Did you ever see the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage. It's about a submarine crew who are shrunk to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist to repair damage to his brain. The movie inspired an animated television series of the same name and helped popularize the concept of miniaturization in science fiction along with The Incredible Shrinking Man, especially the idea of doing so to travel into the human body, being consistently referenced and parodied in multiple media.
Bantam Books obtained the rights for a paperback novelization based on the screenplay and approached Isaac Asimov to write it. This he did, but he was never happy with the finished product which got a fair bit of criticism. Fellow SF writer Harry Harrison called it a "Jerry-built monstrosity", praising the descriptions of science-fiction events as "Asimov at his best", while condemning the narrative framework as "inane drivel".
Asimov revisited the concept in 1987, writing and releasing Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain. He went to great lengths to reiterate that this was not a sequel to Fantastic Voyage but was a new, separate story that shares only the central concept of miniaturized scientists entering a human body. It also shares the same Cold War elements as the original novel but is a longer and more elaborate read.
I picked up a Grafton Books 1988 edition for the grand price of $2 in an op-shop and found it an enjoyable read, albeit with its own flaws. The characters are poorly drawn and relatively unbelievable. The science (or should we call it pseudo-science) is superbly done, but the story line struggles. But there is at least a satisfying and unexpected finish.
3 stars out of 5!
I still prefer Asimov's straight sci-fi.
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