The novel “The Microcolony” by Gordon Williams was published for the first time in 1979. It’s the second book in the Micronauts trilogy and follows “The Micronauts“.
When David Gudenian goes to a tunnel that very few people know about to have some intimacy with Magda Hoessner, he discovers that a fox is dangerously close to the colony. He decides to risk punishment by revealing the danger but his warning is not taken into account and he risks coming to a bad end.
Seeing his situation, David Gudenian decides to rebel and escapes with other people who were prisoners for various violations of the colony’s rules after finding Magda. The new group must venture into a wild territory while in the colony there’s a power struggle. The discovery that Magda is the most important woman in the colony changes everything.
“The Microcolony” continues the story of the experiment of miniaturization of human beings that begun in the first book. Some time has passed since those events but it’s better to know them together with some important characters. Gordon Williams introduced an overpopulated world in the grip of strong social tensions. The situation has got even worse and not even the iron fist used by the authorities can maintain law and order in many areas of the world.
The secret experiment at the center of the first book was discovered by world authorities, who decided to expand it. Humans 35 times smaller than normal can stop worrying about starvation, especially if they are not picky and agree to include insects and earthworms on the menu. However, how many people are willing to become part of the new extended experiment when there are still so many questions waiting to be answered?
Some of the protagonists of “The Microcolony” were already present in the first book while others are new characters. The new colony is made up of a truly heterogeneous mix of people, as they often joined the experiment without really knowing what it entailed. Strong tensions between different groups of colonists are the result, which ends up turning what was supposed to be the seed of a new society into a sort of concentration camp.
More than ever, the micronauts participating in the experiment form a microcosm but seem to have brought all the problems already existing in the world into it. Certain conflicts between politicians and scientists echo the ones seen on a global level in the first book. Power struggles within the microcolony threaten to completely derail the experiment.
Actually, the motives of the various characters and their agendas are not explained in depth. Gordon Williams uses contrasts to create tension between the characters and move the plot forward, also with a lot of action. The author makes some considerations on the possible social developments of the microcolony but a much longer novel would have been needed to delve into the various issues. It doesn’t help that the characters tend not to inspire sympathy, so the reader might not be very interested in their ideas.
Despite all this, the experiment maintains its importance in giving a future to humanity in a world where resources are increasingly scarce. It also maintains the dangers to which miniaturized humans are exposed and actually, the presence of a fox makes them even greater than in the first book.
Overall, “The Microcolony” works above all for the dangers that the protagonists face and for the tensions generated among other things by the contrasts between characters. What is supposed to be food for thought has very limited development but for readers who don’t mind this, this novel can be an enjoyable read. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
