The Reduction

Everything's a predator when you're a half-inch tall

By: Tim Christmann

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Reduction is a high-concept science fiction thriller that follows disgraced former Marine and ex-cop Shaw Deighton as he's drawn into a nightmarish conspiracy involving human miniaturization.
When private investigator Jade Rice disappears while investigating the reclusive scientist Dr. Bence Zella, her sister Rhonda contacts Shaw—a broken man drowning in bourbon and guilt after a tragic shooting that killed two children and ended his law enforcement career. Despite his reluctance, Shaw agrees to help find Jade, not knowing that Zella has developed technology to shrink humans to insect size.
Jade awakens to discover she's been "processed"—reduced to microscopic proportions and deposited into the "Plastic Jungle," an elaborate terrarium where miniaturized captives must survive against ordinary insects that now tower over them like building-sized monsters. Ants become apex predators, spiders spin webs that trap humans like flies, and every day is a desperate fight for survival.
As Shaw investigates with the help of his former partner, Crew Morgan, and his ex-girlfriend, Liana (who is also captured and reduced), he uncovers the full horror of Zella's experiment. The mad scientist has been abducting people for years, studying how humans adapt to impossible circumstances when reduced to the size of insects. Multiple "colonies" of survivors have formed within the Plastic Jungle, developing their own social structures and survival strategies.
The novel builds to a harrowing climax as Shaw allows himself to be miniaturized to rescue the captives from within. After intense battles against both Zella's human collaborators and the giant insects of the Plastic Jungle, the survivors defeat Zella, who meets poetic justice when he's consumed by the very creatures he used to torment his victims.
However, victory comes at a cost. The enlargement technology is unstable, and the survivors cannot be restored to normal size immediately. The epilogue, set months later, reveals that Shaw has built a new life with Liana and their daughter. At the same time, Jade and the other survivors await a scheduled restoration procedure, having adapted to their microscopic existence and even begun raising children in their tiny world.