Rating: 
Summary: What an ending?
Review: This book still remains near the top for my all-time worst endings for a book. For me, the book was very engrossing throughout. Contaminents brought to earth from a satellite has killed everyone in a small western town except an old man and a crying baby and the nation's best bio-physicists are in a race against time to identify and contain the situation before it spreads. The struggles of the physicists keeps you glued to the pages. I sat in my car at lunch just to get in a few more pages. Crichton leaves you guessing with statements that "they wouldn't know the errors of their decisions until much later". What mistakes, what's going to happen?Grisham grabs ahold of you and doesn't let go (thus my rating of 2 stars). Until the ending. It seemed as if the publisher told Crichton, you only have x number of pages for this book - if you write one page over this number, you won't receive any money. Crichton is heading you at breakneck speed to the climax, only to have the climax be anything but. I picture him at his keyboard furiously banging the keys with exhilaration as the end is nearing, but rats...I've met my page limit, the story is over. To not solve the problem, merely to have it blow out to sea by the chance wind? C'mon, Michael!
Rating: 
Summary: A great one
Review: This book was incredible. It did build up rather slowly, but that was because of all the scenery set up required to make the book readable. I would recomend this book especially to any one living in the west, where urban legends of what goes on at Edwards and Nellis run rampant and thrillers like this feel real enough to make you sweat.
Rating:
Summary: A scary but exciting book
Review: A man in a ghastly white robe passes over plies of dead bodies. A young infant is found, howling in the ominously silent night. 46 of the 48 people in Piedmont, Arizona were dead. How could such evil be found on our beloved planet? On the other hand, how is it possible that there were survivors, when all the rest had been killed? Drs. Jeremy Stone, Peter Leavitt, Charles Burton and Mark Hall had met, in order to solve the scientific mystery. These four scientists create a group project known only to the government as "Project Wildfire". It is up to these people to either rescue, or let loose a virus that may wipe out the world. These scientists begin to investigate and observe everything and anything that may give them even the smallest of hints, in order to find the answer to this question: How do you stop something that is utterly alien-and savagely lethal?
These four scientists start their research and lab work in a secret government building in Nevada. Jeremy Stone, a balding and very thin man at the age of 36, was without doubt the most successful and known scientist out of the four. He was a man that "knew everything, and is fascinated by the rest", quotes a friend. Dr. Charles Burton, however, was quite the opposite of Stone. Burton is a 54 year old pathologist who is very logical, and a great observer. He was different however, because "where Stone was organized, Burton was sloppy; where Stone was confident, Burton was jumpy and nervous." Dr. Peter Leavitt was a pessimist who was experienced in the works of the treatment of infectious diseases. He was also very imaginative and thought logically. He suffered a common disorder known as epilepsy, and "he suddenly doesn't know what happens to him, where he loses just a few minuets of his life" The last member of the Wildfire team is Dr. Mark Hall, the only single man on the project team. He is the only person that can turn off an automatic nuclear bomb, should something go wrong. Thus, these four men put their differences aside and work as a team, in order to save earth from being exposed from this virus.
Project Scoop had been setup in order to retrieve deadly microorganisms from space. Six of the seven sent were complete failures...yet the seventh was knocked off its orbit pattern, and had landed near the township of Piedmont. Stone and Burton had entered the town to find and observe nothing but a nasty stench from the heaps of corpses. The two scientists began to search the town, and found what they had been looking for: Scoop VII, the contaminated satellite. Yet, they find more than they intended to: an old man and a young infant, both had survived death and insanity. Thus commenced long hours of examination and research for the answer of how an old man who is acidosis and a baby that is alkaline, were similar, when they were suppose to be completely the opposite. All of a sudden, on the fourth day at the Wildfire centre, strange things began to happen: first Burton had actually been infected by the virus, and then Leavitt suffered strange seizures. While Stone attempted to keep Burton alive and well, Hall was forced to do some serious thinking. He received a newspaper article stating that another person, Officer Willis, did survive the Andromeda Strain for a few hours before he went mad and shot not only himself, but five others. Officer Willis also had been acidosis. So, the old man and Willis had some things in common, yet, why did the baby survive? When Hall and his colleagues finally solved the mystery of the Andromeda Strain, an alarm went off and a voice came on: "There are now three minutes to self-destruction." Three minutes...until the world, all of humanity, would come to an end.
The entire story took place in the laboratory that was underground. It was isolated from everything else, for if something had gone wrong, the virus would have spread. The laboratory was also located in Nevada, a very large state, with a small population, reducing risks of endangering people as well as making sure that no one becomes suspicious. Although the book does not describe the setting very much, because of its underground location, it created more tension, danger, and anxiety.
From the beginning with a man walking amongst the corpses to the end in which the world may come to an end, this book has been unbelievably uptight and bloodcurdling. The mysterious and horrifying events in the beginning led to a suspenseful and hair-raising plot with a great and incomparable ending. Though it is in the science fiction genre, it includes a little bit of everything, making the situation seem so realistic and so close to us. Although the use of many difficult scientific terms and the complexity of the story made it hard to understand for boys in my age, it is sure to be a pleasure to all those who love and follow science fiction adventure and even horror books, because there is nothing that The Andromeda Strain does not have.
Rating: 
Summary: most of a gripping and informative novel
Review: "The Andromeda Strain" is an exciting, realistic novel that chronicles the discovery and study of an imported-from-space pathogen. Four scientists and a team of technicians working in a top-secret government facility created specifically for such an emergency must isolate, characterize, and neutralize the Andromeda Strain before it infects, and quickly kills, millions. Crichton brings the full force of his research abilities and scientific knowledge to bear on this book, explaining the scientific aspects of the story without detracting from the faced-paced action. He draws readers into the story within the first few pages, and constructs a plausible and page-turning mystery. The book has two flaws. The first is that Crichton's narrative voice waxes a bit preachily on the subject of human fallibility; this is at times irritating but usually short-lived. The second flaw is more important: the ending, which arrives at least a hundred pages too soon. Throughout the novel, the narration touts the impending consquences of the scientists' mistakes - consequences that are given only twenty pages of discussion at the book's end. Crichton doesn't even stop to wrap up the loose ends of his plot, leaving the reader with half a dozen unanswered questions and an unconvincing, uncompelling denouement. Such an interesting premise in the hands of such an entertaining writer deserve a fuller treatment. However, while the front-heaviness of the book is a serious literary flaw, 260 of the book's 290 pages are exciting, controversial, and engaging - good light reading even if the ending fails to deliver.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Plague Books
Review: Been a while, and I doubt I have anything really brilliant to say. But. . . Like the best of the plague books, this one is scary as hell (especially now). What makes it really scary is that the plague itself isn't so terrible: death is sudden and peaceful, not like say "Cap'n Trips" (The Stand), or HIV, small pox, etc. And it just "happens". One of the grpies I have always had with Crichton is his preference for concepts over character, and his preference for dissertations over storytelling. Not that case here, both blend nicely, smoothly, and I legitimately learned a few things. Definitely worth a read, and even a re-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written but boring at times
Review: I am an avid Crichton fan and have read every novel he has written. This was his first Novel and I did find it good, but not as good as his newer ones. It is a very interesting subject, but there are points in the novel that seem to drag on a bit to long. I would suggest getting it and reading it, but dont expect to be hooked page to page.
Rating:
Summary: Great start, bad ending
Review: This book really caught me all throughout the book until the end. It was a shocker. It was unexpected. It was a weak ending! I really couldn't see why Crichton just had to do that... You'll know what i'm talking about when you read it for yourself. But you'll be dissappointed in the end because until the end your predictions of the ending will be nothing more than a great exageration of the actual ending.
It's great and all but if you only like books with great endings this is not your book. Otherwise it's Excellent!
Rating:
Summary: What a book!
Review: Michael Crichton, a very popular author from where I'm from, is very talented and skilled.
The Adromeda Strain is a book about a virus-like slime, and how it almost takes over the world. Overall, it's a VERY good book.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT...UNTIL THE END
Review: Two men in a car, in the middle of an arizona town, with dead bodies everywhere the eye can see. Suddenly a man is seen walking towards the car... and the the two men are never heard from again. Absolutely chilling, and incredibly gripping, this novel keeps you hooked. While including a great deal of scientific background, and character development, there are some pulse pounding, incredibly tense sequences, that are too big to explain. Why only 3 stars then? The ending. The ending is really lame. It is over in one paragraph, and you think that it can't be it, but it is. It may not sound like much, but trust me: you will be dissapointed by it. Apart from the very dissapointing ending, the book is overall good, and definitely worth reading, but don't kill yourself over it
Rating:
Summary: Superb thriller
Review: This was, appropriately, the first Michael Crichton novel I ever read and since then he has been my favorite novelist. The Andromeda Strain is a tightly crafted thriller that truly takes you in. Even though it was written so long ago the subject brings home the all to real danger of Biological agents getting out. The ideals and technique developed in this book would form the cornerstone of the great novels to follow.
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