Friday 27 March 2009

Book Read: Fantastic Voyage


Isaac Asimov's book version of the screenplay of the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage.

An interesting story that's been retold and spoofed many times. A team in a submersible are shrunk to microscopic size and sent into the body of a man to remove a blood clot. They face many dangers in route.

It was good to read the original story at last, the one that started and inspired them all, but the writing in this book clearly isn't that good. Michael Crichton would have done a far better job with a story like this.

Also, I had trouble identifying with the various characters. Firstly, their dialogue seems to be too contrived, cliched, and childish for people who are supposed to be authorities on various subjects or in charge of important situations.

Secondly, their personalities just don't seem to match their character profiles. Everyone, inspite of being on an incredible, first of its kind journey, just seems to take every opportunity to be purposefully flippant. And not in a good way that would indicate a compensation for nervousness, but in a cliched way that would indicate poor character design on the author's part.

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