If you’re really just looking for a light reading experience only focused on traditional entertainment, then you likely won’t find many elements in this book to excite you. In my opinion, The Andromeda Strain is one of those truly notable exceptions to the rule. There is a general rule of thumb (yes, there are always exceptions, I’m aware of that) in the science-fiction genre which says that the more a novel wants to be exciting and offer its readers a thrilling experience, the more the author needs to lean away from the science and towards the fiction. ― Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain The Intellectual War of The Andromeda Strain The rock, for its part, is not even aware of our existence because we are alive for only a brief instant of its lifespan. The enemy, however, is like nothing they’ve ever seen before, and it seems only a matter of time before a worldwide catastrophe becomes inevitable. Racing against the clock and working in a state of total news blackout, the four scientists must merge the power of their minds together in order to understand what happened to the residents of the desert town, why there were survivors, and how they can stop it from spreading.

Additionally, it’s also equipped with a total self-destruction mechanism, should some form of lethal contagion occur. The United States Government quickly takes all the appropriate measures to prevent the news from spreading for the time being, putting in action Project Wildfire.Ī top-secret emergency response protocol, it calls for the assembly of four of the country’s most talented and experienced biophysicists in a clandestine underground laboratory hidden beneath the desert. Unfortunately, for the inhabitants of said town, nearly all of them die shortly after, leaving a curious pair of survivors: an elderly addict at the end of his rope, and a newborn infant. It crashed some twelve miles away from an insignificant little desert town. A probe was sent to collect samples of extraterrestrial organisms from the upper parts of the Earth’s atmosphere, but it has failed to safely return after being knocked out of orbit.

The novel doesn’t take too long to get started, getting us acquainted with the urgent situation at hand.

Alien species don’t necessarily have to resemble us in any way or be recognizable… as a matter of fact, it is quite likely that our first encounter with them will be on a much smaller, molecular level, as is the case in Michael Crichton‘s 1969 bestseller, The Andromeda Strain. In the wide realms of science-fiction extraterrestrial organisms have likely been described in more ways than anyone will ever know, and while our potential encounter with other living organisms might be awe-inspiring, it’s also infinitely frightening. Michael Crichton Invites Molecular Aliens to Earth

The andromeda strain 1969