The Microbots

Tom Swift IV #8

by Victor Appleton, Robert E. Vardeman

Tom Swift has developed a powerful new kind of nanotechnology - incredible shrinking robots reduced to the size of a pinpoint with his revolutionary molecular compressor. But, the tiniest miscalculation can have gigantic consequences, as Tom soon finds out for himself. One moment he's running an experiment - and the next he's running for his life!

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

149 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

Victor Appleton was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its successors, most famous for being associated with the Tom Swift series of books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...

The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941.
In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tom and his friends are shrunk to the size of insects, when Tom makes robot insects. They have to find a way through a grassy yard and back into Tom's lab. Along the way, they get attacked by gnats, a spider, ants, bees, a bird, ants again, a worm, and spider again. I thought that was way too many "animals attack" scenes, and it got repetitive. Another problem with pacing is how slow the first third of the book is. It takes fifty pages before our heroes get shrunk. That's a long time to wait for the main plot!

Tom makes several stupid decisions in this book. He wastes his tools (including a laser) almost right away, and he takes a nap instead of messaging for help. The message part was weird. Tom can send emails on his computer, but only one in three get through. Instead of sending a message for help over and over again, until it gets received, he wastes a few chapters, trying to find the perfect spot to send emails. Instead of sending a message like normal, he types out every individual letter with 1's and 0's.

[cam 🐠🦋🦖 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book on a walk with Fiona to my neighborhood community library thing. It was honestly pretty good even though it’s 2nd grade level reading. And surprisingly the pace was really well done as opposed to 90% of books

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" Tom-Swift style. It is all here: the shrinking, the insects, the jungle of a back yard, finding food left earlier, and a struggle to return to normal size. Except for its derivative nature, this Tom Swift really delivers in terms of story and character and plot. There are only a few really cringe worthy moments, which makes this loads better than quite a few other Tom Swift novels. By this point in the series, it is clear the ghost writers had hit their stride and figured out what made a good story and what didn't, at least for a few books. Enjoyable, if forgettable. And somehow I always was imagining Rick Moranis in there, somewhere.

[Christopher Brehm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good