whole idea, but Preston didn't execute the whole idea perfectly. During some parts of the book, I was well into reading, but I just couldn't connect with some of the characters. While not the very best book, Micro is still a good read. It has suspense and action, but feels a bit short on character development.

[brucemmoyer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Three stars for a book from a talented author who knows how to tell a story, but in this case he has put together a ridiculous premise which his excellent writing can only go so far to ameliorate the story. Jurassic Park, while fantastic, was believable and so was the Andromeda Strain. MICRO is not. Once you start with a silly premise, even the best writer, and I believe Crichton falls into that category for sheer escapism, will find it hard to put together a cogent story. Yes, there were some interesting events portrayed skillfully by the author, but to make them at all palatable, you had to swallow the premise, which I found difficult to do. Three stars for the writer, zero stars for this book

[kwskultety · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I struggled to finish this. Excellent concept, numbingly written. Richard Preston is one of my favorite authors so I looked forward to this book very much. However, the characters were not interesting to me, and about halfway through I realized that I didn't care what happened to them; if I put the book down forever and never found out if they escaped the micro-world, I wouldn't care. Not god.

I got this book at 60% off; that is the only good thing I have to say about it.

[carl_alves_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In Micro, an evil nanotechnology company with its dastardly and malevolent CEO, Tim Drake, are killing off employees. They go on a recruiting mission to lure the young minds of the future into their evil clutches, when one of the scientists’ brother, Eric Jansen, who is an executive of with this company, goes missing and warns his brother not to come to the island. This leads to Drake shrinking the young scientists to a half inch in size and forcing them to fend for their lives in the wilds of Hawaii. Drake is hunting them down, which shouldn’t be difficult given their small stature. They have to use their scientific know how and resourcefulness to survive ants, bees, spiders, and other miniature predators.At the heart of this novel, it’s a solid adventure story. If you can get past some of the sketchy science behind the nanotechnology and being able to shrink people, there’s some cool scenarios that the scientists have to overcome. There are, however, some flaws in the novel. One is characterization. Tim Drake is a bit cliché and over the top. Even the young scientists needed a bit of work, as they often come off as very winy and annoying, especially the character Danny, who I couldn’t wait until he got killed off. The writing itself is very flawed. There is way too much viewpoint jumping and dialogue that leaves a bit to be desired. In the end, I think this is a readable novel that can be enjoyable provided that you lower your expectations first.Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth

[cahallmxj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Title: Micro: Inner space in the jungle.Story:A mysterious company, Nanigen, is making some of it's investors nervous with rumors about it's unstable and ruthless CEO. A local private investigator is hired to see what he can find out about what is going on inside the company and if there is any truth to the rumors that the company CEO may be up to no good. The PI gains access to the companies building but doesn't find anything at all really, or so he thinks. A few days later the PI, his boss, and another man are found dead in a office that was locked from the inside. They look like they were attacked with a knife or some kind of blade, but no weapon is found.Meanwhile Peter Jansen receives a visit from his brother, Eric, who is ready to reveal the company he has been working for. It turns out that Nanigen is hiring and he wants to know if Peter would like to come out to Hawaii and listen to what the company has to say. He also extends the offer to Peter's coworkers. They all agree to go out and begin to make preparations for the trip.Right before Peters is leaves he is informed that his brother has vanished in a boating accident and that a company representative will be waiting for him when he arrives. This is after he receives a strange text from his brother which simply reads “Don't Come”. Worried and confused Peter heads out to Nanigen to see if he can find out what happened to his brother. After he arrives his concerns are confirmed when he finds that his brother may have been “hushed” up in order to hide some of Nanigens secrets. Peter decides to take matters into his own hands and bring Nanigen to justice. What he didn't count on was that the CEO of Nanigne would go to any legnths to make sure that his secrets would only go to the highest bidder. That includes making sure that his “little” problem stays that way._*_I found this book interesting. It was completed after Crichton's death by Richard Preston. I figured this would be a good read since I like Preston's stories as well. For the most part the story does work overall. It just seemed to me that it was easy to tell what Crichtion had actually written and what was basically filled in from an outline of the story that he was going to write. This also happens with the characters as a few of them seem to be a list of personality traits that were checked off so that the story could keep going. Kind of like the beginning, middle, and end of the story were written but he never got to go back and fill in all the details that would have made the characters “gel” with the story better. Overall I liked the book, in some parts the story really moves and in other parts it seems like Preston may have been told to just go with what materials he had and not alter the story too much, just make sure that it still made sense. There is one big twist that I did not see coming, but beyond that this book is really just by the numbers. Give it a read if you like Crichton or if you are looking for a decent adventure with a few Science Fiction elements thrown in. m.a.c

[desemaj2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lot of fun - I am positive Hollywood is eyeing this book - or should be - a modern Fantastic Voyage

[maureencean · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Seriously, this is kind of silly. If you want to read a really good thriller with cutting edge science and technology that is believable, I recommend you read The Deep Zone by James Tabor. I had an ARC and it was great. Out in early April. More when I actually finish the book. Too bad we couldn't all get the same unfinished manuscript Preston got and see what we can do with it ourselves...Well I am done now and it remained annoying. Character development was....absent. Seemed at the end some of the characters were being set up for a possible sequel. I advise against it. Please don't tell me when the movie comes out!

[Sharvendra · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Like this book.

[utbw42 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow, a nice surprise. Crichton's last book that I read, Next, to me, was an absolute turd. I threw caution to the wind and gave this a try, as I have read a couple of Richard Preston books in the past and enjoyed them. The result of this combined effort produced an imaginative, tight, page-turning thriller. What would YOU do if you were shrunk down to 1/2" height and plopped down in the middle of a tropical rain forest? I only wish Crichton were still alive to produce more stuff like this.

[moniquesnyman-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Got 100 pages in and, unfortunately, it’s not my cup of tea. DNF, because I’m not wasting time on books I don’t enjoy anymore.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston is a techno-thriller that relies on an all too familiar theme of a greedy capitalist exploiting a technological breakthrough that could benefit humanity. In this story, a shrinking machine and mini-robots are being used for evil instead of for good and anyone who gets in the way ends up murdered.When a group of visiting grad students stumble on the truth, they are shrunk down to tiny beings and left in the Hawaiian wilderness to die. As the 7 shrunken characters battle giant beetles, wasps and spiders, one can’t help but be reminded of the Walt Disney movie, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”. Of course as the story progresses, they are a number of grisly deaths each one progressively more horrifying than the last one.I understand this this was an unfinished novel of Crichton’s that was completed by Richard Preston and unfortunately this combination of nature against technology doesn’t really work. A story of this nature needs to embrace it’s silliness and so should have had more humour and a lighter touch. I did enjoy some of the survival aspects of the story but the villain was an over-the-top cartoon, the science was ridiculous and the plot felt rehashed from previous books.

[ague_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Micro has some good up to date science in it. It would also make an excellent movie.