Rating: 
Summary: A pretty good read.
Review: This book was a pretty good read. As a Biochemist, I enjoyed reading about the 'cutting-edge' laboratory technology that Crichton wrote about when writing this book in the early 1970's. Most of the laboratory equipment is commonplace nowadays, but still quite useful.The story takes place inside a fictional underground military installation in the Nevada desert. The base has one purpose, to contain, evaluate, and eliminate infectious agents that might be brought back from outer space. The Scoop 7 satellite has brought back something so deadly, that within seconds of breathing it in, the victim is dead. The team must evaluate the infectious agent and determine how to protect us from it. The story has a good flow, and lots of edge-of-your-seat action. In addition to this story, I recommend Sphere, Jurassic Park, Eaters of the Dead, and Congo.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best from this author
Review: I love how easily Michael Crichton brings lofty subjects to laymen in understandable terms. This book is no exception. That being said, there is little else I liked about this book. There is a lot of superfluous information about the characters. There is also a lot of hints as to what is to come. While this does not really give away too much, I kept waiting for something really extraordinary to happen, and nothing really ever did. The plot kept building as if at any moment the characters will realize how dangerous is the situation in which they have found themselves. However, the suspense is unfulfilled, and the ending very anticlimatic. I will continue to read books by this author, but I can not recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: This book is o.k.
Review: The Andromeda Strain is overall a pretty good book. However, it lacks action in some parts. Gets boring often.
Rating: 
Summary: Crichton Does a great job
Review: This book was very good for many reasons. I found the story to be extremely interesting, and the book made me think of what our country would do if something like this really happened. One of my favorite aspects of the book was that the characters, although being very intelligent and good at what they were doing, still made costly mistakes when trying to identify the "andromeda strain". I liked the ending to this book, where many books leave you hanging or wanting a better resolution, I did not feel that way about this one. I would reccomend this book to anyone interested in the scientific or medical fields and anyone that likes science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Science Thriller for all Ages
Review: Michael Crichton¹s Andromeda Strain involves a highly sophisticated team of scientists searching for alien strains of bacteria in the upper atmosphere. Their project has not yet succeeded when disaster strikes in a tiny Midwestern town. They find their latest collection capsule in the midst of the town where all of the population, excluding two, are dead, stopped in their tracks. The capsule is transported in a helicopter to a high-security lab where the scientists call an emergency meeting . They must attempt to stop the illness before it spreads across the country, leaving a swath of destruction in its wake.
Personally, I thought that this book was very good in all but three respects. I loved Crichton¹s detail in writing, and he put in excitement a little at a time, so I found it hard to put the book down from beginning to end. The book starts off with a bang, which got me interested, and there was a good amount of suspense to keep the story going. In addition, I liked the futuristic equipment in the lab. He also adds little extras which are funny and interesting which make the characters more believable and realistic. However, Crichton did not explain several of his scientific points, and at times I felt that I needed to know more about microbiology to fully understand what he was trying to say. Also, some of his comments were not very clear, so I ended up rereading passages to discover his meaning.In the long run, however, the main plot definitely makes up for its shortcomings. Overall, this is a very good book which I would highly recommend to science fiction lovers from middle to high school.
Rating:
Summary: A Bit Dry
Review: Michael Crichton's "Andromeda Strain" was an interesting and worthwhile read but a bit dry when compared to some of his other work. The hype around "Andromeda Strain" is its technical plausibility and the fact that Crichton was in his very early twenties when he wrote the book. The beginning was suspenseful and thought provoking but as the story progressed, I felt that the scientific method got in the way of a good start. Crichton seems too rigid to facts and accuracy and weak on character development and creativity in this book. The end left something to be desired as well.
Rating:
Summary: Best Sci-fi book ever!
Review: What a great book! This is not a book for the simple-minded. Crichton's writing is so educated. I believe this is Chrichton's best book. I would recomend this to any lover of science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book in the World
Review: The Andromeda Strain is a great science fiction book. It will leave your heart pounding every second that you read. I don't really like reading books, but this one was just too hard to resist. The book is about a bug that comes from outer space that kills forty seven people in a little town called Peidmont. There is alot of bravery and alot of killing in this book. It is probably the goriest book that I have ever read, but don't be turned off by that. Get it today and I'm sure that you'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: Worth your time
Review: "The survival value of human intelligence has never been satisfactorily demonstrated." - Jeremy Stone This novel is truly a great work, despite a few small faults. Given the excellent plot, detailed characters, and the general "feel" of the whole book, any weaknesses should be disregarded.
This is, I understand, Crichton's first book. I thought it would be best to begin with his first, so I'm afraid I can't compare it to his other work. I'm sure he has refined his style a bit; this much is obvious from his growing popularity over the years.
Though I can't collate this work with his others, I can contrast it with general sci-fi. In comparison to most of Bradbury's work (for example), Crichton's early work is a little more down to earth, more believable. I'm not at all discrediting Bradbury, I'm just pointing out the differences I saw. The occurences in this novel seem all too real. The operations, scientific procedures, etc. are incredibly genuine. The way the characters interact coincide with the direct descrpitions Crichton gives them. The plot and the timing are so tightly woven, I found myself wondering how he ever came up with any of it.
I once read that Crichton attempted the book because someone had mentioned that upper-atmosphere organisms had never been used by writers to create a science fiction story. He set out to do it, and the results are chilling.
This is a distinct departure from the "little green men" stories. Crichton's idea is that perhaps the first extraterrestrial beings we encounter will be in the form of microoganisms. This is an entirely different spin on sci-fi, and I think anyone in need of a good brain-picking should check it out.
The flaws I found were few. Maybe he could have let up some on the foreshadowing, because I was totally able to predict the ending. Sometimes the scientific "stuff" gets a little heavy and slows the story down. All the little charts and computer read-outs kind of disrupted the flow of the story, but I guess he was going for authenticity.
All in all, it was a great read. It's a fast-paced book with an original plot, and I'm certain that most sci-fi readers can appreciate it.
Rating:
Summary: His best?
Review: Although this is by no means a bad book, I have to say that I was disappointed with it. Considering that it is heralded as Crichton's best, I really expected more. I've read Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Lost World, Congo, Binary, Sphere Airframe and Timeline. I enjoyed them all, especially Jurassic Park which is perhaps the greatest book ever written by anyone (I've read that about 8 times now). Andromeda Strain isn't, as I say, a bad book. I have a great deal of respect for Micheal Crichton and I love much of his work, but this one seemed to misfire a bit. It just didn't grip me like any of the above titles did. I didn't even finish it the first time I tried to read it.
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