Rating: 
Summary: "Shrinking Man" is Still an Incredible Reader Pleaser.
Review: "The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson ("incredible" was added to the title for this release so readers unfamiliar with the book but who'd seen the movie would have a better chance of catching it on the shelves.) is among the very best sci-fi adventures, if not simply the best novels, ever written. Robert Scott Carey, the unlucky main character of this story, finds himself shrinking at a rate of 1/7th of an inch a day after exposure to a cloud of radioactive mist. Sure, it sounds silly, but trust me, this is one of the most fantastic reads around. Events that were not part of the classic film add moments of psychological horror that top even a Stephen King freak-fest. Carey's rapidly changing relationship with his wife and daughter (a character not in the film) is explored as well as several incidents with strong themes that serve to highlight the personal Hell Carey's world has become as it steadily outgrows him. Like the movie, the novel ends with one of the greatest climaxes in imaginitive literature as Carey learns the ultimate truth of his existance and provides the story with it's final, underlying moral.... Read it, Experience it, if not for the first time, then again... and again...
Rating:
Summary: "Shrinking Man" is Still an Incredible Reader Pleaser.
Review: "The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson ("incredible" was added to the title for this release so readers unfamiliar with the book but who'd seen the movie would have a better chance of catching it on the shelves.) is among the very best sci-fi adventures, if not simply the best novels, ever written. Robert Scott Carey, the unlucky main character of this story, finds himself shrinking at a rate of 1/7th of an inch a day after exposure to a cloud of radioactive mist. Sure, it sounds silly, but trust me, this is one of the most fantastic reads around. Events that were not part of the classic film add moments of psychological horror that top even a Stephen King freak-fest. Carey's rapidly changing relationship with his wife and daughter (a character not in the film) is explored as well as several incidents with strong themes that serve to highlight the personal Hell Carey's world has become as it steadily outgrows him. Like the movie, the novel ends with one of the greatest climaxes in imaginitive literature as Carey learns the ultimate truth of his existance and provides the story with it's final, underlying moral.... Read it, Experience it, if not for the first time, then again... and again...
Rating: 
Summary: an original, well-written horror classic..
Review: 'The Shrinking Man' by Richard Matheson was written in the mid 1950s, spawning numerous film adaptations over the years. Its success is no doubt due to its very original premise: a husband and father finds himself shrinking proportionally, eventually encountering some rather horrific situations (..including one nasty spider). It's a compact, well-written story.
However unlike Matheson's best work, 'I Am Legend', 'The Shrinking Man' doesn't quite challenge the brain. Nor is it truly frightening. And the author seems to spend perhaps a bit too much time on the main subject's insatiable libido despite shrinking down to nothingness. So while 'The Shrinking Man' is fully entertaining I wouldn't place it among the best in its genre.
Bottom line: imperfect, but certainly a creative piece in horror fiction. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Symbolic analysis of "The Incredible Shrinking Man"
Review: +++Size symbolizes power,not value++++Radioactivity(symbolic of the beginning of the modern "atomic age")started Scott Carey's (he's got care;'sgot care;S.Carey;scarey)shrinkage into powerlessness(radioactivity=atom bomb=modernity=concentrated monopolisticpower)+++Scott starts shrinking just after moving to the east coast and beginning the modern stress of striving for greater financial security for his family(he details all his bill and insurance stresses as conventional reality begins"shrinking"his power)+++When Scott's 4ft.tall,he meets an old drunkard who complains of his shriveled and shrinking manhood,which he blames on women(wife and family symbolizes conventional reality/conventional"proportions"and power)+++The ultimate symbol for evil is a black widow(a spider that kills its mate)also,the above drunk calls women "bugs" +++Scott's direct cause for being lost in the basement is his wife's negligence in leaving the door open(his wife "kills" him)+++but Scott's love for her transcends everything else(love transcends conventionality; love and value TRUMP conventional power-worship)+++BASIC THEME:the mystical reality of personal values and love transcends the (only apparent)loss of personal worth in the atomic age;"to God there is no zero";size(power)apparently determines personal worth,but in reality personal worth is unaffected by power,though this contradicts the consensus view+++Scott shrinks1/7th inch per day(reflective of the 7 day work week, another symbol for modernity
Rating: 
Summary: small
Review: a guy begins to shrink (wll, there is a story behind it, but that's what he does). and......he continues to do so. in the end he must face a spider which think he's yummy. one little fight for one little man. the book is just as good as it sounds. things that happen in this book has at tendency to be dull.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Matheson novel finally grows large again
Review: A master of terror, science fiction and the mystery genre, Richard Matheson's work has inspired many classic (and not so classic films). Why? Because he's one of the best writers working in a genre that never quite good the respect it deserved. His best work inspired people like Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Dan Simmons and other current masters of terror. Matheson's The Shrinking Man (the original title by the way--the Incredible part of the novel from what I recall was added after the movie was made)begins simply enough; Scott Carey is out on a boat with his brother when the ship is enveloped by a fine mist that gently stings his skin. He wipes it off, goes down below to tell his brother Marty about it and thinks nothing of it again. Until he begins grow smaller each day. From this simple beginning we immediately jump to Carey fighting a spider in the basement of his house (although both novel and film begin the same way, after the introduction Matheson's novel veers in a slightly different direction telling us most of the story in flashback. A smart choice for the novel and it would have been a bold choice for the film but Universal-International veoted the idea).
A marvelous novel that deals with the themes of sense of self, loss of control and, ultimately, loss of identity as Carey shrinks smaller and smaller, it's also a marvelous story of terror (with elements of science fiction thrown in as well). Finally back in print after a long slumber, The Incredible Shrinking Man is fleshed out with a number of stories (the novel is only about 200 pages)including "Duel" (the basis for Steven Spielberg's film of the same name), "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"(the basis for the classic "Twilight Zone" episode featuring William Shatner and remade by director George Miller for "The Twilight Zone Movie"), and seven other short stories. A warning to readers is in order. "Duel" and "The Test" both appear in 2 other Matheson anthlogies published by TOR books but there's also a lot of other gems in the books Duel and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet as well.
If you enjoyed this book, I'd suggest Matheson's marvelous novel I Am Legend (which is, again, fleshed out by 10 Matheson short stories as the novel is fairly short. That novel was made into two films neither one of which captures the novel very well. "The Last Man on Earth" and the horrendous "The Omega Man". It also provided the uncredited inspiration for George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" trilogy). Matheson's hommage to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Hell House is also a good read (made into the movie "The Legend of Hell House" featuring Roddy McDowall).
Rating:
Summary: Awesome classic sci-fi adventure.
Review: I read this book in 5th grade, and reread it recently on vacation (I'm close to 30 now, uh oh). It's the only Richard Matheson book I read and when I bought it again recently I was struck by the number of famous stories this guy has penned. In this book, for instance, the short stories "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (a Twilight Zone classic), and "Duel" (an awesome action movie that I believe was one of Steven Spielberg's first movies) are included. This guy also wrote "I Am Legend", which was made into "Omega Man" with Charlon Heston, a sci-fi movie that I also like a lot. I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that this guy is a sci-fi/horror pioneer. This story, although it's quite dated, is very well-written and compelling. When I was younger I was very interested in the protagonist and his trying to survive the world as a steadily shrinking man (the battle with the spider and so forth). As someone slightly older, I was more interested in his steadily deteriorating relationship with his wife, daughter, and coworkers. They shun him, much like a leper or terminally ill person, since they cannot understand the illness he has. The story, if you don't know it, was original at the time but has been copied in several forms. Basically the protagonist is a yuppie who is sprayed with a radioactive mist by accident and begins shrinking 1/7 inch a day. The book switches back and forth between the last days of his shrinking life and flashbacks of his past. If you like sci-fi and horror by all means try it!
Rating:
Summary: The greatest adveture/horror story ever written....
Review: I was shocked by how good this book is: Astoundingly well-written, scary, funny, deeply involving. Stephen King and Dean Koontz dream at night about being this good. "Shrinking Man" is a grand survival story that explores what it means to be human, to defy the odds, and to go beyond the limits of this world. In a word, magnificent.
Rating:
Summary: weak horror, weak science fiction, hardly a classic
Review: Isaac Asimov's Fantastic Voyage II is a much better treatment of the miniaturization theme, for hard science fiction content and characterization. This story spent too much time inside the main character's dumb, empty head, with his descent into self-pity being far worse than the stress and perils of growing ever smaller. The other characters were flat and uninteresting. Once you tire of the protagonist bemoaning his fate (and you will tire of it) there is little to make you keep reading, except hope for an interesting resolution. Well, forget it, there isn't one. The ending does not follow logically from the rest of the story and provides no resolution.The story fails as science fiction and mostly fails as horror fiction. Pared down, it would have made a good script for a comic book. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this book much more back when I was 10 years old. So the book might well work as a juvenile book club selection, although in that case, I'd stick to Asimov and Heinlein.
Rating:
Summary: A very important book...
Review: It's difficult to come to The Incredible Shrinking Man (or The Shrinking Man, as originally titled) as a blank slate. Many fans of 1950's horror movies all ready know the story, and yet the book is still a must. Matheson makes it more interesting by having two timelines running simultaneously--the hero at the beginning of his ordeal and the hero versus the Spider. Also, a great plus about this book is that it features several of Matheson's short stories, including Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and Duel--both of which are more famous for their filmed TV versions.
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