The Andromeda Strain
Author: Michael Crichton
Publisher: Ballantine (my copy; Harper in the above link)
Genre: Science Fiction
Amazon's rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Ennui's rating: 4 stars
What the book's about: A satellite lands in a small town in Arizona; when the government goes retrieve it, a startling discovery is made: Everyone is dead. Soon after, the men sent to retrieve the satellite send one frantic message back to base before they too are subdued to death. An account of five days, the book follows the Wildfire team as they attempt to study and maintain the viral outbreak from consuming the entire nation and world.
Thoughts: Some are led to believe this is a typical work of fiction; I warn you, it is not. From the get go, The Andromeda Strain reads like a commission report that goes into great depths of what happens in the five days in which the story takes place. Many other reviews have noted that Michael Crichton had a plot going steadily and then somehow lost it. He didn't. What they failed to understand that the book wasn't meant to be taken in like a work a fiction; it was meant to be read as a "factual" account of "factual" events. Plain and simple.
As with most of Crichton's books, he provided laymen readers, such as myself, with accurate description and definition of certain scientific terminology and theories, so you're never really left behind contemplating what exactly he was talking about.
It's a fast paced book with several nerve wracking events that leaves readers at the edge of their seat. Crichton provided several foresight passages that increases the adrenaline that the reader experiences as the page is turned.
Thoughts: Some are led to believe this is a typical work of fiction; I warn you, it is not. From the get go, The Andromeda Strain reads like a commission report that goes into great depths of what happens in the five days in which the story takes place. Many other reviews have noted that Michael Crichton had a plot going steadily and then somehow lost it. He didn't. What they failed to understand that the book wasn't meant to be taken in like a work a fiction; it was meant to be read as a "factual" account of "factual" events. Plain and simple.
As with most of Crichton's books, he provided laymen readers, such as myself, with accurate description and definition of certain scientific terminology and theories, so you're never really left behind contemplating what exactly he was talking about.
It's a fast paced book with several nerve wracking events that leaves readers at the edge of their seat. Crichton provided several foresight passages that increases the adrenaline that the reader experiences as the page is turned.
Stumble It!
