Un eminente sabio, víctima de un intento de asesinato, yace en estado comatoso a causa de un coágulo cerebral. En su mente lleva un secreto de extraordinaria importancia para la supervivencia del mundo libre. Una operación significaría su muerte. Entonces, un grupo de sabios resuelve miniaturizar a un equipo de médicos y técnicos, con todos sus aparatos, e inyectarlo en el sistema circulatorio del enfermo…
Próxima parada: el cerebro.

Lessi il “Viaggio allucinante” di Isaac Asimov da ragazzo e ne rimasi entusiasta. Ricordavo un romanzo lungo che raccontava un’incredibile avventura nel corpo umano da parte di un pugno di scienziati all’interno di un sommergibile. Di anni ne sono passati tanti e se la memoria mi ha tradito è solo sulla lunghezza del romanzo, poco più di duecento pagine. E allora ancora maggior merito per Asimov che è riuscito a proporre una storia così incredibile con una grande sintesi, l’incredibile viaggio all’interno del corpo di uno scienziato per rimuovere un embolo cerebrale è un capolavoro della fantascienza. Dal collo al cuore, passando per i polmoni e per le orecchie, obiettivo il cervello. Tra flussi di sangue che sembrano tsunami, onde sonore amplificate, globuli bianchi e batteri non manca la suspence per un membro dell’equipaggio che cerca di boicottare la missione. Un classico della fantascienza imperdibile. ( )

4/6/22

Well that's a bizarre little story. On one hand, it's 1960s scifi in a nutshell, full of tensions about the 'Other Side' (obvious enough), weird but fascinating scientific gadgets and ideas, sexism, and with odd pacing and dialog. It's pretty much what I remember from other Asimov novels, although it's been a while.

Which is amusing, given that unlike what I'd guessed, in this case the movie actually game first. Based on a short by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby, Asimov only got involved in the novelization--and then only if he was given leave to do the science properly. For the most part, he did. I don't know enough ananotomy to know if anything in particular is wrong, but it makes me want to know *more*, which I think is pretty much the entire point of the thing.

Otherwise, the entire plot is adventure driven: a (rather oddball) team must used a mostly untested technology to shrink down small enough to fit into a human bloodstream in order to remove a life threatening clot. Of course things go wrong (wouldn't be much of a book otherwise) and they end up on a rather circuitous route. Will they make it out and save the day? Of course. But what's going to go wrong first? Well that's the story!

There's a romance subplot, which is about as subtle as a brick to the face and sexist as heck. But I guess that's what they needed for the film? So it goes.

Overall, the first third or so (before they actually shrink or even know what's going on) eis boring and stilted to the extreme. Once things get going though, it's quite an enjoying ride. ( )

WHO cares about the movie. GRUMPY OLD MEN.
I loved this book because it is the grownup version of that one Magic School Bus book when they enter the body and thus it is AMAZING!!!
I like real science in my Sci-Fi and this came in. ( )