Eerie, frightening, suspenseful......and (even though the book is overly 50 years old now), in this day & age of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, more relevant than ever.

RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:

—p. 19: “At the time of Andromeda, there had never been a crisis of biological science, and the first Americans faced with the facts were not disposed to think in terms of one.” Prescient vis-a-vis COVID-19 novel Coronavirus?

—p. 20: MAJ Manchek is an Army officer, nor Air Force, yet he keeps getting posted at Air Force bases (Wright-Pat, Vandy) and specialises in spacecraft??

—p. 31: “A mathematician once joked that binary numbers were the way people who have only two fingers count.”

—p. 38: “Mrs. Stone was annoyed: she had been raised in official Washington, where one’s second cup of coffee, offered pointedly without cognac, was accepted as a signal to go home. Unfortunately, she thought, academics did not follow the rules.” Ha, absent-minder professors and academic stuffed-shirts!

—p. 44: “Physically, Stone was a thin, balding man with a prodigious memory that catalogued scientific facts and blue jokes with equal facility.” Haha, bully for the blue jokes!


European Economic Community, wow, the predecessor of the EU.

—p. 49: “Barely two years after his letter to the President, Stone was satisfied that ‘this country has the capability to deal with an unknown biologic agent.’ He professed himself pleased with the response of Washington and the speed with which his ideas had been implemented. But privately, he admitted to friends that it had been almost too easy, that Washington had agreed to his plans almost too readily.” Prescient? Is life imitating art now with COVID-19?

—p. 52: “Vandenberg is used for west-to-east orbits, as opposed to Cape Kennedy, which launches east-to-west;” hmmm, interesting, I wonder if this is still true?

—p. 53: Ah, back in the day when the Indian city was still called Bombay and not Mumbai.

—p. 54: “though he could not balance his own checkbook, mathematicians often came to him for help in resolving highly abstract problems.” Haha, sounds like my own Dad (God rest his soul)

—p. 58: “As he grew older, however, Leavitt had stopped traveling. Public health, he was fond of saying, was a young man’s game; when you got your fifth case of intestinal amebiasis, it was time to quit.” Gadzooks!

—p. 78: “It gave him a strange feeling to see the wrist and leg sliced open, the chest exposed—but no bleeding. There was something wild and inhuman about that. As if bleeding were a sign of humanity. Well, he thought, perhaps it is. Perhaps the fact that we bleed to death makes us human.” Yep, as opposed to octopus, squid, and cuttlefish, which evidently don’t bleed no matter how thoroughly you slice ‘n’ dice ‘em.

—p. 95: “A guard in the corner was making a telephone call; he had a machine gun slung over his shoulder.” Um, as in submachine gun or automatic rifle? Because a true full-sized machine gun is not meant to be casually slung over one shoulder unless you’re built like Hulk Hogan.

—p. 100: “Hall found himself looking at nine of the largest German shepherds he had ever seen.” Okay, but were any of them solid black GSDs?

I expected something more along the lines of typical apocalyptic literature. It reads more like a medical mystery-thriller. I enjoyed it. I admit the ending left me feeling unfulfilled, but I think my expectations set me up. The fictional-virus kills in seconds. It may not be a good idea to read for those who have an affinity to panic, considering the present crisis.As I mentioned in my last review, Crichton has this ability in his writing to excite the mind and thrill the heart. It makes reading fun. It can bring back a reader astray from the original intent, to enjoy life.

3.5 stars. An entertaining, interesting, engaging dystopian novel about the mystery of the death of around fifty people in a small American town of Piedmont. A satellite capsule lands near the town and a couple of locals take the capsule to the local doctor. He opens the object and everyone in the town immediately dies apart from a 69 year old man and a two month old baby.

Four specialist Scientists, a bacteriologist, a microbiologist, a pathologist and a surgeon, are specifically brought together and relocated to a very uncontaminated hidden building complex. Their task is to discover what the viral strain is and what it’s likelihood of spreading would be.

A thought provoking read. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the novel.

There is quite a lot of scientific scenarios in this work (most of it way over my head for sure) but assuming those that are in the know, must be delighted with this story. I imagine that the author did his homework on this one to make it a believable. I actually did enjoy the parts I could understand and thought the story was well told and did captivate my attention. If I were to do a book vs. movie I would give the book a just slightly better point as it did go into more detail. So did it make fellow human beings give a pause for space exploration?...nah, I doubt it.

I had to think for a couple of days to give this book a proper review/rating.

First of all, let me say something. I read some criticism that this book didn't developed any characters. Well my thoughts are the same BUT Michael Crichton in the beginning of the book says that this is a report and every single chapter/day was from a report of some sorts. There are several instances in each chapter that our narrator tells us important details, and say "how wrong they were..." or "If only they had done X instead of Y...". So my opinion is that this book is not focus on the characters, nor try to be focus on them. This book is focus on Science. This book is focus on how the USA operate in a particular event.

I really enjoy the premises and the execution of this novel. It had elements/words that I was not confortable - but I google them and that enrich me. I think that's one of the reasons I read. If they talk about something I don't know or that interest me I go to wikipedia or other similar sites.

It was very interesting knowing that this book was written in the 60's and some things didn't change and others have evolved immensely. Probably most of their clinical tests would be very easy nowadays. Who knows -in fifty years, when there is no more cancer or other plague I will read a book and say the same thing. Well in fifty years I will be eighty. Probably there will be no more paper books and the books are inserted in your mind or something like that. Or in the worst scenario I'll be dead. Eheh

The plot is very interesting, believe me. This book is hard science but also a thriller (mostly in the beginning and in the end) and speaking of end... most people said it was anti-climatic. I Didn't think so. But my first thought was... WHAT? WHY THE HECK THIS HAPPENED? WHY DID I READ THIS? But then... Most emergences either end in total destrution of humankind (we're still here) or We've saved the day - We are the heroes of humankind. Bear in mind that neither of those things happens. And that was the cherry on top of the cake. Good book Michael Crichton.

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.

Kosminis zondas, dėl neaiškių priežasčių kiek pakeitęs orbitą, nuleidžiamas kažkur Arizonoje. Du kariškiai atvyksta jo ieškoti ir aptinka išmirusį nedidelį miestelį. Visoje gyvenvietėje kažkodėl išgyveno tik du – senas vyriškis ir kūdikis. Kas iššaukė visų gyventojų mirtį? Ir kuo ypatingi tie du, išgyvenę?
Crichtonas – vienas iš dažnai ekranizuojamų autorių. Galime prisiminti ir „Sferą“, ir „Tryliktąjį karį“, ir netgi senąjį klasikinį „Westworld“, kuriam Crichtonas ne tik parašė scenarijų, bet pats ir režisavo. Na, ir žinoma, kaip be „Juros periodo parko“? Skaitydamas pirmuosius „Andromedos“ puslapius, puikiai supratau kodėl. Kai nori, Crichtonas sugeba rašyti labai vizualiai ir kinematografiškai. Pastarąjį kartą knygą skaičiau daugiau nei prieš trisdešimt metų, bet vos išgirdus jos pavadinimą, mintyse iškart iškyla viena pirmųjų scenų – kariškių furgonas, gatvė, nuklota mirusiųjų kūnais ir svirduliuojantis senis baltu chalatu. Įsirėžė atmintin taip, kad kirviu neiškirsi.
Bėda, kad ne visada Crichtonas nori rašyti taip vizualiai. O galų gale ir žanras – mokslinis trileris – turi savų reikalavimų. Kartais info blokus autoriui pavyksta įterpti sklandžiai, bet dažniau nuo grožinio teksto staiga peršokama prie wikipedia straipsnio.
Tačiau intrigą Crichtonas laiko, įtampą palaipsniui didina, kol galiausiai pasiekia atomazgą. Taip, iš vienos pusės galėtum sakyti, kad knygai pasenus. Kita vertus, tema amžina – krizė ir jos įveikimas. O visi tie perfokortomis programuojami kompiuteriai ir adatiniu spausdintuvu atspausdintos schemos – tampa savotiška razina. Tokiu retrofuturizmo prieskoniu, jei norite.
SF klasika. Keturi iš penkių. Pakartojau su malonumu. Gal kažkiek vertinimui ir turi įtakos nostalgija. Vis tik „„Andromedos“ štamas“ – viena iš tų knygų, kurios vaikystėje/paauglystėje įjunkė mane į fantastikos žanrą.

Not my favorite Crichton by a long shot. Not bad just not quite as gripping as I'd hoped.

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...

PS- Ended up skipping the sequel— too many less than stellar reviews.

(Reviewed 1/24/20)

The Andromeda Strain was scary when I first read it in high school. I wasn’t really accustomed to action novels, and the pace of the book still holds although much of the science and tech look outdated. Like many people I read Michael Crichton’s novel out of a sense of timeliness with the COVID-19 crisis. Rereading books as an adult is an eye-opening experience. I couldn’t have understood some parts of this as a teen, but it’s a page-turner. As an adult you can spot holes in the plot, but it’s more the mood of the thing you’re going for in a pandemic.

The idea is fairly straightforward: the military, searching for a new biological weapon, brings down a strain of extraterrestrial life from the orbit of a satellite. It kills quickly, causing some people to commit bizarre suicides (which, as I state elsewhere—Sects and Violence in the Ancient World—is really the only part I remembered. A team of four he-men scientists (there are vanishingly few women in the novel) rush to a secret underground base to find a way to stop the spread. If the virus breaches the safeguards, an atomic bomb will destroy the base unless, within three minutes, one specific member of the team can shut it off.

The reason, I suspect, people are re-reading this now is our current fear of contagion. It’s almost impossible to make a trip to the grocery store without potentially contaminating your car keys, the steering wheel, and your own home, even if wearing latex gloves and a mask. The tension in this novel builds around whether there is any way to secure Andromeda so that it won’t leak out. Many of the characters’ fates are simply dropped after the crisis. There are better novels, but this one is a guilty pleasure read in a time when we could all just use some more of them.

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 Evolution, by Daniel H. Wilson. Published in 1969, the story is pretty simple: there’s a government project to send satellites into near earth orbit, collect organisms for study, and return the satellites to earth. But after one of the satellites crashes two days early, almost all of the residents of a nearby town are found dead. The government activates Project Wildfire, placing a small group of scientists in a race against time to identify the cause, and find a way to stop it, before it’s too late.

I remember really enjoying this book when I read it 30 years ago. It feels wonderfully realistic, focused in granular detail on the processes of setting up Project Wildfire, the facility, the scientific team. And it is effective with a common theme in Crichton’s books: mistakes made by people doing their best are a vital part of the story.

While the book was ahead of its time in some ways, I have to admit it was not as good as I remember. There’s not much characterization, and pretty much every character is a white dude. While a defense to that could be the book was written in 1969, one of the doctors was changed to a woman for the 1971 movie. Moreover, the after-action report style is realistic, but it removes a certain amount of drama from the story. Crichton would strike a much better scientific explanation/dramatic storytelling balance in many of his later books, especially what I consider to be his masterpiece:  Jurassic Park. And the ending is ... abrupt, to say the least.

Hopefully the sequel will take the best parts of this story and update it. I’d still recommend this book, but probably only if you like Crichton and have just never read it.

الأزمة هى الموقف الذي تتحول فيه
مجموعة من الظروف المقبولة إلى ظروف غير مقبولة بتاتا؛ذلك بعد اضافة عامل معين
وسلالة اندروميدا هي الازمة البيولوجية الاولى..هكذا يجذبنا كريشتون الطبيب-الاديب لرائعته في الخيال العلمي

هي السيناريو الذي يتوقعه علماء عصرنا لأوبئة الالفية الجديدة

الخلية اندروميدا هبطت من الفضاء لتنشر الوباء في الأرض

هنا سنغرق في البذلات العازلة و صناديق القفازات ✒
و الجدران الزجاجية و الايد الميكانيكية
و كل ما هو مذهل في عام 1969 مغلف بطابع علمي ثقيل احيانا

وهنا التنبوء الذي اتضح انه رؤية مستقبلية صحيحة
هنا الخيال العلمي الطبي الموثق الملىء بالمراجع