Kyle Lybeck's Literary Lair
A group of extremely talented graduate students in the field of biology get an offer of a lifetime. Peter Jansen (one of these students) has a brother, Eric, who comes to talk with him and the group of students, with an opportunity and dreams of making it rich with a startup company that he is a part of in Hawaii. He won't tell them what it is they will be doing, what brand new groundbreaking scientific work the company is doing, but tells them they should accompany him to Hawaii to find out. It sounds like a great idea, but just as he's ready to possibly go, Peter gets a strange text from Eric, warning him to stay away, but cannot contact his brother. Peter thinks it's strange, but still takes the plunge with the others to Hawaii.

Upon reaching Hawaii, Peter finds out that his brother has had a boating accident, and is lost at sea, presumed dead. He does some investigating, only to find that the company he was working for, Nanigen, could actually be behind the whole thing. Upon digging a little too far into the death of his brother, Peter and the rest find themselves in trouble, and see the technology that the company works with first hand. The entire group becomes transformed to a miniature size, and are forced to flee into the wilderness of Hawaii in order to survive.

Using their extensive background, the group is forced to survive the elements and against natural creatures, from beetles to spiders to birds and many more. They are also forced against time, as they find out that they can only survive a few days before 'micro-bends' can occur, causing internal hemorrhaging and quick death. When the head of Nanigen decides to come after them so that he can cover up the whole thing, they have yet another element to survive from. This includes men working for him that are also shrunk to a micro size and are trying to kill them before they reach the headquarters and try to re-size themselves.

While this novel might sound a little hokey on the surface, it is quite the fast paced read. There is aspects of science (for the nerdy folk such as myself), thriller, and horror that keep you reading until the last page wondering what could happen next to this group of scientists. Even though this was finished by someone else other than Michael himself as he passed away before it was done, it still reminds me of the classic Crichton I've read before.

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