But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I just finished Cold War in a Country Garden. I suppose this kind of thing is typical of 70′s pulp, and as such I wasn’t particularly impressed. The idea is that the British secret service has some up with a method of miniaturization and is going to use it as a means to end overpopulation (a real hot-button topic at the time). Their test to see if it’s a good idea? They drop our protagonist into a country garden, naked and without any tools. If he is able to survive long enough to get into the attached house and signal them with a tiny Morse code transmitter they’ve left for him, then the first phase is considered successful and they’ll go on with the experiment.
This is the most risible idea I’ve ever heard. Anyways, the plot continues with him calling in some more people to help, they build tiny little tools, eventually there’s some bugaboo where they go to Romania and tussle with some miniaturized iron curtain spies. The book is pretty harmless, and not a lot actually happens, but there are a few pretty amazingly stupid segments along the way that I feel the need to share. For example, at one point three intrepid miniature explorers are discussing how their miniaturization might have been effected (note that even though it’s clear in the book that hundreds of people have been miniaturized, nobody seems to have any idea how it happens) one man suggests that perhaps they were shrunk by having 299 of every 300 cells in their body removed. Another suggests that astronomers, having discovered black holes in outer space, had learned how to use incredibly strong gravity to shrink men.
I have 2 more books in this series to read yet — I’m not really looking forward to them.
My next book will be Larry Niven’s Neutron Star. I love Niven, and this should be good stuff.