Name: The Andromeda Strain
Rating: 3.681506849315069 (146 reviews)
ISBN: 9780060541811

Michael Crichton

A team of scientists struggles to define and contain a deadly bacteria brought back from outer space by a satellite.

The Andromeda Strain

emily o’connor

men knew more about the moon and other heavenly bodies than they did about their own.

A military space probe, sent to collect extraterrestrial organisms from the upper atmosphere, is knocked out of orbit and falls to Earth. Twelve miles from the crash site, an inexplicable and deadly phenomenon terrorizes the residents of a sleepy desert town in Arizona, leaving only two survivors: an elderly addict and a newborn infant.

The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory located five stories beneath the desert and fitted with an automated atomic self-destruction mechanism for cases of irremediable contamination. Under conditions of total news blackout and the utmost urgency, the scientists race to understand and contain the crisis. But the Andromeda Strain proves different from anything they’ve ever seen—and what they don’t know could not only hurt them, but lead to unprecedented worldwide catastrophe.
source: https://www.brilliancepublishing.com/title/14140/alt

Super interesting read, I ended up reading it all in one sitting. Definitely recommend.

Jess

🪐 the academic feel to the book was very different yet interesting. really enjoyed it!

Sarah Sammis

The Andromeda strain.

One of my all time favorites. The footnotes alone make this book a fantastic fiction of blurred lines between the imagined and reality. Rereading post pandemic made Chricton more of an oracle. 

Cerys Goodall

Nicole Dykeman

I would have DNF’d this if it wasn’t assigned reading for my science fiction class. I literally could not have cared less about any of the characters (all middle-aged white military and medical men) and the scientific explanations were almost incomprehensible to the average non-scientist. It was long-winded and boring, no matter how the author tried to make it interesting with graphs and charts and politics. It came across as pretentious. Not a fan.

La Variete Andromede

Sarah Escorsa

Rob Erekson

Absolutely love the full novel of The Andromeda Strain, but the abridged audiobook removed (in my opinion) some vital details from the actual story.

The Andromeda strain

Pat G.

Great scientific suspense story. This really was a page turner, which I am quite surprised about given the scientific content.

Crichton did a great job here with delivering some high science-tech jargon to your average fiction reader. I didn’t feel lost in any of the explanations, on the contrary I was able follow along quite closely and make small predictions as the story unfolded. 

My only complaint would be how weak the characterization was. Tough to do in under 300 pages with so many characters. The only character I was excited about was only mentioned and didn’t make into the lab lol. The old man was the most exciting character, everyone else was rather boring.

Kerri McDonald

I'm fairly certain that I gave this four stars because I'm a lab nerd. This book hit all the sweet spots for me! Bacteriology, microbiology... Some if my favorite sections of the lab all in a rather entertaining and obviously well researched book. It was a but short, to me, and I would imagine it might get a bit too much into the science stuff if that's not your thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Dani

** spoiler alert **
           3.5 but you know the drill...

It was nice to read again a medical thriller, is that the genre? 🤔 
Anyways, always loved these because I find natural sciences fascinating.
The ending tho, a bit... simple and easy.
Still a nice enjoyable book. :)

Mike Pearce

I dove straight into this book without reading the "First Published..." etc like I normally do. So, I was a bit confused when he started talking about computer screens you touch with a light pen! This book hasn't aged well in terms of technology, but, if you can get past that and transpose some of the old stuff with new stuff you've seen in holidaywood or newer books, it's a cracking read. [return][return]I did, however, feel that the end was a *little* bit of a let down. I think it was trying for a War of the Worlds twist at the end, but it just didn't seem worth it.[return][return]Read the book as it's a good crack, but don't be surprised if the end creeps up on you quickly and then goes out with a whimper!

Aaron Bach

This book definitely delivers on the promise of "a hair-raising experience." Crichton is a master of creating suspense and holding secrets until a good way into the book.

That said, this was not one of my favorites. While the book started favorably enough, it lost its suspense about 200 pages in. While I thoroughly enjoyed the segues into biological studies, they tended to detract from the main story - so much so that once I was 5/6 through the book, I began to think, "He's running out of room to create a really smash-up ending." The unfortunate result is that I hardly felt any suspense during what should have been a climactic ending.

A good (and fast read), but definitely not the late Crichton's best work.

cory malnarick

Lots of build up with little to no pay-off; the potential meaning of the ending is very interesting, but that's subjective speculation, and other readers may not derive the same.

The Andromeda Strain

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