Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

               Micro is the book Michael Crichton was writing when he died.  It was completed by Richard Preston. That probably explains why this book is not as tightly written as some of Crichton’s others.

               This one had several main characters – none of whom were as vivid as most of Crichton’s usual characters. And, the story started out being told from Peter’s point of view and ended up being told from Rick’s.  This abrupt shift of gears felt clumsy and irritated me a bit.

               Apparently, Crichton wanted this story to be fun, and early on it triggered memories of the trailers for Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Another, later scene caused a similar memory of a scene from The Fly to flash through my head.  So he succeeded there. It was also very informative, in a non-tutorial way, about the flora and fauna in Hawaii.

               I found this book to be a bit disappointing. There is really nothing too major wrong with it. It is simply not quite what I was expecting.  The good guys were a little bland and the bad guy, while really, really bad was almost a caricature. I just didn’t “feel” the evil, you know. I tend to have a hard time with books by multiple authors. It is difficult to smooth the edges where one person’s work butts up against another’s.