Micro is
Michael Crichton’s final novel, due to his unfortunate death from throat cancer
in 2008. This is the second posthumous
novel released, and was actually only about 1/3 completed at the time of his death. Richard Preston was selected to complete the
novel based on Crichton’s extensive notes and research.
The novel begins by introducing us to a group
of graduate students in various areas of study.
Their studies include venomology, toxicology, and arachnology. Nanigen
industries visits the group while they toil in obscurity in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. One of the Nanigen
recruiters also happens to be the brother of Peter, one of the graduate
students. The lure of industry is too
much for the lowly graduate students, and they decide to go check out the
Nanigen facility. The day before the
students are set to travel to interview at Nanigen, Peter gets a phone call
that his brother has been killed in a boating accident.
The cadre
of grad students head to Hawaii to visit the Nanigen labs. They learn that Nanigen is using unique and
innovative technology to mine the environment in search of novel compounds for
medicinal use. Their trip soon takes a
turn for the worse as they realize what a narcissistic maniac the President,
Vin Drake, is. Peter believes that Vin
is responsible for his brother’s death, and soon all the graduate students have
a much bigger (pun intended) problem to deal with. Subjected to the company’s technology, the
students must use their particular area of expertise to survive the wilderness
in a way that they never thought they would have to experience.
Like many
times when an artist dies, their fans are left wanting more. When musicians die, we are treated to
previously unreleased tracks or live recordings. Typically these works of art require some
touching up or interpretation, but in order to be released they need to be
mostly completed. I would equate this
book to not just remastering some rough tracks to complete a song, but rather
redubbing guitar solos, rerecording imperfect vocals with an impersonator, and even
rewriting the chorus. It’s as if your
favorite artist wrote three to five lines of a song and the rest was completed
by someone else. This is not a knock on
Richard Preston, but I couldn’t help but think of Crichton like Terry Kiser in
Weekend at Bernie’s. The change in
authorship was palpable, and it just didn’t really seem like a typical Crichton
novel. All the familiar Crichton themes (opposition of morality and science, fear about progressing technology etc) were present, but the remainder of the book lacked the significant and sound
scientific thought that Crichton’s books typically present. Unfortunately, Preston can’t hold a candle to
the intellect of Crichton. Unless you
can separate the two authors, I would avoid this book if you wish to not
tarnish the reputation of the late Michael Crichton. The book wasn’t terrible overall; it just
really should not be published with Crichton’s name.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Bunsen Burners
Up Next: Coma by Robin Cook
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