FICTION
Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston (Harper)
“Micro” is a new, posthumous story from the late Michael Crichton, who died in 2008, and finished by Richard Preston, author of the non-fiction best seller “The Hot Zone.” It’s a thriller about a biotech company in Hawaii and a group of students who end up stranded and endangered in a rain forest.
Nanigen MicroTechnologies is recruiting graduate students for its top-secret research. Peter Jansen receives an offer from the company. He’s not surprised because his brother, Eric, works in management at Nanigen. Peter’s colleagues are thrilled to be invited, as well.
The day before Peter is scheduled to arrive, he receives a mysterious text message from Eric saying not to come. He goes to Hawaii anyway and learns that his brother has been murdered. A confrontation with the man responsible for Eric’s death puts Peter and his friends in jeopardy. They are reduced in size to less than an inch tall.
Peter leads his friends through a terrifying new hostile landscape. Can they survive long enough to find a way to regain their size and stop a madman?
Like a typical Crichton novel, the cardboard-thin characters in “Micro” exist only to convey the science, yet somehow the novel works.
Rain forests are a new frontier for pharmaceutical possibilities, and the concept of shrinking man down to the size of a pea has been explored countless times. Yet reading the novel makes all of it seem fresh and original.
“Micro” ranks with Critchton’s blockbusters “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park,” and Preston deserves praise for polishing the novel and making it sing.
Jeff Ayers, The Associated Press
NONFICTION
Schott’s Quintessential Miscellany by Ben Schott (Bloomsbury)
As we were growing up in my family, our grandparents kept us supplied with dictionaries and encyclopedias. We became quite intrigued with knowledge, some of it was rather trivial. Every year we anticipated the latest editions of the world almanacs and our great favorite; Guinness World Records.
There is so much to know about the world around us. I used to love playing “Trivial Pursuit” until I had memorized the answers. “Jeopardy” is still my favorite TV show. And I have become a huge fan of “Schott’s Miscellany.” Ben Schott published his “Original Miscellany” in 2002. He has followed it up with “Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany” and “Schott’s Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany.” These books have sold more than 2.5 million copies. He just published another one, “Schott’s Quintessential Miscellany.”
These books are treasure troves of fascinating information. Here are some nuggets that I have gleaned from Schott’s latest effort:
On pleasure and age: “At 20 we kill pleasure, at 30 we taste it, at 40 we are sparing of it, at 50 we seek it, and at 60 we regret it.”
On adversity: “Adversity exasperates fools, dejects cowards, draws out the faculties of the wise and industrious, puts the modest to the necessity of trying their skill, awes the opulent, and makes the idle industrious.”
Some U.S. Secret Service code names: Hillary Clinton … Evergreen. George W. Bush … Tumbler. Bill Clinton … Eagle. Jimmy Carter … Deacon. Ronald Reagan … Rawhide. Barack Obama … Renegade.
Warm houses: “A house with a wife is often warm enough; a house with a wife and her mother is rather warmer than any spot on the known globe; a house with two mothers-in-law is so excessively hot, that it can be likened to no place on earth at all, but one must go lower for a simile.”
Vick Mickunas, Cox Newspapers
