Micro: A Novel

Unfortunately, Michael Crichton died when he was in the middle of writing this book. The plot is okay, but much less believable than any other book he wrote. The writing? Well, let's just say that it looks like he didn't have a chance to review and rewrite. It's one of the few times I've read the first 150 pages of a book, then skipped to the last 20 to find out who lives and how it ends.

Wow. I mean, really. Wow. First of all, way to go Richard Preston for finishing up Michael Crichton's last, incomplete novel. It's probably not an easy job to finish somebody else's novel (especially a Crichton one), but I couldn't tell where one author started and another stopped. The book read as a solid hole, with no noticeable shifts or gaps. However, it did seem like Crichton or Preston was gearing up for a sequel at the end. I'm not sure how I would feel about it. This book is not for the faint of heart or easily grossed out. It follows a basic plot formula similar to those of other Crichton novels (I kept thinking, "These people must not have seen Jurassic Park). There's a hush-hush, vaguely dangerous secret science project recruiting top people and bringing them to Hawaii to show them this cutting-edge technology. And things go horribly wrong. There's a big surprise. The pleasure of reading this novel derives not from the largely unsurprising plot (although there are a few twists), but from the vivid, creative descriptions of the micro-world. Preston and Crichton flow together seamlessly, each using their strengths of science and language to thoroughly entertain and terrify. It was a gripping novel that kept you turning pages until the very end. The only problem I had with it were some very gruesome sequences that left me squirming and a bit more green than when I began. Nevertheless, it was very exciting. I dare you to pick it up!