What do you think?
Rate this book
The Expanded Earth
All of humankind has been reduced to the height of a handspan. Most of us don't survive the shift in scale - those of us who were carrying a particularly heavy box of books at precisely the wrong moment, for example, or have fillings in our teeth, or implants that remained unchanged while our bodies contracted around them. Only one in nine of us live to tell the tale - but in those first hours, days and weeks, what that tale might be is entirely unclear. What has happened? Why? How will humanity adapt, no longer the dominant species? Does size matter? Pitting ourselves against the trauma of a dramatically changed world, we are about to find out.
Extremely funny and extremely ambitious, The Expanded Earth is a masterfully paced and plotted story of mad scientists, vengeful phytoplankton and improvised survival. Stunningly illustrated in scratchboard and ink, it is a book that immediately relocates us in our physical environment, and ultimately celebrates the capacity of small things to effect great change.
The Expanded Earth marks the arrival of a spellbinding new talent.
Extremely funny and extremely ambitious, The Expanded Earth is a masterfully paced and plotted story of mad scientists, vengeful phytoplankton and improvised survival. Stunningly illustrated in scratchboard and ink, it is a book that immediately relocates us in our physical environment, and ultimately celebrates the capacity of small things to effect great change.
The Expanded Earth marks the arrival of a spellbinding new talent.
448 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 3, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 250 reviews
April 19, 2025
The Expanded Earth is exactly the book I wanted it to be; a fun, fast paced, British science-fiction story, with a great central premise and well-explored themes of environmentalism and familial responsibility.
This is, without a doubt, my favourite book released so far this year. I enjoyed it immensely.
We first join a man named Giles. He, alongside everyone else around the world, has just been shrunk to a tenth of their original size. Not many survived this bizarre process (only about 1/10 in fact, and most of those children) and apparently nobody knows how or why this happened either.
But - if the answers are to be found anywhere, they'll be found in the second character's perspective; a dry, snarky and humourous older lady called Dr. Goodwin, who certainly knows much more about this than anyone else.
There are also brilliant little "Elsewhere" chapters that function as interludes to the larger parts of the central narrative.
From an astronaut looking down at earth, and a prison island where the criminals and guards are trapped and isolated together in this new oversized world, to an outcast leper in the middle-east who has a unique experience with the shrinkage.
These chapters fleshed out the world and gave some much-needed context to the event and it's wider global impact.
This shrinking of humanity made for a brilliant perspective narratively, and while we've seen the idea before elsewhere in fiction, I think this might be my favourite implementation of it.
Mikey did such a great job of analysing the world around his characters, and following their thought processes logically, that it made it very easy, fun and sometimes terrifying to imagine yourself in the same situations.
This immersion, and the ability to completely suspend my disbelief, made me look at the space and the physical objects around me, and imagine how I'd use it all if I were somehow made the size of a paperback book.
Clothes, transport, food, power, weapons, other animals... When we are no longer top of the food chain, when we are made small and fragile, when everything is an obstacle... what does this new world look like? And what is our place in it? The Expanded Earth does a great job of exploring those questions and making the journey of finding out a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable one.
On top of everything else, this book also has wonderful art, and plenty of it, done by the author as well - it is truly superb, and elevates the book into something very special.
I'd say this book sit somewhere in the recommendation venn diagram between John Wyndham, Cixin Liu and Adrian Tchaikovsky.
The humour, Britishness, and the strong concept makes this a very memorable story and I am excited to see where the series goes from here.
5 stars
Mikey Please is an author I'll be following the career of with interest, because I am very impressed.
This is, without a doubt, my favourite book released so far this year. I enjoyed it immensely.
We first join a man named Giles. He, alongside everyone else around the world, has just been shrunk to a tenth of their original size. Not many survived this bizarre process (only about 1/10 in fact, and most of those children) and apparently nobody knows how or why this happened either.
But - if the answers are to be found anywhere, they'll be found in the second character's perspective; a dry, snarky and humourous older lady called Dr. Goodwin, who certainly knows much more about this than anyone else.
There are also brilliant little "Elsewhere" chapters that function as interludes to the larger parts of the central narrative.
From an astronaut looking down at earth, and a prison island where the criminals and guards are trapped and isolated together in this new oversized world, to an outcast leper in the middle-east who has a unique experience with the shrinkage.
These chapters fleshed out the world and gave some much-needed context to the event and it's wider global impact.
This shrinking of humanity made for a brilliant perspective narratively, and while we've seen the idea before elsewhere in fiction, I think this might be my favourite implementation of it.
Mikey did such a great job of analysing the world around his characters, and following their thought processes logically, that it made it very easy, fun and sometimes terrifying to imagine yourself in the same situations.
This immersion, and the ability to completely suspend my disbelief, made me look at the space and the physical objects around me, and imagine how I'd use it all if I were somehow made the size of a paperback book.
Clothes, transport, food, power, weapons, other animals... When we are no longer top of the food chain, when we are made small and fragile, when everything is an obstacle... what does this new world look like? And what is our place in it? The Expanded Earth does a great job of exploring those questions and making the journey of finding out a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable one.
On top of everything else, this book also has wonderful art, and plenty of it, done by the author as well - it is truly superb, and elevates the book into something very special.
I'd say this book sit somewhere in the recommendation venn diagram between John Wyndham, Cixin Liu and Adrian Tchaikovsky.
The humour, Britishness, and the strong concept makes this a very memorable story and I am excited to see where the series goes from here.
5 stars
Mikey Please is an author I'll be following the career of with interest, because I am very impressed.
June 20, 2025
⭐️⭐️ Disappointing and disjointed had so much potential but never really got going!
I was so excited to read Expanded Earth by Michael Please after seeing some strong early reviews. The concept sounded brilliant, and I went in expecting to be swept up in a bold, character-driven story. Sadly, it just never delivered.
The good stuff I love the narrations, the quality of paper and the sizing of font. This really bought the book together and I wish more books did this.
The characters were thinly sketched, and I never felt like I truly got to know any of them. There were no meaningful relationships or connections to invest in. Oddly, some chapters introduced entirely new characters and storylines that we never circled back to which left the whole thing feeling disjointed and unresolved. Whilst this gave context by showing it was a global event it interrupted the story and upset the flow of the book. That context could have been provided in a much simpler way.
The writing style also didn’t help. Sentences were often overcomplicated, packed with unusual adjectives and phrasing that felt like it was trying a little too hard to be different. Instead of drawing me in, it slowed the pace and distracted from the story. I found myself having to re read paragraphs to understand what it was saying. I do like a technical book, I read a lot of fantasy. But this type of book doesn’t need that, it would have lent it self well if the style was more child and dreamlike. At times we would be 3 or 4 paragraphs in to a new chapter and I was still trying to work out which character’s chapter we were in. When you realised ahhh it’s Giles you then had to re read to work out what it was all about.
It felt like the book was constantly building up to something but never actually got started. The ideas were there, but the execution fell flat. Could have been so much more and left me feeling really disappointed. I also found it bizarre how it didn’t explore more the new world created just obvious things like tall grass and foxes chasing you down!
Oh and the end! Wow that didn’t hold the emotion it deserved at all! Then on the last page when it says “book 1”! Oh no I honestly could not read book 2!
I was so excited to read Expanded Earth by Michael Please after seeing some strong early reviews. The concept sounded brilliant, and I went in expecting to be swept up in a bold, character-driven story. Sadly, it just never delivered.
The good stuff I love the narrations, the quality of paper and the sizing of font. This really bought the book together and I wish more books did this.
The characters were thinly sketched, and I never felt like I truly got to know any of them. There were no meaningful relationships or connections to invest in. Oddly, some chapters introduced entirely new characters and storylines that we never circled back to which left the whole thing feeling disjointed and unresolved. Whilst this gave context by showing it was a global event it interrupted the story and upset the flow of the book. That context could have been provided in a much simpler way.
The writing style also didn’t help. Sentences were often overcomplicated, packed with unusual adjectives and phrasing that felt like it was trying a little too hard to be different. Instead of drawing me in, it slowed the pace and distracted from the story. I found myself having to re read paragraphs to understand what it was saying. I do like a technical book, I read a lot of fantasy. But this type of book doesn’t need that, it would have lent it self well if the style was more child and dreamlike. At times we would be 3 or 4 paragraphs in to a new chapter and I was still trying to work out which character’s chapter we were in. When you realised ahhh it’s Giles you then had to re read to work out what it was all about.
It felt like the book was constantly building up to something but never actually got started. The ideas were there, but the execution fell flat. Could have been so much more and left me feeling really disappointed. I also found it bizarre how it didn’t explore more the new world created just obvious things like tall grass and foxes chasing you down!
Oh and the end! Wow that didn’t hold the emotion it deserved at all! Then on the last page when it says “book 1”! Oh no I honestly could not read book 2!
April 4, 2025
4.5 Stars
A richly imagined and darkly whimsical novel exploring the fundamental aspects of human nature, that’s guaranteed to have readers questioning what it really means to be human.
Told primarily from the POV of Giles (with chapters also following Scientist Elizabeth through her work.) Mikey Please’s immersive (and visually descriptive) series starter, begins with the world’s human population suddenly shrunk to the size of a handspan. And must learn to survive in a vast and dangerous new landscape.
I was raised on books and movies involving miniature humans (The Borrowers, Honey I Shrunk The Kids) so was really intrigued by The Expanded Earth’s premise. And I’m glad to say it surpassed all of my expectations!
Witty, thought provokingly immersive and rather philosophical in its observations (particularly on modern society, human behaviours and the role empathy plays in times of hardship), I found this a realistic and rather relatable read that I really didn’t want to put down.
The fear and anxiety around the strange (and visually quite violent) transformations or the dangers lurking in this new, giant environment (like being snacked on by the now ginormous family pet) was explored well and made quite an emotional impact.
The characters were really engaging too; complex, emotionally raw, flawed and unapologetically human— Please’s prose really brought them all to life soo well.
There are some shorter chapters about events and people outside of our main cast (Sima Qian,Shenzhou Station, Ucho Boga) which added depth and context that I found really immersive. As were the stunning illustrations (made by the author) which helped to visualise the scale of everyday life for our miniaturised characters.
So, if you love Sci-Fi or novels exploring the human condition in new and interesting ways — then you really won’t want to miss this one.
Also, thanks to Ellie Pilcher & Little Brown Book Group UK for the Proof
A richly imagined and darkly whimsical novel exploring the fundamental aspects of human nature, that’s guaranteed to have readers questioning what it really means to be human.
Told primarily from the POV of Giles (with chapters also following Scientist Elizabeth through her work.) Mikey Please’s immersive (and visually descriptive) series starter, begins with the world’s human population suddenly shrunk to the size of a handspan. And must learn to survive in a vast and dangerous new landscape.
I was raised on books and movies involving miniature humans (The Borrowers, Honey I Shrunk The Kids) so was really intrigued by The Expanded Earth’s premise. And I’m glad to say it surpassed all of my expectations!
Witty, thought provokingly immersive and rather philosophical in its observations (particularly on modern society, human behaviours and the role empathy plays in times of hardship), I found this a realistic and rather relatable read that I really didn’t want to put down.
The fear and anxiety around the strange (and visually quite violent) transformations or the dangers lurking in this new, giant environment (like being snacked on by the now ginormous family pet) was explored well and made quite an emotional impact.
The characters were really engaging too; complex, emotionally raw, flawed and unapologetically human— Please’s prose really brought them all to life soo well.
There are some shorter chapters about events and people outside of our main cast (Sima Qian,Shenzhou Station, Ucho Boga) which added depth and context that I found really immersive. As were the stunning illustrations (made by the author) which helped to visualise the scale of everyday life for our miniaturised characters.
So, if you love Sci-Fi or novels exploring the human condition in new and interesting ways — then you really won’t want to miss this one.
Also, thanks to Ellie Pilcher & Little Brown Book Group UK for the Proof
April 17, 2025
i recently spoke to a friend about how so much modern sci-fi is lacking in whimsy (or maybe i'm just finding it harder to find) so when i heard about this being released, the premised had my attention immediately. admittedly it is pretty dark in some places (as is only realistic) but i got strong notes of john wyndham and kurt vonnegut throughout. really excited to see what the rest of this trilogy has to offer.
April 11, 2025
I judged (and bought) this book by it's cover, and had a most excellent time.
Everyone on earth is shrunk to a tenth of their height, and it is as gooey and visceral as that process should be.
Everyone on earth is shrunk to a tenth of their height, and it is as gooey and visceral as that process should be.
April 29, 2026
This one is a book I picked up for fun as Waterstones were highlighting it as the SF book of the month. I also found out that a lock book club are reading it, so was inspired to get on with it and it was a good one to discuss actually.
The story follows a fair few characters but mainly Giles’ storyline is the major one. We also have Elizabeth and later Matilda, but also many snippets from other parts of the world too.
The concept is that suddenly almost all of humankind are shrunk to 1/10th of their original size, without any warning. They don’t know how this has happened and many die instantly for various reasons, but those who survive are busy trying to learn how to adapt and survive in a world which is entirely foreign to them now that it’s expanded.
Giles’ character didn’t really gel with me personally so I found his story most fascinating for the survival element of the world and seeing how different people reacted and attempted to rebuild. He wasn’t the main interest for me, but as he gets the most pages I had to get on board with his story to try and find his daughters and figure out how he could be helpful in this new world.
Elizabeth’s storyline is much more interesting to me as it’s all about how science crashed into something new, and what might happen as a result of these discoveries. I think she’s a bit of a crotchety character too which gives her a bit more bite and interest to read about. I liked her sections.
Matilda as a character is likeable from the get go and her placement at the scene of the first crazy events makes her a fascinating plot to follow. She’s also caring and clever and I liked seeing how she reacted to problem-solve.
Overall the world is wild and the plot is really interesting to read and imagine (if also very horrific and a bit gruesome and gory at times). It has some Chs which feel a bit horror-esque so look out for that, and I do hope nothing quite like this ever occurs! 3*s. Not sure if I’ll read book 2 as I’m unsure quite where it’ll go, but it’s definitely been a fun time whilst I read this one.
The story follows a fair few characters but mainly Giles’ storyline is the major one. We also have Elizabeth and later Matilda, but also many snippets from other parts of the world too.
The concept is that suddenly almost all of humankind are shrunk to 1/10th of their original size, without any warning. They don’t know how this has happened and many die instantly for various reasons, but those who survive are busy trying to learn how to adapt and survive in a world which is entirely foreign to them now that it’s expanded.
Giles’ character didn’t really gel with me personally so I found his story most fascinating for the survival element of the world and seeing how different people reacted and attempted to rebuild. He wasn’t the main interest for me, but as he gets the most pages I had to get on board with his story to try and find his daughters and figure out how he could be helpful in this new world.
Elizabeth’s storyline is much more interesting to me as it’s all about how science crashed into something new, and what might happen as a result of these discoveries. I think she’s a bit of a crotchety character too which gives her a bit more bite and interest to read about. I liked her sections.
Matilda as a character is likeable from the get go and her placement at the scene of the first crazy events makes her a fascinating plot to follow. She’s also caring and clever and I liked seeing how she reacted to problem-solve.
Overall the world is wild and the plot is really interesting to read and imagine (if also very horrific and a bit gruesome and gory at times). It has some Chs which feel a bit horror-esque so look out for that, and I do hope nothing quite like this ever occurs! 3*s. Not sure if I’ll read book 2 as I’m unsure quite where it’ll go, but it’s definitely been a fun time whilst I read this one.
June 20, 2025
This book started off with an intriguing premise, and I enjoyed the opening chapters. But as I progressed further into the book I couldn't help rolling my eyes at certain plot points and gradually became irritated with the writing and the plot.
I could not quite place my finger on it, but it almost seemed as if the writing was done by AI. There was no sense of author voice and the writing was prosaic, with attempts at depth and metaphor just falling flat.
With regards to the plot, I found it contrived that every time a character was in perilous and mortal danger, a miraculous saving from imminent death was introduced that just stretched the plausibility a bit too much. While the book is a fantasy / sci-fi genre, the action and plot still needs to be believable to allow for the reader to buy in to the narrative. This I found not to be the case - I found the plot points to beggar belief and I found myself detaching from the story and the characters. Several of the characters also struck me as contrived and implausible, especially that of Richard and Mary.
Then, (spoiler ahead) I have to bring up the answering machine plot device. The main protagonists main motivation that drives the action and plot of the story involves retrieving a voice message left for him on an answering machine. Does the author not know that modern society makes no use of answering machines? This would be fine if the story was set in the 1980s-1990s, but the fact that there is cellphone technology in the narrative, clearly indicates the setting as being contemporary, so why did the author think an answering machine would fulfil a major plot point? I simply don't comprehend this ill-conceived narrative device. Another smaller gripe was how the characters eyes just 'adjusted to the dark' in a cavern, underground, at night. Yeah...this is how human vision operates, it just adjusts to dark places and we can see as per normal...able to discern the breathing bodies of animals laying about, as well as a bird wing. Come on Mikey Please....please don't condescend our imaginations like this.
All in all, I understand the appeal of this book and while the premise is intriguing, I was glad to be done with the book at the end as by that point I was just annoyed and my eyes ached immensely from the constant eye-rolling.
And...was it really Matilda that caused the end of the world and not the evil Mr Leaf? Really? (eye-roll). Contrivance of epic proportions!
I could not quite place my finger on it, but it almost seemed as if the writing was done by AI. There was no sense of author voice and the writing was prosaic, with attempts at depth and metaphor just falling flat.
With regards to the plot, I found it contrived that every time a character was in perilous and mortal danger, a miraculous saving from imminent death was introduced that just stretched the plausibility a bit too much. While the book is a fantasy / sci-fi genre, the action and plot still needs to be believable to allow for the reader to buy in to the narrative. This I found not to be the case - I found the plot points to beggar belief and I found myself detaching from the story and the characters. Several of the characters also struck me as contrived and implausible, especially that of Richard and Mary.
Then, (spoiler ahead) I have to bring up the answering machine plot device. The main protagonists main motivation that drives the action and plot of the story involves retrieving a voice message left for him on an answering machine. Does the author not know that modern society makes no use of answering machines? This would be fine if the story was set in the 1980s-1990s, but the fact that there is cellphone technology in the narrative, clearly indicates the setting as being contemporary, so why did the author think an answering machine would fulfil a major plot point? I simply don't comprehend this ill-conceived narrative device. Another smaller gripe was how the characters eyes just 'adjusted to the dark' in a cavern, underground, at night. Yeah...this is how human vision operates, it just adjusts to dark places and we can see as per normal...able to discern the breathing bodies of animals laying about, as well as a bird wing. Come on Mikey Please....please don't condescend our imaginations like this.
All in all, I understand the appeal of this book and while the premise is intriguing, I was glad to be done with the book at the end as by that point I was just annoyed and my eyes ached immensely from the constant eye-rolling.
And...was it really Matilda that caused the end of the world and not the evil Mr Leaf? Really? (eye-roll). Contrivance of epic proportions!
March 29, 2026
Rarely am I able to read about religion in a format that I find engaging but the marriage of science and religion in this was really interesting. The book itself is a work of art that was truly beautiful to work through. While I liked the format of the chapters and artwork mixed throughout, the pacing was slow and the scientific jargon could feel difficult to follow. Overall, I enjoyed the exploration of environmentalism and the impact of humankind on nature and look forward to where this trilogy goes. And props to Mikey Please to managing to make me sympathise with a distant father.
September 8, 2025
Release book two now!!!!
September 16, 2026
I did not realise this was so local. Set in the New Forest and they even mention Newbury haha!
The concept and story line are brilliant.
Everything ties together very smoothly by the end of the book.
The descriptions could sometimes be a bit complicated, but it was nothing I couldn’t work out eventually.
Looking forward to book 2 whenever that comes out…
The concept and story line are brilliant.
Everything ties together very smoothly by the end of the book.
The descriptions could sometimes be a bit complicated, but it was nothing I couldn’t work out eventually.
Looking forward to book 2 whenever that comes out…
March 13, 2025
Thank you to Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
2.5 stars rounded up.
The concept is fairly straightforward. A group of humans find themselves shrinking suddenly to just a few inches tall, and they embark on a journey to find safety and family. I liked the idea, but the manner in which the book played out did not work for me unfortunately. The way that people shrink is done in the most disgusting (but I guess realistic) way and was very visceral. The story moved along at a pretty quick pace but then ended suddenly and very confusedly. I re-read it and still was not entirely sure what had happened, and why it had happened like that.
In summary, a strange, gross, interesting but ultimately befuddling read.
2.5 stars rounded up.
The concept is fairly straightforward. A group of humans find themselves shrinking suddenly to just a few inches tall, and they embark on a journey to find safety and family. I liked the idea, but the manner in which the book played out did not work for me unfortunately. The way that people shrink is done in the most disgusting (but I guess realistic) way and was very visceral. The story moved along at a pretty quick pace but then ended suddenly and very confusedly. I re-read it and still was not entirely sure what had happened, and why it had happened like that.
In summary, a strange, gross, interesting but ultimately befuddling read.
April 17, 2026
I picked up this one mostly for the cover, and wonderfully the ancient adage about not judging was in this case incorrect.
What a brilliant read. Never over stays it's welcome and bounces about between viewpoints deftly.
As for complaints I have only two.
Action sequences can get a wee bitty muddled and the ending left me wanting more a little bit more than it should.
Other than that it's well paced and the characters are interesting, distinct and often funny. It never takes itself too seriously and tells some fantastic wee side stories (the leper fella who lives at the pole of inaccessibility being my favourite)
I'm giving it five fat stars but with a qualifier. It's my first Mikey Please book and might be his first so he gets points for newness and the next ones have to be of this class as well or else it gets demoted to a four.
What a brilliant read. Never over stays it's welcome and bounces about between viewpoints deftly.
As for complaints I have only two.
Action sequences can get a wee bitty muddled and the ending left me wanting more a little bit more than it should.
Other than that it's well paced and the characters are interesting, distinct and often funny. It never takes itself too seriously and tells some fantastic wee side stories (the leper fella who lives at the pole of inaccessibility being my favourite)
I'm giving it five fat stars but with a qualifier. It's my first Mikey Please book and might be his first so he gets points for newness and the next ones have to be of this class as well or else it gets demoted to a four.
July 4, 2026
1.5
This was a hard read, though not for any of the reasons one might reasonably anticipate. The prose presents no great challenge, the language no particular demand, and the subject matter nothing that requires especial fortitude to navigate. In fact, one of the novel's primary selling points appears to be its accessibility, and on that narrow measure it succeeds. The difficulty lies elsewhere entirely: this novel is, for want of a better word, boring. It manages with a kind of grim efficiency to sustain a single flat note from beginning to end, never rising, never deepening, never once giving the reader a handhold worth gripping. If this was the deliberate intention of Mikey Please then I am prepared to revise my assessment accordingly, but I will proceed on the assumption that he was not consciously attempting to produce a lesser version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
The story moves across multiple viewpoints and time periods, all ostensibly arranged to provide context for our protagonist Giles. The world's population has been reduced to miniature proportions through some entanglement between human agency and a larger, quasi-sentient force. The explanation is passable but drifts considerably further into the mystical than the scientific, which presents a particular problem given that the novel is set in recognisably modern Britain. There is a reasonable argument that science fiction requires a degree of suspended disbelief, but when a story plants itself firmly within the world, we currently inhabit it cannot then ask the reader to forget the basic facts of contemporary existence. The plot at one point requires Giles to marshal his companions toward the task of travelling to a specific location in order to use a voicemail machine. The question of why a mobile phone could not serve the same function is one the novel declines to answer, apparently hoping the reader will not think to ask it. Once you begin pulling at that particular thread, the fabric unravels with some speed. We are asked to accept that within a matter of days, humans in rural Britain have regressed to tribalism, shed the accumulated compunctions of a lifetime within functioning society, and arrived at something approaching base savagery. A group of children, after what appears to be no more than a week, demonstrates little hesitation in attempting to murder the main group by immolation. That is not an act one associates with children who were, days prior, embedded within the structures of modern civilised life, and the speed of that collapse strains credibility well beyond what the novel has earned. I will concede that some of this confusion around the passage of time may speak to a failure of execution rather than conception, and it is a recurring problem with Please's writing style that does the story no favours throughout.
That writing style is, unfortunately, one of the novel's most consistent liabilities. Each chapter is so brief, and flits so rapidly between characters and points in time, that the reader is never afforded the opportunity to become genuinely absorbed. The multi-perspective structure creates a choppiness that actively works against any accumulation of tension; every moment of heightened emotion is swiftly extinguished by a sharp cut elsewhere, resetting whatever fragile investment the preceding passage had begun to build. The effect is corrosive. Characters are reduced to names on a page rather than people one might conceivably care about, and any attempt at tension around the prospect of their deaths lands with precisely the impact one would expect given the near-total absence of emotional development afforded to any of them.
Giles, as our principal character, is a study in vacancy. Beyond a vague disposition toward family life and a persistent inability to identify the correct course of action in any given situation, I could not tell you who he is as a man. He is exhausting company, and the characters surrounding him offer little relief. Nothing in this novel carries weight. No death lands, no revelation matters, no relationship generates sufficient warmth or friction to animate the page. The sole distinguishing characteristic I can assign to any member of the cast belongs to the red lady, who has the benefit of being, as the name straightforwardly communicates, red. The later chapters introduce a paramedic duo whose storyline would have collapsed entirely into irrelevance were it not for the eventual arrival of Matilda to provide some tenuous connective tissue to the main narrative. These are among the most underdeveloped characters I have encountered in recent memory, and the novel offers nothing by way of compensation.
The setting deserves a brief note. A shrunken humanity navigating a suddenly vast and indifferent modern world is a premise with genuine potential, and the novel's illustrations, scattered throughout, offer the most evocative realisation of that scale to be found anywhere in the book. That they outperform the prose in conveying the altered perspective is telling. Please appears to have struggled with the consistent mechanics of his own conceit; it was not until he provided explicit measurements that I could form any reliable sense of how these diminished humans relate to the world around them, and even then, the sense of lived scale remained elusive, a problem that a novelist working in words alone simply cannot afford.
This is not a novel I could recommend, and I confess some surprise at learning that further volumes are planned. Based on what is presented here, I struggle to identify sufficient foundation upon which to build a series of any substance. This is a novel that started with a boring opening, broadened its scope only to remain boring throughout the middle, and stretched my patience thin with a boring ending.
This was a hard read, though not for any of the reasons one might reasonably anticipate. The prose presents no great challenge, the language no particular demand, and the subject matter nothing that requires especial fortitude to navigate. In fact, one of the novel's primary selling points appears to be its accessibility, and on that narrow measure it succeeds. The difficulty lies elsewhere entirely: this novel is, for want of a better word, boring. It manages with a kind of grim efficiency to sustain a single flat note from beginning to end, never rising, never deepening, never once giving the reader a handhold worth gripping. If this was the deliberate intention of Mikey Please then I am prepared to revise my assessment accordingly, but I will proceed on the assumption that he was not consciously attempting to produce a lesser version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
The story moves across multiple viewpoints and time periods, all ostensibly arranged to provide context for our protagonist Giles. The world's population has been reduced to miniature proportions through some entanglement between human agency and a larger, quasi-sentient force. The explanation is passable but drifts considerably further into the mystical than the scientific, which presents a particular problem given that the novel is set in recognisably modern Britain. There is a reasonable argument that science fiction requires a degree of suspended disbelief, but when a story plants itself firmly within the world, we currently inhabit it cannot then ask the reader to forget the basic facts of contemporary existence. The plot at one point requires Giles to marshal his companions toward the task of travelling to a specific location in order to use a voicemail machine. The question of why a mobile phone could not serve the same function is one the novel declines to answer, apparently hoping the reader will not think to ask it. Once you begin pulling at that particular thread, the fabric unravels with some speed. We are asked to accept that within a matter of days, humans in rural Britain have regressed to tribalism, shed the accumulated compunctions of a lifetime within functioning society, and arrived at something approaching base savagery. A group of children, after what appears to be no more than a week, demonstrates little hesitation in attempting to murder the main group by immolation. That is not an act one associates with children who were, days prior, embedded within the structures of modern civilised life, and the speed of that collapse strains credibility well beyond what the novel has earned. I will concede that some of this confusion around the passage of time may speak to a failure of execution rather than conception, and it is a recurring problem with Please's writing style that does the story no favours throughout.
That writing style is, unfortunately, one of the novel's most consistent liabilities. Each chapter is so brief, and flits so rapidly between characters and points in time, that the reader is never afforded the opportunity to become genuinely absorbed. The multi-perspective structure creates a choppiness that actively works against any accumulation of tension; every moment of heightened emotion is swiftly extinguished by a sharp cut elsewhere, resetting whatever fragile investment the preceding passage had begun to build. The effect is corrosive. Characters are reduced to names on a page rather than people one might conceivably care about, and any attempt at tension around the prospect of their deaths lands with precisely the impact one would expect given the near-total absence of emotional development afforded to any of them.
Giles, as our principal character, is a study in vacancy. Beyond a vague disposition toward family life and a persistent inability to identify the correct course of action in any given situation, I could not tell you who he is as a man. He is exhausting company, and the characters surrounding him offer little relief. Nothing in this novel carries weight. No death lands, no revelation matters, no relationship generates sufficient warmth or friction to animate the page. The sole distinguishing characteristic I can assign to any member of the cast belongs to the red lady, who has the benefit of being, as the name straightforwardly communicates, red. The later chapters introduce a paramedic duo whose storyline would have collapsed entirely into irrelevance were it not for the eventual arrival of Matilda to provide some tenuous connective tissue to the main narrative. These are among the most underdeveloped characters I have encountered in recent memory, and the novel offers nothing by way of compensation.
The setting deserves a brief note. A shrunken humanity navigating a suddenly vast and indifferent modern world is a premise with genuine potential, and the novel's illustrations, scattered throughout, offer the most evocative realisation of that scale to be found anywhere in the book. That they outperform the prose in conveying the altered perspective is telling. Please appears to have struggled with the consistent mechanics of his own conceit; it was not until he provided explicit measurements that I could form any reliable sense of how these diminished humans relate to the world around them, and even then, the sense of lived scale remained elusive, a problem that a novelist working in words alone simply cannot afford.
This is not a novel I could recommend, and I confess some surprise at learning that further volumes are planned. Based on what is presented here, I struggle to identify sufficient foundation upon which to build a series of any substance. This is a novel that started with a boring opening, broadened its scope only to remain boring throughout the middle, and stretched my patience thin with a boring ending.
June 22, 2025
I actually really enjoyed this book! I loved the concept of the story and made for such fun.
The cover is beautiful and the attention to detail is exquisite. Even the drawings in the book are stunning. You're a very talented artist, Mikey. Such nice visuals!
The book is written well and flows easily. The descriptions are good although the scale of the shrinking has a me a smidge confused. It didn't take away from the overall experience with the writing and visuals.
The setting is good. Modern day with real settings in England. This ramps up the dystopian vibes once everything occurs.
The characters are good. They all fit in pretty well. I liked Giles, his story is good and I like how it flowed. I wasn't too keen on Richard. He had a Messiah complex for sure!
I really recommend this and I am looking forward to the next installment!!
The cover is beautiful and the attention to detail is exquisite. Even the drawings in the book are stunning. You're a very talented artist, Mikey. Such nice visuals!
The book is written well and flows easily. The descriptions are good although the scale of the shrinking has a me a smidge confused. It didn't take away from the overall experience with the writing and visuals.
The setting is good. Modern day with real settings in England. This ramps up the dystopian vibes once everything occurs.
The characters are good. They all fit in pretty well. I liked Giles, his story is good and I like how it flowed. I wasn't too keen on Richard. He had a Messiah complex for sure!
I really recommend this and I am looking forward to the next installment!!
May 19, 2026
I picked this up because the cover art style, blurb, and prologue reminded me of the fantastic ecological sci-fi horror in Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation trilogy of four. And boy I wasn't disappointed.
Mikey Please's descriptions of a familiar British countryside, viewed from an entirely new perspective are a thrill; bringing vivid images to the mind. His illustrations accompany each chapter and add an extra dimension to his creative vision.
A new perspective for the cast brings new threats; things that may seem innocuous to you and I become horrors and beasts beyond comprehension.
The themes of environmentalism and parental responsibility are strong, and act as a great motivation for the characters.
I look forward to seeing where this trilogy goes next!
Mikey Please's descriptions of a familiar British countryside, viewed from an entirely new perspective are a thrill; bringing vivid images to the mind. His illustrations accompany each chapter and add an extra dimension to his creative vision.
A new perspective for the cast brings new threats; things that may seem innocuous to you and I become horrors and beasts beyond comprehension.
The themes of environmentalism and parental responsibility are strong, and act as a great motivation for the characters.
I look forward to seeing where this trilogy goes next!
April 23, 2026
I loved the scientific nature of this book! I have learned so much about coccolithophore and it has sparked a genuine interest in this side of biology for me. The plot just wasn’t as developed as I wished it was and there were quite a few gaps.
September 30, 2026
At first glance you might think this book will be like a naff version of the borrowers! Actually it was incredibly enjoyable and well written!
October 18, 2026
Had I not been dying of plague, on a severely delayed train, with no other books available, this would have been a DNF. Entertaining enough but did not do the premise justice.
March 31, 2026
The first third of this book was poorly written. At times utter twaddle and complete nonsense, and I often had little idea what was going on. I seriously considered giving up, but I'm glad I didn’t, as it developed into an exciting, thrilling and genuinely unique tale of post-apocalyptic survival.
June 10, 2026
3.5⭐ Again, je comprends pas trop la hype. Le potentiel était fou, mais au final meh. En plus j'adore apprendre à la dernière page qu'en fait il y aura plusieurs tomes. MENSONGE.
August 17, 2026
Such an interesting story and definitely worth a read. There must be a book 2 to this... Think honey I shrunk the kids with a bit more gore
August 2, 2026
Good premise, but I found it gets worn out over time. Overall an original idea but at no point did I feel hooked to the book.
April 24, 2026
3.75
I will always enjoy a unique take on a Sci-Fi trope, and this book offers it. The Expanded Earth is a thrilling tale of survival but also a commentary on humankind and its place in the world. Its topics are serious but delivered with refreshing whimsy.
You'll have no trouble tearing through this book, owing both to the variety of perspectives and the rather short chapters. This is both its strength and its weakness. You get the impression the author is trying to pack everything in, to explain all that is happening, why it happened, and clearly deliver its message.
This leaves me with less mystery than I would like. The reader isn't giving much space to speculate on the plot or themes. This was a little unsatisfying. Some chapters existed purely to pontificate on philosophy or culture and felt like a distraction. Show, don't tell, as they say!
I will always enjoy a unique take on a Sci-Fi trope, and this book offers it. The Expanded Earth is a thrilling tale of survival but also a commentary on humankind and its place in the world. Its topics are serious but delivered with refreshing whimsy.
You'll have no trouble tearing through this book, owing both to the variety of perspectives and the rather short chapters. This is both its strength and its weakness. You get the impression the author is trying to pack everything in, to explain all that is happening, why it happened, and clearly deliver its message.
This leaves me with less mystery than I would like. The reader isn't giving much space to speculate on the plot or themes. This was a little unsatisfying. Some chapters existed purely to pontificate on philosophy or culture and felt like a distraction. Show, don't tell, as they say!
April 30, 2026
I really wanted to like this book, was very excited to read it and it started strong but the pacing felt off throughout the entire book. Incredibly long stretches where nothing happens. The premise of it is such a good idea but the execution was poor for me. It felt flat, clunky, not interesting. Was so hard to finish. Characters especially felt one dimensional to me. I just didn’t connect with it unfortunately.
April 17, 2025
a delightful, entertaining, quirky, action-packed adventure. full of characters with motives, a sentient phytoplankton deity, use of everyday objects, polecats, a very sturdy scalpel and a bit of ick. top job Mickey
July 19, 2026
loved the premise and love an apocalypse story but a little slow paced and convoluted for me
August 29, 2026
"To every complex question, there's a simple answer that is wrong."
I purchased this intriguing science fiction novel from my local Waterstones, after it was made their book of the month. The concept of humans shrinking down to one tenth their size and forced to adapt to the recontextualised world around them fascinated me greatly, and a quick scan of the blurb was all I needed to decide that this would be one of my next reads. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the book, in terms of quality, but my hope was that it would at least have some engaging world-building, given its premise.
The non-chronological structure of the novel suited the overarching story well, and meant that the two main arcs had a compelling sense of convergence that made the final few chapters in particular feel very enthralling. The inevitability of this made the arc set earlier feel strangely melancholic, yet tense - I thought perhaps the suspense wouldn't be there, given how these storylines lined up, but Please maintained it well.
One of my favourite things about the book was its solid world-building, and the creative manner in which previously standard household objects were utilised within the new context of the world. I thought Please used his interesting concept very effectively, at times, especially in the second half of the novel, in which tools felt far more important to the plot.
I also found the little cutaway chapters to be quite poignant, especially the one on the space station and in the middle of the desert. These cutaways gave not only a refreshing break from the main arcs of the narrative, but provided some much needed wider context, which made the story feel much bigger and all-encompassing. You don't always get to see these smaller stories play out in novels like this, which made it all the more compelling to read about, for me.
Overall, I thought this was a fascinating science fiction novel, which had some very interesting characters, and a story that kept me hooked throughout its many pages. The book is supposedly the first of three, and if the other two are as readable and enjoyable as this first one, I shall be very happy to read them, as well. Mikey Please created a very engaging world for his characters to adapt to, and formed a very unique and intriguing concept to explain the new environment that they had to get used to. I will most assuredly be looking forward to reading book two, whenever it comes out.
I purchased this intriguing science fiction novel from my local Waterstones, after it was made their book of the month. The concept of humans shrinking down to one tenth their size and forced to adapt to the recontextualised world around them fascinated me greatly, and a quick scan of the blurb was all I needed to decide that this would be one of my next reads. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the book, in terms of quality, but my hope was that it would at least have some engaging world-building, given its premise.
The non-chronological structure of the novel suited the overarching story well, and meant that the two main arcs had a compelling sense of convergence that made the final few chapters in particular feel very enthralling. The inevitability of this made the arc set earlier feel strangely melancholic, yet tense - I thought perhaps the suspense wouldn't be there, given how these storylines lined up, but Please maintained it well.
One of my favourite things about the book was its solid world-building, and the creative manner in which previously standard household objects were utilised within the new context of the world. I thought Please used his interesting concept very effectively, at times, especially in the second half of the novel, in which tools felt far more important to the plot.
I also found the little cutaway chapters to be quite poignant, especially the one on the space station and in the middle of the desert. These cutaways gave not only a refreshing break from the main arcs of the narrative, but provided some much needed wider context, which made the story feel much bigger and all-encompassing. You don't always get to see these smaller stories play out in novels like this, which made it all the more compelling to read about, for me.
Overall, I thought this was a fascinating science fiction novel, which had some very interesting characters, and a story that kept me hooked throughout its many pages. The book is supposedly the first of three, and if the other two are as readable and enjoyable as this first one, I shall be very happy to read them, as well. Mikey Please created a very engaging world for his characters to adapt to, and formed a very unique and intriguing concept to explain the new environment that they had to get used to. I will most assuredly be looking forward to reading book two, whenever it comes out.
August 3, 2026
3.5 - Before anything else, I will say that Mikey Please is a brilliant illustrator, and having watched a video of him explaining the process of creating the front and rear cover designs himself, I was massively impressed. The illustrations throughout the book are also fantastic, they’re dark and mysterious and really showcase this strange new world. I’m half tempted to get one of them tattooed.
I was really excited for this book. The idea of humans shrinking down to a fraction of their size has captivated me since I was a kid. Honey I Shrunk The Kids was probably the spark, and I constantly dreamt of a game where you could play as a tiny person in that huge world - Grounded has finally filled that void as an adult.
With the above in mind, this book shot up my TBR and I picked it up on the first day of a camping trip, expecting to fly through it. It just didn’t capture me. Mikey Please has done a great job of concocting some interesting concepts and character ideas that would occur in a world like this - but the characters themselves and the overall writing quality just don’t match up. I understand he is a childrens author, and I think that has followed him to this book. The descriptions of the world felt like a teenager trying to complete a creative writing project, and the dialogue was too cheesy and script-like throughout.
Despite the flaws, it is a fun read, and I really liked the Goodwin storyline that merged with Matilda towards the end - this was such an interesting take on the idea, I really liked it.
I’ll very likely read the second book, in hopes that the writing improves as Mikey’s talent grows. There is a lot of potential in this trilogy, I’d love to see it come to fruition.
I was really excited for this book. The idea of humans shrinking down to a fraction of their size has captivated me since I was a kid. Honey I Shrunk The Kids was probably the spark, and I constantly dreamt of a game where you could play as a tiny person in that huge world - Grounded has finally filled that void as an adult.
With the above in mind, this book shot up my TBR and I picked it up on the first day of a camping trip, expecting to fly through it. It just didn’t capture me. Mikey Please has done a great job of concocting some interesting concepts and character ideas that would occur in a world like this - but the characters themselves and the overall writing quality just don’t match up. I understand he is a childrens author, and I think that has followed him to this book. The descriptions of the world felt like a teenager trying to complete a creative writing project, and the dialogue was too cheesy and script-like throughout.
Despite the flaws, it is a fun read, and I really liked the Goodwin storyline that merged with Matilda towards the end - this was such an interesting take on the idea, I really liked it.
I’ll very likely read the second book, in hopes that the writing improves as Mikey’s talent grows. There is a lot of potential in this trilogy, I’d love to see it come to fruition.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 250 reviews