Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
Last night Trish and I watched the 1971 Robert Wise movie. And while I did like it better than the first time round, I still prefer Crichton's book.This might be due for a re-read and a proper review in 2019.In short, a returning space probe brings something with it that instantly kills almost all the people in the small town nearest to the landing site. But what is it? And why are there two survivors?A team of scientists is put into the Wildfire installation, a zero contaminant facility that's
A returning space probe crash lands in a forgotten American town, unwittingly putting it on the map and sparking a potential dangerous outbreak of a catastrophic deathly virus, of which very few people would be immune from. With the human race facing potential extinction it is up to a select few individuals to save the population, whilst keeping the secret under wraps and themselves alive in the process.Crichton is an undeniable sci-fi genius yet this release was a little on the dry side for me....
This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis.As in most crises, the events surrounding the Andromeda Strain were a compound of foresight and foolishness, innocence and ignorance. Nearly everyone involved had moments of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity. It is therefore impossible to write about the events without offending some of the participants.I decided to reread The Andromeda Strain to get ready for the new sequel, The Andromeda Evolu...
3 stars. I’m sure in 1969 this was cutting edge, but it doesn’t quite stack up in 2018, either in terms of suspense, science, or inclusivity. This book fails the Bechdel test so hard, it reminds me of why the Bechdel test was invented. The only women I can remember are a switchboard operator, a nurse, and a (literally, I can't make this up) recorded voice that is described as sensual, almost sexy, UNTIL the male hearer realizes it belongs to a woman in her sixties, at which point he presumably l...
Perhaps I'm influenced too much by my nostalgic love of the feel of '70's and '80's sci-fi and horror, but I did enjoy this. I'd watched the old movie many years ago, so there were no surprises, but I enjoyed it anyway. It helps that I read this as a real possible event as well, as I think it's highly possible that it will happen (or has already). Great classic sci-fi, in my opinion.
This book is all about the tension, not the payoff. As with most entertainment, this book pulls you in by asking some questions. "What is it?" "How does it work?" "What happened?" While those questions are still being asked, this book is a fairly thrilling read.If you don't like books that get too technical about things, though, this isn't the book for you. It's full of pages from government documents, computer readouts, and the like. That only helps the book go by quicker, because I just skippe...
Scientists! Making things happen! Getting called out of their homes in the middle of the night! Rigorously sanitizing every inch of their bodies! Looking over ASCII-image printouts! Performing exhaustive tests! Debating theories of exobiology! And it's a total blast! Michael Crichton made microorganisms thrilling for the masses by employing science that isn't laughable forty years later. Is it any wonder he set the entertainment industry on fire when he got his hands on dinosaurs? Worth noting
I've shared this before and am never hesitant to cop to it: I grew up with an outsized fear of germ warfare. By my youth, the nuclear scare was winding down and just about over so I never feared death by atomic fire from above. But I did fear death from biological agent. Anthrax. Weaponized smallpox. Germ warfare. And I read The Andromeda Strain when I was young, possibly too young. I was in third grade when Jurassic Park hit theaters which led me to Crichton by way of my parents, who checked ou...
The sixth novel by Michael Crichton but the first published (in 1969) under his own name and the first in which he bent science fiction and suspense together in ways that would propel Crichton to the top of the bestseller lists and into cinemas for the next thirty years, The Andromeda Strain didn't retain many surprises for me, but in its own delightful way, reminded me of a science and technology museum exhibit and the docent giving me a tour: "And here we have a pioneering thriller of technolo...
As a Crichton fan I am a little disappointed. this one missed the mark for me. I like his dry procedural style and accept his lack of character dimension. The premise is, as always with Crichton interesting. Crichton seem to ask very important what if questions that others don't. Everything is so believable, yes even the one dimensional characters. They're brilliant scientist limited to a specific field. And they serve just as scientist brilliant only in their field. Very functionary! The milita...
Lots of science but also lots of suspense so it was a great balance! Amazing that I never read this one since I seem to have read most of Crichton’s other books. He certainly had the gift of making science accessible and then taking the next fictional step— whether it be aliens, evolution or some other scientific puzzle. Now I’m ready for the sequel...
The writing was drier than a cracker in the desert...But I loved the book anyway! It definitely reads like a scientific/army report but this was such an interesting twist on the classic sci-fi (first contact?). I only recommend it if you already love sci-fi and diseases apocalyptic books.Left me wanting more... I'll definitely read more from the author!
liked the beginning, thought the end was unbelievably anticlimatic.
Nine years before Stephen King’s heavy, genre defining smackdown novel The Stand, intelligent tall guy Michael Crichton quietly blew people away with his own hard science Big Bang Theory epidemic story.Similar to Andy Weir’s brilliant 2011 mega success The Martian, this is hard science fiction told by an actual scientist. But whereas Weir stepped it down for the rest of us with some laugh out loud humor, the good Dr. Crichton put his best bedside manner forward and patiently explained his biolog...
An ubiquitous small town in the remote Arizona desert , a pleasant area of the late 1960's such a wonderful place is the setting as startled but curious , often bored people in Piedmont where nothing ever happens it does tonight, they look up in the dark sky something is falling, drifting slowly... down just north of the hamlet. Finding a capsule obviously from outer space..However what should they do, give it to the local doctor the silly man opens the object and promptly expires, as will the r...
The Andromeda Strain (Andromeda #1), Michael CrichtonThe Andromeda Strain is a 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton. A team is deployed to recover a military satellite which has returned to Earth, but contact is lost abruptly. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead. The duty officer of the base tasked with retrieving the satellite suspects that it returned with an extraterrestrial contaminant an...
There's a good story in here, somewhere. If Crichton tackled this idea later in his career it would have undoubtedly been a great book. There's just far too much science and not enough thriller.
[image error] "Human intelligence was more trouble than it was worth. It was more destructive than creative, more confusing than revealing, more discouraging than satisfying, more spiteful than charitable." My first Michael Crichton and a great introduction. The Andromeda Strain is a fast paced and highly enjoyable techno-thriller.The writing style in this one is a little dry and science heavy, but in my opinion that adds to it's authenticity. It really feels like you're receiving a report on
This book is a good example that sometimes the rating that one gives to one book isn't fault itself of the book but due the timing of when you read it in relation with having read other books of the same author.All that long introduction is to explain that my very reason to give only 3 stars to this very good book is because I happened to read it after of reading Sphere (see review of that book: HERE), that I find quite similar in the general premise.Both books have the calling of a expert scien...
************Everyone at the end of the book: The world is saved!Book two:************I just got my ARC of The Andromeda Evolution in the mail (thank you, HarperCollins!!!!) so, even if it's unnecessary, I'm going to read this| Goodreads | Blog | Pinterest | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram