David Duncan (1) (1913–1999)

A fun novelisation of the 1966 movie by Asimov, who does what he can within the scifi premise to include realistic science as problems to be solved by the crew of scientists and technicians, miniaturised in a nuclear-powered submarine and injected into the bloodstream of a defecting physicist with an inoperable brain tumour, to save his life and the knowledge he has in order to maintain a cold war stalemate.

Some nods to the Manhattan Project, deconstruction of super-spy tropes, critique of show more sexism in science (which Asimov then forgets), wrapped up in a neat race-against-time adventure. show less

3 1/2 stars: Good.

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From the back cover: Four men and one woman reduced to a microscopic fraction of their original size, boarding a miniaturized atomic sub and being infected into a dying man's carotid artery. Fighting their way past giant antibodies, passing through the heart itself, entering the inner ear where even the slightest sound would destroy them, battling relentlessly into the cranium. Their objective--to reach a blood clot and destroy it with the piercing rays of a show more laser gun. At stake--the fate of the entire world.

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This was a solid "Good". A Page turner, fast read. It is certainly a cold war era book--they go on the journey to save the life of a Soviet defector who has scientific knowledge that can change the balance of power. And our five protagonists--of course, one is actually a secret agent who wants to defector to die before he can tell his secrets.

Typical Isaac Asimov, the characters are caricatures, particularly our female. I had a few eye rolls, but nothing I would go so far as to say offended by. Asimov is the Agatha Christie of Sci-Fi-- great plots, cardboard characters.

I did love the descriptions of the parts of the body they were running across in miniaturized form. In one sequence, three characters had to leave the sub, and one started getting attacked by antibodies. I wanted to hug one! :)

Here is a passage in the "antibody sequence" which shows what I mean, both about the descriptions and the caricatures:

"They had no brains, not even the most primitive, and it was wrong to think of them as monsters or predators...They were merely molecules with atoms so arranged as to make them cling to the surfaces that fit theirs through blind action of inter-atomic forces. ... He kept pulling at the fuzz [antibodies] on Cora's back. .. [Antibodies] clung and joined, spanning her shoulders and making their wooly pattern across her abdomen. They hesitated over the uneven three dimensional curve of her breasts as though they had not figured that out yet."

Seriously??? Antibodies that are in a constant microscopie 3D environment at all times can't deal with breasts? Grow up, Isaac!

I would have liked the book better if there had not been the secret agent aspect, but conversely I liked that there was never an issue of "will they be shrunk forever"? There was the time element--the shrinking would automatically expire and they might start growing and thus kill their patient, but it was never a question of whether they'd be shrunk forever. That would have been tedious.

A good, fun, fast read. You can finish it in a few hours.

Sending this to a friend's son. show less

Well that's a bizarre little story. On one hand, it's 1960s scifi in a nutshell, full of tensions about the 'Other Side' (obvious enough), weird but fascinating scientific gadgets and ideas, sexism, and with odd pacing and dialog. It's pretty much what I remember from other Asimov novels, although it's been a while.

Which is amusing, given that unlike what I'd guessed, in this case the movie actually game first. Based on a short by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby, Asimov only got involved in show more the novelization--and then only if he was given leave to do the science properly. For the most part, he did. I don't know enough ananotomy to know if anything in particular is wrong, but it makes me want to know *more*, which I think is pretty much the entire point of the thing.

Otherwise, the entire plot is adventure driven: a (rather oddball) team must used a mostly untested technology to shrink down small enough to fit into a human bloodstream in order to remove a life threatening clot. Of course things go wrong (wouldn't be much of a book otherwise) and they end up on a rather circuitous route. Will they make it out and save the day? Of course. But what's going to go wrong first? Well that's the story!

There's a romance subplot, which is about as subtle as a brick to the face and sexist as heck. But I guess that's what they needed for the film? So it goes.

Overall, the first third or so (before they actually shrink or even know what's going on) eis boring and stilted to the extreme. Once things get going though, it's quite an enjoying ride. show less

Starts very well, like a classic golden age mystery, but then doesn't live up to its early promise. Atmospheric at times. In a similar vein Herbert Brean's "The Clock Strikes 13" is much more successful.