|
|
 |
EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
| The
Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson (SF Masterworks # 51) check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
Even more so when the author of the novel and the scriptwriter of the film is the same man, Richard Matheson.
Scott Carey, while sailing in his yacht, is engulfed in a radioactive cloud that decreases his height by one seventh of an inch a day. Whereas the film followed this progressed from beginning to end, the original book from Chapter Two has a minute Carey stuck in a basement avoiding being eaten by a spider interspersed with his life leading up to that point through the chapters. Using this technique, Matheson very cleverly hits only on the highlights
of Carey's transition rather than go in for (sic) minute detail. This really is a character study orientated story as we feel the trauma of Carey's change upon him and how it affects his wife and young daughter. There are also poignant scenes of inadequacy associated along the way. A couple chapters that obviously didn't appear in the book relate
Carey's voyeurism and one-night affair with a midget woman who is
his height. Risqué stuff in an SF story over forty years
ago. All right. There are flaws. A man loosing a fraction of himself over a time ain't going to have much of anything, especially intelligence, if he continually shrinks but I doubt if that was realised by anyone until this book was written. Then again, how many basements do you know where there is only one spider in residence, even if it was a black widow. No doubt if the book was re-written today such discrepancies would be accounted for within the story. If anything, the oddities that turn up are more in comparison to society today or it might just be a reflection of that time period. For instance, outside of his immediate family and where he worked,
the Carey family seem pretty friendless. Despite these failings, this is still Richard Matheson and if you
want to see one of the masters showing that ability can beat such shortcomings
then this book should be on your reading list. GF Willmetts
|
OTHER REVIEWS - February 2003
NEW NOVELS The
Dead Sea Scrolls Deception by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh Buffy
The Vampire: The Cordelia Collection Volume 1 by Nancy Krulik Tourniquet
Heart edited by Christopher C. Teague The
Devil In Green (Book One of The Dark Age) by Mark Chadbourn Angel: The Longest Night by Pierce Askegren Dark
Angel: Before The Dawn by Max Allen Collins Guilty
Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton The
Divine Comedies: Here Comes The Sun & Odds And Ends by Tom Holt The
Drawing Of The Dark by Tim Powers. Fantasy Masterworks # 33 The
Far Enough Window: The Reclaiming Of Fairyland by John Grant and illustrated
by Ron Tiner The
Ruins of Ambrai (Exiles Volume 1) by Melanie Rawn The
Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson (SF Masterworks # 51) HARDBACKS INTO PAPERBACKS Wizard's
Funeral (The Red Pavilions Book Two) by Kim Hunter Wanderers
And Islanders (Legends Of The Land Book One) by Steve Cockayne Effendi (The Second Arabesk) by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
| ||||||||
You've
probably seen the 1957 film that was based on this book at sometimes
in your life on TV. It's always interesting to see the source material
to see how faithfully it was adapted. 
His
work in both areas is something you should all be familiar with
without me going into detail on that, so I'll concentrate on this
1956 year old story.
 |
|
| nest home | search engine | site directory | shop | library | tools | about us | | |
|
|
... www.sfcrowsnest.com © 2004 CWant a ? Then send an email to: hologramtales-subscribe@topica.com