Book Summary and Reviews of The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Andromeda Strain

by Michael Crichton

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  • Published:
  • May 1969, 304 pages
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Book Summary

The novel that redefined the science fiction genre, starring a team of scientists who must uncover what killed the citizens of a sleepy desert town—and stop the deadly contagion before it creates a catastrophe.

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"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

This information about The Andromeda Strain was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton was a writer, director, and producer, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. One of the most recognizable names in literature and entertainment, Crichton sold more than 200 million copies of his books, which have been translated into 40 languages and adapted into 15 films.

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