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The Incredible Shrinking Man  By  cover art

The Incredible Shrinking Man

By: Richard Matheson
Narrated by: Yuri Rasovsky
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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)

What listeners say about The Incredible Shrinking Man

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    170
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  • 2 Stars
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Performance
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding.

Gripping, tense, thought provoking, well written, outstanding narration. A metaphorical exploration of one mans rage against a world seemingly determined to bring him down. This book is about anger, hope, courage, defeat and redemption. Ignore the "b-grade" allusions of the title, this book is literature of the highest quality.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

What would it Really be like...

To slowly and actually shrink. From 6 ft, to 3 ft, to 1 ft, then to an inch, less than an inch. How would you get food? How would you get water? How would you feel? This is what Richard Matheson does so well.... create incredible circumstances, put real people in them, and describe the reality of how they feel and survive. If your expecting something cute like Honey I Shrunk the Kids, then move on. This book dwells deep into the emotional drain on the main character who is actually shrinking. It explores his fear, desperation, anger, and loneliness (don't worry, there's also plenty of adventure and excitement).
I loved this book, and highly recommend it for a fun and at times emotional read. The narration was also very well done.


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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Chemicals, Sex and Violence

Written in 1956, this book is crying out for a new screenplay. The anger and frustration of a man beset by an unknown physical happening to his body becomes a mental journey into what it means to be human and the search for a reason to live in the face of consuming despair.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I had to give up on the narration...

I actually thought the story was pretty good, although it had a little more profanity than I would have liked. The struggles Scott Carey faced were described in great detail, even to the point of emphasizing things we all take for granted. To try to put yourself in his place is unimaginable, but Matheson makes you ponder it to an unsettling level. At times it was engrossing, at other times it lagged a little, but I enjoyed the read.

That's the main point of my review here on audible, I stopped listening to the audiobook about midway through and just read the rest of the book. The narrator was so over the top, his voice changes so corny, that he just kept taking away all the tension from the story. Vaudevillian is how I would describe it, definitely not right for this story. I'd recommend you read the book, but I'd skip the narration.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • CJ
  • 10-16-14

Classic Must TRead

Would you consider the audio edition of The Incredible Shrinking Man to be better than the print version?

Yes, it's like comparing "Wine" the book to actually drinking it.

What other book might you compare The Incredible Shrinking Man to and why?

This is a stand alone classic. It's rich with emotion and heartache, then suddenly you find yourself as elated as the character.

What about Yuri Rasovsky’s performance did you like?

He read it with the frustratiing madness the character was feeling.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not extreme, since I already knew the story but it did leave me wanting, craving more, to KNOW how it ends not just how the book ended.

Any additional comments?

Written and read without a lot of "he said, she said", was a very nice touch compared to some I've read lately. It's written so well I almost got clostrophobia, as I followed this mans journey. It's not full of a lot of high-tech jargon that unnecessary to the story, each word is there for a reason. Sit back close your eyes and spend the next few hours feeling yourself get smaller and smaller. A great listen.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Science Fiction Classic

The Shrinking Man is akin to Kafka's Metamorphosis ... It speaks wonderfully to 1950's post-war paranoia of the self and natural world.

Matheson should be required reading, and his Twilight Zone episodes include some of the best TV ever produced.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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'.

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