The Incredible Shrinking Man

By: Richard Matheson

Narrated by: Yuri Rasovsky

Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the terrifying novel that inspired the classic motion picture.

Inch by inch, day by day, Scott Carey is getting smaller. Once an unremarkable husband and father, Scott finds himself shrinking with no end in sight. His wife and family turn into unreachable giants, the family cat becomes a predatory menace, and Scott must struggle to survive in a world that seems to be growing ever larger and more perilous, until he faces the ultimate limits of fear and existence.

©1956 Richard Matheson (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Science Fiction, 2007

"A horror story if ever there was one....A great adventure story, it is certainly one of that select handful that I have given to people, envying them the experience of the first reading." (Stephen King)
"A classic of suspense as poignant as it is frightening, a mix that only Richard Matheson could pull off." (Dean Koontz)

Awesome, can feel his influence in King's works.

Enjoyed it almost as much as I am legend. Perfect first person writing , and very quotable.

Interesting

This book was like no other book that I have read, it has a lot of metaphors. For the deep thinkers

"I'm Shrinking! I'm Shrinking!"

Would you listen to The Incredible Shrinking Man again? Why?

This is a haunting story. Yes, I think I would listen to it again...

At times, some of the "Shrinking Man's" thoughts and experiences are very hard to listen to, i.e., his anger, his frustrations, and some of his sexual fantasies and obsessions.

The author hasn't left any situations or mental states out. It is a compelling tale.

I might skip some of the places that were uncomfortable for me to listen to.
It was longer than I originally expected.

What I liked what seeing the spiritual side of the character's perception of his experience. His "growth" as a person was in proportion to his physical shrinking.

Would you be willing to try another book from Richard Matheson? Why or why not?

I have always loved the movie, "Somewhere in Time." I would like to read/listen to the original book.

Matheson is a conjurer who raises questions in your mind about "reality," and the imagination.

Definitely want to read/listen more samples of his work.

What does Yuri Rasovsky bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

OMG. Mr. Rasovsky's voice is amazing. Listening to this narrator is what continually compelled me to finish this book.

His voice was perfect to complement this eerie story.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The spiritual revelations at the end of the book, and positive outlook that the character experiences in his life, in spite of all the troubles he experienced.

Any additional comments?

I saw the movie, "The Incredible Shrinking Man," when I was 6 years old.

I never forgot this haunting film.

Several years ago, I spotted a black widow spider outside a friend's home, and moved it (via a small branch) to a tree. I had been intrigued by the scene in the movie with the main character fighting the giant black widow. Seeing a live one, I saw how graceful it was.

I haven't watched the movie again, but am so glad I discovered the audio book. So many facets of the story not included in the movie would have been impossible for me to understand as a little girl.

I never forgot the last scenes when the character is united with the universe.

The book has given me a new insight into the movie, and why I never forgot it.

great story

Richard Matheson is a superb storyteller. I almost stopped listening because of the narrator's nasal whiney voice. The clacking of his falce teath made it almost unbearable. I will not listen to another book read by this narrator.

Great coming of age story

This is a simple story about a man who thinks he's going mad because he starts to get shorter little by little. No 'Spoilers' here. The story follows through the process of him shrinking and shrinking with all the trials he must face. Fear, terror, loneliness, and betrayal. He learns to deal with all of them He also becomes much more as a result of his 'transformation'.

The Incredible Ear Trauma

Scott Carey learns he's come in contact with a chemical which causes him to shrink. His ageing doesn't reverse--he doesn't get any younger; he simply begins to grow smaller and smaller. Understandably, this experience causes Carey to travel through a full range of emotional responses: irritation, frustration, horror, helplessness, and defeat among the rest. However, despite the necessity of his near constant adapting to new circumstances, there's never an indication Carey comes to terms with his new condition. Instead, the listener is left thinking Scott Carey is an insufferable whiner constantly bemoaning his misfortune and this is a direct result of the way it was narrated.

What could be worse than passing through a mist laden with a chemical you later learn is causing you to shrink endlessly? Listening to the narration of such a story when the narrator's voice is grating and whiny. Sorry, not sorry. The story could have been a winner had I not had to endure the incessant sighs of defeat as Rasovsky read the story. But then, maybe that's the impression Matheson meant for the story. (I'll have to read the book some day to establish my own impression of the book's narrator's mindset.)

My Incredible Shrinking Interest

Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh. I did think the story was an interesting one, even if I did zone-out for long periods.

The author did a great job of relating how the world must appear to a person only an inch high (and shrinking); it was very imaginatively depicted, and tremendously action-packed, but after a while the scenes started to feel too long and complicated! I could not follow half of the sponge-needle-thread-cracker MacGyverisms … and I got extremely tired of the whole “Man versus Spider” storyline.

I have a feeling I read this book in High School but I am not sure… it seemed so familiar!! Still, if I did read it I forgot how it ended and that kept me going.

(I could totally see Bruce Willis in this role! LOL)

One of my favorites! Took me a bit to enjoy the narration.

The Incredible Shrinking Man has been a favorite of my since my youth. The story of a man Shrinking by 1/7 of an inch each day is really just a metaphor Matheson uses to tell a tale of a man who slowly loses inch by inch everything society, as well as himself accept as being manhood. In this audio performance I was initially put off by the narrator, Yuri Rasovsky, his voice sounding a bit lisping, but I stuck with it and by the third or fourth chapter I came to except him as not just a narrator, but as the main character, Scott Carey himself. Telling the tale of these events in his life.
If you enjoy character driven classic sci-fi, or if like me, you love the writings of Richard Matheson, you can't go wrong giving this audio book a listen.

A Dark, Thought-Provoking Psychological Journey

This novel tells the story of Scott Carey who, because of exposure to a cloud of radioactive spray shortly after he had accidentally ingested insecticide, ends up shrinking at a rate of approximately 1/7 of an inch per day. He encounters all kinds of perils as he diminishes, from a drunken pedophile to sadistic street toughs, from the spider in the basement to the elements themselves, but this is first and foremost a psychological novel about the uncertainty of the individual in the 1950s and his/her place in the possibly futile, certainly alien post-war world.

For example: "What he wanted to know was this: Was he a separate, meaningful person; was he an individual? Did he matter? Was it enough just to survive? He didn't know; he didn't know. It might be that he was a man and trying to face reality. It might also be that he was a pathetic fraction of a shadow, living only out of habit, impulse-driven, moved but never moving, fought but never fighting."

This is a tense, frustrated, dark character study, and it's made all the better by an excellent narration that captures the frustration and fear of the protagonist very effectively.

loved it!!

true horror!! loved the narrator. such a classic horror story, with a touch of humor and sexual desire.