The Andromeda Strain - Softcover

Crichton, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1101974494 ISBN 13: 9781101974490

Publisher: Vintage, 2017

Synopsis

First published fifty years ago, The Andromeda Strain redefined the science fiction genre, and immediately established Michael Crichton as one of the brightest voices in contemporary literature worldwide.

"I love anything Michael Crichton writes."--Stephen King

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.

About this title

Review:

Some biologists speculate that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrials, those life forms are likely to be--like most life on Earth--one-celled creatures or less, more comparable to bacteria than little green men. And even though such organisms would not likely be able to harm humans, the possibility exists that first contact might be our last.

That's the scientific supposition that Michael Crichton formulates and follows out to its conclusion in his excellent debut novel, TheAndromeda Strain. A Nobel-winning bacteriologist, Jeremy Stone, urges the president to approve an extraterrestrial decontamination facility, to sterilise returning astronauts, satellites and spacecraft that might carry such an "unknown biologic agent." The government agrees, almost too quickly, to build the top- secret Wildfire Lab in the desert of Nevada. Shortly thereafter, unbeknownst to Stone, the US Army initiates the "Scoop" satellite program, an attempt to actively collect space pathogens for use in biological warfare. When Scoop VII crashes a couple years later in the isolated Arizona town of Piedmont, they end up getting more than they asked for.

The Andromeda Strain follows Stone and rest of the scientific team mobilised to react to the Scoop crash, as they scramble to understand and contain a strange and deadly outbreak. Crichton's first book may well be his best, with an earnestness missing from his later, more calculated thrillers. --Paul Hughes, Amazon.com

Review:

Praise for Michael Crichton and The Andromeda Strain

"Compulsive reading. . . . [Crichton] has perfected the fusion of thriller with science fiction." --Los Angeles Times

"Canonical." --The Atlantic

"A reading windfall--compelling, memorable, superbly executed. . . . Achieves something important." --The New York Times

"The master of the high-concept technothriller. . . . [Crichton] has a knack for plotting at megahertz speed." --Chicago Sun-Times

"The Andromeda Strain invented a new genre, the technothriller. . . . [Crichton] could make most readers lose sleep all night and call in sick the next day." --San Francisco Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1101974494
• ISBN 13: 9781101974490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304