The Andromeda Evolution

Decades after the Andromeda Strain wiped out Piedmont, Arizona, people have forgotten the danger. All but Eternal Vigilance, a military operation put in place to monitor for evidence Andromeda has returned. Now the remnants of a crashed ship in the Amazon have triggered alerts. Andromeda is back. A new Wildfire team is selected to investigate the reports.

Continuing in the vein of Crichton's classic, Daniel Wilson's The Andromeda Evolution introduces a whole new generation of readers to the deadly organism. This time it is out in the wild, not contained in a lab. This new team faces untold dangers not just from the organism itself, which is rapidly constructing something in the depths of the Amazonian rainforest, but from the jungle show more itself and the uncontacted tribes living within.

I enjoyed this story immensely! This Wildfire team is far more diverse, including an anthropologist, and a roboticist who has a small flock of 'canary' drones. At one point, to communicate with one of the natives they accidentally came in contact with, a canary drone is turned into a universal translator. Too cool. Another member is an astronaut on the ISS. There's definitely more action and diversity in this story. The ending was neat too, though it does stretch the imagination. Andromeda continues to evolve. It's here to stay. I hope there's sequel! I'd love to see further evolutions.

***Reviewed for the Tulsa Book Review show less

Michael Crichton was a master of the scientific thriller. He blended the scientific aspect perfectly with the thriller aspect to make a superb read. This sequel was also a scientific thriller, but unfortunately Mr. Wilson, while maintaining some aspects of Mr. Crichton's original book, trended way further toward the scientific aspect, while losing a lot of the thriller part. That's not to say this wasn't a good read. It was alright, but it doesn't hold a candle to the original.

Not quite as good as the original but still a fun read. Andromeda Evolution is a straightforward thriller, I especially enjoyed the crazy astronaut with a god complex. But, there are some pretty boring parts of the story, too....like when the author describes "intuition." Anyway, done with that series, move on.

Michael Crichton's "The Andromeda Strain" was a riveting and brilliantly written tale of a deadly microbe that originated from space, lands on earth in 1967, and threatens the lives of the planet's inhabitants. In "The Andromeda Evolution," by Daniel H. Wilson, another doomsday crisis arises that will test the ingenuity, courage, and resourcefulness of the scientists assigned to avert it. A strange structure, dubbed "the anomaly," arises in an isolated Brazilian rainforest. It is "metallic-looking" with "faint hexagonal imprints etched into its skin." A team of specialists embarks on a dangerous mission—to analyze and, if possible, neutralize what turns out to be a more sophisticated but equally terrifying version of the Andromeda show more strain.

Wilson does a fine job of describing the ecosystem and environmental importance of "over thirty-two thousand square miles of unbroken jungle" inhabited by indigenous tribes, some of whom have had little or no contact with the rest of mankind. This area is monitored to prevent poachers, loggers, and others from despoiling the precious resources of the Amazon. The action veers back and forth between military commanders on the ground, beleaguered experts in Brazil who are in for a terrifying ordeal, and the crew of the International Space Station.

The characters include Rand L. Stern, a four-star general; Nidhi Vedala, a medical doctor and a Phd in nanotechnology and materials science; James Stone, whose doctorate is in robotics; and Sophie Kline, an astronaut who is intellectually gifted but far from a team player. The plot is dense and convoluted, and the pages are filled with an immense amount of jargon that may be overwhelming to the layman. After the intriguing setup, there are verbal and physical confrontations, people start dying, Vedala and the others finally realize what they are facing, and Wilson's mind-boggling conclusion wraps everything up in a highly implausible fashion. One egregious flaw is that the author provides us with spoilers throughout the book. There is no better way to rob a tale of tension than to clue us in on what is about to happen. "The Andromeda Evolution," with its cutting-edge gadgetry, sophisticated software, and superhuman feats, might appeal to adrenaline junkies who enjoy fanciful fiction, but it is basically a formulaic technothriller that never soars to the heights of its predecessor. show less

Not quite as good as the original, but a truly valiant attempt. There's a lot to love here: Wilson continues Crichton's unique narrative style and manages to sound a hell of a lot like Crichton himself. So, props for that.

He does also manage to build a bit more action into the story than Crichton's penchant for having the eggheads mostly think things through. So, while this is mostly a good thing, he does go a touch overboard (in my opinion) toward the end for that "Hollywood" finish.

I did also enjoy all the callbacks to the original, including Stone's son. Well done.

For all of that, a couple of stars off for the over-exuberant action pieces as mentioned above, as well as the one plot twist involving one member of the Wildfire team show more (you'll know it when you read it) that left me thinking, oh shit, why why why does a writer always have to rely on that particular plot point?

Seriously. To me, that one part was just so damned cliché, and as far as I'm concerned, it just felt like a lazy decision. I literally groaned when it came up.

Other than that, a decent follow-up. show less

One thing that's important to know going in: This one is very very different from its predecessor. So different that I think people who loved the original are not going to love this one and vice versa. While The Andromeda Strain leaned heavily into the science aspect of effort to identify and contain a pathogen, The Andromeda Evolution is a much more straightforward thriller, with our protagonists hacking their way through the jungle, swimming through underground tunnels, and fighting native tribes. Add in an unbalanced astronaut with a God complex and I sometimes forgot what I was supposed to be reading about. The book wasn't bad but it definitely looks to cash in on Crichton's good name rather than being any real continuation of the show more style or substance of the original. show less

The Andromeda Evolution by Michael Crichton via Daniel H. Wilson is a very highly recommended sequel to the science fiction classic.

In The Andromeda Strain (1969), an extraterrestrial microbe came crashing down to Earth and nearly ended the human race. Accidental exposure to the particle killed every resident of the town of Piedmont, Arizona, save for an elderly man and an infant boy. In the decades that followed, Project Eternal Vigilance has been watching and waiting for the Andromeda Strain to reappear, while research secretly continued on the microparticle. Now, in the Brazilian rain forest an anomaly has been detected and it is identified as the Andromeda Strain. A next generation Project Wildfire team of scientific experts from show more around the world is called together to try and stop the apocalyptic threat. The diverse team of experts must try and get through the jungle and figure out a way to stop this outbreak of the Andromeda Strain before it annihilates all life on Earth.

The narrative follows five days of heart-stopping action, following the team in the jungle and through reconstructed transcripts, interviews, and descriptions of video footage. The writing is outstanding. Wilson, who is an excellent choice to continue the story, captures the voice of Crichton while updating the technological aspects of the story to fifty years in the future. While Wilson introduces us to the very human team members called in to stop the threat, he keeps the fast-paced plot moving along quickly and the tension building to stunning levels. The team members have their specialties and are a diverse group. Wilson also shows their flaws, making them feel like real human beings called in to stop an impossible situation.

I loved every part of this wildly exciting continuation of the original novel. There is an explanation of what the Andromeda Strain is and how it threatens life for those who never read Crichton's original novel, so reading the original is not a requirement to appreciate this continuation of the story. The denouement is a exciting, heart-stopping scene that should ensure this will be a movie someday. Each chapter opens with a quote by Crichton, which I appreciated.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
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