Rating: 
Summary: Michael Crichton's First Novel
Review: THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was Michael Crichton's first novel; it was published way back in 1969. Crichton (pronounced "Cry-ton") was a lad of 26, just out of medical school, when he decided to become a writer instead of a doctor. THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN is a very well-written first novel, although it is a bit too heavy on technical scientific detail. I found that to be a problem when I first tried to read the book 10 years ago; I only got about a third of the way into it because I found this level of detail to be overpowering the story, this rendering it noninteresting for me. By comparison, I had found that JURASSIC PARK, which I had read before my first attempt at ANDROMEDA, had just the right mixture of science and story; it was an extremely fascinating read which took me only three days to complete. Now, with THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, I have just recently read the entire book cover-to-cover, and I'm glad I finally did so because, even though I find the scientific detail to be occasionally overpowering at times, the human story is remarkably compelling. This human story is of how five widely different members of a top-secret government research team combine intellectual forces to deal with the horrific results of an infectious biologic agent, which had been accidentally introduced into the small town of Piedmont, Arizona by way of a returning space probe that had been sent from Earth, killing all but two of its 48 inhabitants. The team must find out what the nature of the infectious agent is, how it killed its victims, why the two extremely different survivors, a crochety old man and a two-month-old baby, survived, and how they can stop this agent before it is able to do any further damage. The book is written as a real-life account of the incident and the team's research, with all of its failings and discoveries, and Crichton supplies us with various illustrations and computer codes from this research; some of which are lucid and interesting, and others which are not. Although your enjoyment of this novel is not dependent on how much science you know and understand (although the more you know and are interested in, the more it definitely does help), it is dependent on how much you can tolerate as you follow along with the suspenseful story. The ending, crucial in a book like this, is really good; it made me glad that I stuck with it to the end this time. Although not nearly as fascinating as JURASSIC PARK (part of which is due to the datedness of the story and the associated technology), THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was a good first novel for Crichton, and set the tone for his future medical thrillers. RECOMMENDED, AGES 16 & UP
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Crichton is undefineable
Review: This book describes a fictious encounter with microbes from beyond. The men sent to recover a sattelite from where it has landed in this small town wonder why there are no lights at all in a town at ten-oclock at night. They enter the town and within five minutes are dead.
Next we encounter a number of scientists in different locations as they are alerted to the situation and sent to the government labratory that has been prepared for this situation, and the steps that they take to analyze and isolate the organism. The lab is the perfect place to study such an organism: it is even equipped with a nuclear self-destruct in case things go wrong.....
Mr. Crichton tells a simple but logical tale in this volume and as he often does in his books, makes it hard to distinguish between the real elements of science that he uses for the basis of the premise, and the fictious facts he makes to take the premise to its conclusion. This is classic fiction, and the fact that it is over thirty years old takes nothing from it. Definitely worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: I thought that this was a very good book.
Review: "The Andromada Strain", starts out with a young man named Jeremy Stone throwing a party. He gets the call he was hoping would never come, and is transported immediately to a 5 leveled lab, underground, with six other men to activate a project known simply as "Wildfire". I won't say anymore, except one thing: project Wildfire will be dangerous - VERY dangerous if it gets out of the lab!
I thought that this was a pretty good book, but it was probably aimed at more higher level readers than me. Some parts of this book were confusing, and others were just stupid, but overall it was pretty good. The only part that really bothered me was the ending. Michael Crichton built the story up so much that you were left saying," WHAT? THAT WAS IT??" I mean, it was a good ending, but it was kind of dissapointing, because it was not as exciting and dramatic as the rest of the book.
Another thing about this book was that it changed view points a LOT. Almost every chapter was a different one of the 7 main people. This was good, because that way, you could see what everyone was thinking, and not one person's biased opinion. Kind of like these book reviews!!!
Again, this book was for adults, but was good all the same!
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: This is an interesting book that basically says that we should be careful as we 'improve' the human race with 'progress.' This book is about a secret government scoop program that sends probes into the outer atmosphere in hopes that they find new life that might be used as a medicine or a weapon. The latter is what interested the government was most interested in. One probe crashes into a small Arizona town, and mysteriously everyone dies. A group of scientists is assigned to identify what killed them, how it worked, and how to get rid of it, from inside a secret compound in the middle of the desert. This is an excellent book that deserves two readings to get the full effect. Crichton is an excellent writer, and this book, the first that he published under his own name, proves that. He is always on top of the game. It makes you want to read more of his books. The rest of his books are also great. I give this book five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Andromeda Strain is a good book, but is not for everyone
Review: What would happen if bacteria from space were to infect people on Earth and how would you be able to fight a completely alien disease? This scenario is the plot line for The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. A satellite was given the job of collecting upper atmosphere bacteria for possible use as biological weapons and one of these satellites crashes and ends up in a small Arizona town. Every citizens, except for a sickly old man, and a baby, dies a horrible death, either dying because all of the citizen's blood has clotted up, or going mad and committing suicide. The government learns about the death of the village, and calls in Project Wildfire. Project Wildfire is a group of elite scientists, hand-picked for their knowledge of clinical microbiology, epidemology, pathology, and electrolyte microbiology. They report to their hidden base under the Nevada desert and work to find a cure for an alien disease, that is unlike any earth sickness, before it can multiply enough to infect the entire world. All of Crichton's books that I've read are good. His books always have a heavy scientific background. Drawing from his Ph.D. from Harvard, his Jurassic Park and The Lost World, the two books that Crichton is best known for, use a lot of information about genetics. The Andromeda Strain uses more of a mixture biology and virology. The Andromeda Strain is a good techno-thriller, and the reader could actually learn something about the two sciences above. I couldn't figure out what most of the diagrams were supposed to mean, but I could understand the parts involving the bacteria and how it worked. I was also impressed by the scientific papers used in the references for the book. I'd give the The Andromeda Strain a 9 out of 10 because, although The Andromeda Strain is an intelligent and entertaining book, it drags in some parts, which takes away from the good parts. Still, I enjoyed reading The Andromeda Strain though I wouldn't recommend it for everybody.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Read!
Review: The Andromdeda Strain was the first Crichton book I ever read. I recieved it as a Christmas gift from my mother, but put it aside after reading a few pages. After taking an introductory college biology class, though, the story came alive for me; the real science Crichton incorporates into his writing gives it an air of credibility and reality that wouldn't let me set it down. I love Crichton because his writing is so thought provoking. Even after the story ends happily, I was left with the haunting notion that extraterrestrial organisms could potentially wreak havoc on our fragile ecosystem. It could happen. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book for anybody with the science background necessary to digest it.
Rating:
Summary: The Andromeda Strain
Review: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton is a book about a virus that has never been heard of. Mr. stone is investigating the death of a small town. The town was an ordinary town before the virus hit. Mr. stone needed help so he got it from a man named Mr. Hall. Fortunately there were two survivors in the toen that lived through the virus. Mr. Stone and Mr. Hall were able to do tests on them. Mr. Stone started a top-secret program called wildfire. This program was designed to make a vaccine for the virus. Whenever they got real close to finding an solution they would always find a problem. They could not find a relationship between the 65-year old man and a baby. They looked everywhere. They thought of everything that they could think of. They kept running into the same thing. Mr. Hall was convinced that there was a relationship that wouldput all the pieces together. They kept going back to the same thing. The were convinced that there was something to do with the old man's ulcer. Eventually they found out that the mysterious germ could live with no protein. They could not believe this descovery because there was nothing else known that could run with no proteins. They also concluded that the virus started at teh lungs and then would clot the blood so the person would suffocate. Throught the whole book they kept thinking otf the most complex answer but it was right beneath their nose.
Rating:
Summary: I thought that this was a very good book.
Review: "The Andromada Strain", starts out with a young man named Jeremy Stone throwing a party. He gets the call he was hoping would never come, and is transported immediately to a 5 leveled lab, underground, with six other men to activate a project known simply as "Wildfire". I won't say anymore, except one thing: project Wildfire will be dangerous - VERY dangerous if it gets out of the lab!
I thought that this was a pretty good book, but it was probably aimed at more higher level readers than me. Some parts of this book were confusing, and others were just stupid, but overall it was pretty good. The only part that really bothered me was the ending. Michael Crichton built the story up so much that you were left saying," WHAT? THAT WAS IT??" I mean, it was a good ending, but it was kind of dissapointing, because it was not as exciting and dramatic as the rest of the book.
Another thing about this book was that it changed view points a LOT. Almost every chapter was a different one of the 7 main people. This was good, because that way, you could see what everyone was thinking, and not one person's biased opinion. Kind of like these book reviews!!!
Again, this book was for adults, but was good all the same!
Rating:
Summary: Michael Crichton's First Novel
Review: THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was Michael Crichton's first novel; it was published way back in 1969. Crichton (pronounced "Cry-ton") was a lad of 26, just out of medical school, when he decided to become a writer instead of a doctor. THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN is a very well-written first novel, although it is a bit too heavy on technical scientific detail. I found that to be a problem when I first tried to read the book 10 years ago; I only got about a third of the way into it because I found this level of detail to be overpowering the story, this rendering it noninteresting for me. By comparison, I had found that JURASSIC PARK, which I had read before my first attempt at ANDROMEDA, had just the right mixture of science and story; it was an extremely fascinating read which took me only three days to complete. Now, with THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, I have just recently read the entire book cover-to-cover, and I'm glad I finally did so because, even though I find the scientific detail to be occasionally overpowering at times, the human story is remarkably compelling. This human story is of how five widely different members of a top-secret government research team combine intellectual forces to deal with the horrific results of an infectious biologic agent, which had been accidentally introduced into the small town of Piedmont, Arizona by way of a returning space probe that had been sent from Earth, killing all but two of its 48 inhabitants. The team must find out what the nature of the infectious agent is, how it killed its victims, why the two extremely different survivors, a crochety old man and a two-month-old baby, survived, and how they can stop this agent before it is able to do any further damage. The book is written as a real-life account of the incident and the team's research, with all of its failings and discoveries, and Crichton supplies us with various illustrations and computer codes from this research; some of which are lucid and interesting, and others which are not. Although your enjoyment of this novel is not dependent on how much science you know and understand (although the more you know and are interested in, the more it definitely does help), it is dependent on how much you can tolerate as you follow along with the suspenseful story. The ending, crucial in a book like this, is really good; it made me glad that I stuck with it to the end this time. Although not nearly as fascinating as JURASSIC PARK (part of which is due to the datedness of the story and the associated technology), THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN was a good first novel for Crichton, and set the tone for his future medical thrillers. RECOMMENDED, AGES 16 & UP
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Hold Up Fairly Well
Review: A satellite that orbits the Earth to collect particles and organisms for study goes off course and crashes near a small town in Arizona. The satellite recovery team discovers streets full of bodies and their base loses contact with them. The Wildfire team of scientists is activated to study and hopefully stop the spread of this disaster. They recover the satellite and two surprising survivors from the town and head to the secure, sterile laboratory located beneath the Nevada desert. Will they find the organism that killed the town of Piedmont? Can they recover from their mistakes and a lack of information? How did the two very different survivors (a baby and a sick, old man) stay alive? Will the Wildfire team prevent a final catastrophe as their sterile environment is compromised? The scientists are racing against the clock to find the answers. The Andromeda Strain is Michael Crichton's first novel. Written in 1969, the technology is a little dated -- what was cutting-edge is now fairly commonplace. However, the plot is still relevant in this age of biological and chemical weapons. It was fresh and exciting when it was first released, but it may feel a bit clichéd now, if only because many authors have followed in Crichton's successful, groundbreaking footsteps. The urgency of the scientists is plain and the twists of action that occur outside the laboratory should add to the tension, but the documentary-style narrative leads to a somewhat dry and distant feel to the book. Heavy in scientific details, the science is clearly the star of the show - overshadowing the characters.
|
