Book review: Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov

You have probably heard of this story before: a crew assembles, gets miniaturized and injected into a scientist's body to save his life. This is the plot of Fantastic Voyage and since its release in 1966, it has been heavily popularized. It has inspired episodes from the Simpsons and Spongebob to both Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go, and many more. The original story was made by Otto Klement and the screenplay was written by Harry Kleiner. Asimov's novelization came out six months before the film and therefore many believed that the film was based on the novel, however, that is not the case and there are in fact many differences between the two. When approached with the request to write the book version, Asimov outright refused. 

 "I turned down the proposal out of hand. Hackwork, I said. Beneath my dignity." - Isaac Asimov

He believed that the technology of miniaturisation was impossible. However, after a lot of persuasion, Asimov agreed to write the book with a few changes. When comparing the book to the movie, it is clear that Asimov wanted the story to be as scientific as possible. Whilst in the movie it felt like they did not try to make sense of the technology being used. 

I honestly do not read a lot of sci-fi but Fantastic Voyage seems to stick out in this genre. It is more of a dystopian world in which two superpowers have the ability to miniaturize objects. It is unlike Star Wars or Star Trek; it is simpler than normal sci-fi and therefore, it appealed to me as a reader. I think Asimov did a great job of including biology concepts, thus fostering a more scientific take on the book. I think it is great when authors include something educational, I always appreciate learning something new.

Never doubt Asimov. I have only read two of his books so far, Fantastic Voyage and I, Robot. But I can tell that he is an amazing writer. The fact that he wrote and edited over 500 books in his lifetime astonishes me. It shows how much of an expert he is within his field. He is one of the most influential sci-fi writers of all time. He created the three fundamentals of robotics which shaped all future sci-fi novels. They lead as follows

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The only negative thing about this book is that it is a bit outdated. One such example is a female character named Cora. At the start of the book Cora is portrayed as a naive and stupid woman causing a lot of the male characters to complain about her involvement in the mission. However, she proves herself to be a resourceful and pragmatic person but I cannot help but speculate that she was only added as a love interest, which is quite annoying because I do not think the story needed any particular romance. Considering how short the book was and how little the characters knew of each other I think it was unnecessary and unrealistic.

Overall I think the story was engaging and the book was perfect for just a novelization. It was not meant to be greater than that and I think Asimov has written better books. I leave you with a quote from Isaac Asimov:

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety."