Nerds That Geek Book Review: 'Micro'

Written by Scott Edwards

In this day and age companies can afford to be picky about who they hire, but that is one of the reasons why they are able to become better than ever.  Running recruiting trips is not out of the ordinary for many of these places, as they try to find the best of the best in their fields, and Nanigen is not above trying to lock down talent by putting on a wonderful song and dance. No degrees are needed to work for this up and coming Robotics Company, just be willing to start on the ground floor and you'll become filthy rich once their stock goes public. You may ask yourself if this is too good to be true, but who cares if you are going to be paid handsomely for your work.

Eric Jansen, the VP of Nanigen, is out at Cambridge for a recruiting trip, and his dashing smile, nice clothes and a not a care in the world attitude is working famously with the students. His brother Peter who is working in a lab on campus catches wind that Eric is sporting around and telling everyone that he runs into that Nanigen is ready to hire, and no degree is necessary for the work that they will be doing. Peter, knowing that his brother means well in the long run tries to get updated information on what this robotics company will really be doing, but gets pushed away with many deflective answers. Concerned with the lack of truth his brother has given him, Peter still needs to answer to the rest of his friends who all think this will be the opportunity of a life time. An invitation has been made to the group of friends to come out and visit the headquarters of Nanigen, which is based out of Hawaii. But before the group leaves, Peter receives a strange text message from his brother, ‘DON’T COME’, then he receives an even worse phone call from someone at the Nanigen offices saying his brother Eric has been killed in a boating accident.

Undeterred by the news, Peter decides to travel along with his friends to the head office of Nanigen, because if nothing else, he can try to figure out what happened to his brother. Peter, along with Rick, Karen, Erika, Amar, Jenny and Danny are greeted upon their arrival at headquarters by Vincent Drake, the president of the company. Drake gives the group a rundown of what they are doing at Nanigen, and how they are trying to make the world healthier with all of the samples they can collect from the local vegetation. Everyone in the group has worked with plants in one way or the other and understands what benefits can come from such research, but Nanigen has taken their research just a bit further. They have been able to shrink devices, along with people down to the micro level for the collection process, then enlarge them back to normal size to provide a much larger harvest.  

Being blown away by this turn of events, the group is ready to try to impress Drake and get a nice healthy income before they lose their chance. Peter, however is not impressed, knowing that there is something going on with the company, he confronts Drake in his office about his brother’s death. Drake hands Peter a beating that no one could have seen coming, but unbeknownst to Drake, his microphone is still on and everyone in the office heard what was said about his involvement of Eric’s death. Not being able to have any bad publicity for the company, Drake needs to get rid of these kids, and what better way than to shrink them down and set them free in the terrifying rainforests of Hawaii.

This is where the main story of Micro begins. The group of grad students are shrunk and placed in the wilderness of the Hawaiian Islands. Only being half an inch tall the group tries to adapt to the environment that they have been thrust into, using only their knowledge of botany and entomology (plants and insects) to survive. Troubles that none of them would ever have to think about in everyday life quickly become reality as ants, spiders, centipedes, bats and the worst predator of them all, humans, try to find and keep them from their main objective…getting enlarged back to normal size.

This is one of the best books Michael Crichton has constructed since Jurassic Park. The imagery that is conveyed in this novel makes you feel as if you were sitting in Hawaii and being attacked by insects that are as big, or bigger than you. Even though Crichton passed away before this novel was finished, Richard Preston came in and continued the story in the classic Crichton fashion by keeping the suspense up and by not letting you get too comfortable with any of the situations. There is something around each and every corner of Micro and this keeps the pages turning until you find out if anyone will make it back to the offices of Nanigen alive to exact their revenge.  ​

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