The Andromeda Strain (1969)

Did I enjoy it? Yes Did It merit 4 stars? NO but I would give it 3 and a half. Like Asimov's Foundation it is horribly dated. This is a product of the 60s. And it showed. One hopes that Crichton 's novels get better. ( )

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.
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Addictive as crack . Burned through the book in a few hours and after the initial sluggish begining, the entire climax and etc was pretty heart racing stuff. Good stuff. ( )

I believe the first time I read this was very likely not horribly long after it was released. May have been around 73 or 74. I remembered very little of the story, beyond the initial destruction of a small town, one character's reaction to blinking lights, and the Wildfire facility.

Having re-read this, I think Crichton was a touch more enamoured with the facility and the science around it, than the actual Andromeda Strain itself, still, he chose a very unique narrative voice to tell this story, and I have to say, I actually enjoyed the hell out of it.

Yes, it's dated, but one of Crichton's smartest decisions was to set it in present (for the time) day 1969, so the tech actually holds up very well.

All in all, a fun ride to revisit half a century (!) later. ( )

I have a distant memory of this book on my parents bookshelf when I was a young 'un. Even though I hadn't graduated to reading proper books at the time I was captivated by the cover. At some point the book disappeared and it didn't cross my mind again until I saw the 1971 movie on the TV late on night about 20 years ago. I saw a copy of it while doing one of my regular charity shop sweeps and I just had to buy it and see what the book was like.

The book is laid out as a factual recollection at a hearing of events that occur due to the crash landing of a satellite. Along with the details of what happened we discover the mistakes and discoveries made by the team of scientists sent to solve the disease which has killed many people. This all comes together to make an interesting book which is based on more than just ratcheting up the tension.

There is a lot of scientific detail and its clear that there was a lot of research that went into the book before it was written. There is also a quite interesting aspect looking into artificial intelligence and what happens when machines we rely on fail and it goes un-noticed. Although the plot may look a bit far fetched to readers today I imagine that in the 60's when it was published these were real fears that many people had.

The book is well written and well paced so I found myself picking it up to read whenever I had a spare 5 minutes. ( )