From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes a captivating thriller about a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism, which threatens to annihilate human life. Five prominent biophysicists have warned the United States government that sterilization procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, a probe … Two years later, a probe satellite falls to the earth and lands in a desolate region of northeastern Arizona. Nearby, in the town of Piedmont, bodies lie heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. What could cause such shock and fear? The terror has begun, and there is no telling where it will end.
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The classic that started it all. Almost a new genre, mixing science with the horror that can come out of science. Perhaps more apropos today given current events to remember this.
Whatever flaws Crichton may have – Pauline Kael referred often to the ‘untouched-by-human-hands’ style of his movies, but the same quality shows in his books – there is no denying the brutal page-turning power of this, his greatest thriller IMHO. By the time ‘Jurassic Park’ came along he had streamlined his technique to the bare minimum, but this book still has enough rough edges to give it character. A bio-thriller decades before ‘The Hot Zone’, it expertly walks the line between sci-fi, horror story, and medical detective tale. Devilishly compelling.
The movie has been one of my all-time favourite movies since it first came out. Much later I read the book and loved it as well.
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was published fifty years ago, and I now marvel yet again at Michael Crichton’s ingenuity. Looking at it from today’s perspective was an experience, I can hardly imagine how revolutionary it must have been in 1969. I couldn’t help but wonder what was fact and what was fiction at the time. The plot in itself is extremely simple: an alien virus must be eliminated by a team of experts.
I found the book very educational, even if a lot of the science is dated, the book doesn’t feel as old as I feared. It was a surprisingly quick read, even with all the technical jargon, and as always Michael Crichton explains carefully for the laymen without talking down to us. Mr. Crichton was never known for his lyrical prose and here, it is especially dry, but it doesn’t really matter as it is very fact-oriented. The premise is utterly fascinating and I thought very well developed; it just might be possible. It’s not fast-paced but it never drags either, and it picks up as the story nears its conclusion. I found the ending a bit underwhelming, but overall it’s a much better book than the weird and unnecessary sequel, The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson. At least, in THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, I could understand and more importantly picture what was going on.
As a college student it influenced me to pursue graduate studies in microbiology
When I started reading the debut novel by Michael Crichton I certainly did not expect to find myself already facing a little masterpiece. My expectations were low, however, they have been denied by a book that I feel compelled to include among my absolute favourites.
Maybe because of the matter (biology), which I know well, and therefore I was able to fully understand every passage of the work. Maybe because of the very original author’s choice to present the novel as if it were a report of something really happened, including the credits at the beginning signed MC. Maybe because what is told could really have happened or could happen at any time.
In one way or another I found myself literally devouring this book in a few days and almost missing it when it was not with me.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Crichton’s works is that in them science is not an excuse to tell a story. On the contrary, the story is an excuse to talk about science. So much that his novels are accompanied by an extensive bibliography, as if they were non-fiction books.
The real regret is that this author has died and that, although I still have to read some of his works, sooner or later they will end up.
However, he is a source of great inspiration to me and to those like me, man and woman of science, who loves fiction.
When this book was first published, I was in eighth grade, and my teacher recommended it to me and loaned me his paperback copy. It was the first Michael Crichton novel I’d ever read, and it was the first science fiction I’d ever read that was captivating not because it engendered “sense of wonder” and otherworldliness, but because it was so realistic and plausible-sounding and so close to the state of technology that existed at the time. Then, at the end of the book, I read the appendix, the “source” of declassified material Crichton supposedly used in the writing of the book. And it scared the socks off me, because some of the “sources” were characters in the book. I had to check and reassure myself that the appendix was as fictional as the story. Also, I was born and grew up in Arizona, but I still had to go check and reassure myself that there really isn’t an Arizona town named “Piedmont.”
This was my first experience with Crichton’s penchant for bending reality in this way. (My favorite example of this is his Eaters of the Dead, which he cleverly and playfully presents as a “lost” historical document that forms the basis of the Beowulf legend.) It’s the book that hooked me on Michael Crichton’s stories.
Hard to follow what was going on. You could tell this was one of his first novels. Not so great. I love his other novels though.
I read this as a teenager and did so in one sitting. My first medical thriller.
Chrichton does what Chrichton does: spins a great yarn around actual science and “predictive” science.
The characters are strong but real. I know a couple of them in real life. They make mistakes which can prove fatal. They work toward a better solution but don’t always get there because they are human.
if you have seen the movie, it follows the story line fairly well (as well as Hollywood EVER does) but the book is just that much more detailed and intricate. The science is explained in a way that most people can comprehend. which makes it that much better.
Definitely Five Stars!
One of my favorite books.
Great, as usual with this author.
This is about a disease outbreak.
It was memorable! And scary too! It’s a page-turner. It grabs you at the beginning, and doesn’t let go.
Michael Crighton likes to incorporate the most advanced technology available at the time of writing a book. This book was published in 1969 and all of the technology in the book was 50 years old at the time of reading. Instead of enhancing the read, which frequently happens in later efforts, it made the book drag.
This was the first book I ever did a school report on, I was so taken with it (yes, this was many, many years ago). A very well built and well thought-out novel with interesting themes. One of the first novels I ever read to touch on the possibility of mass epidemics and biological warfare.
Excellent introduction to Michael Creighton
In my opinion, the best of Michael Crichton’s novels.
Great read. Full of imagination!
I read this book when it first came out, and would have rated it 4 stars then. In
reading it again, I still enjoyed the plot, and the thought behind the premise. It is somewhat dated, but still made a point about alien/outer space disease.