Michael Crichton: The Andromeda Strain (1969 Knopf USA)
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, many are turning to Michael Crichton’s Techno-Thriller together with its film and TV adaptations.
Michael Crichton (1942-2008) is best known for scientific thrillers, often with a technological or biotechnological theme, drawing on his scientific background as a biological anthropologist and qualified medical doctor. The Andromeda Strain, for instance, was written while he was studying at Harvard Medical School. Many of Crichton’s novels – including The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park – have been adapted into films and TV series. The film Westworld – which he wrote and directed – has recently been adapted for TV by HBO, and in the 1990s he created the long-running medical TV series ER. With a CV like this, no wonder he is the 20th century’s highest-grossing storyteller.
The Andromeda Strain – a title which Crichton kept in reserve for years while he waited for a story to go with it – details the attempts to study a deadly alien pathogen brought to Earth by a meteor crashing into a scientific satellite. After the microorganism wipes out most of the population of a small settlement in Arizona, a small SWAT-team of elite scientists analyse it, and then try to contain it, at a secret US government facility. While the novel is heavily procedural, written in the straightforward reportage style Crichton would become known for, full of what may seem tedious detail and explanation and with the emphasis on the technology rather than the characters, it maintains suspense and pace in what is a compelling read. As events unfold, the reader may constantly wonder how Crichton was able to carry out that level of research. His account of how the US authorities would have handled an incident of this type in the 1960s is utterly convincing despite – as Crichton revealed later – being largely imaginary.
While The Andromeda Strain features in many of the “books to read during the Covid-19 lockdown” lists that have surfaced in the last few months, this is not an Apocalyptic or Post-Apocalyptic novel. There is no global pandemic and no resulting dystopian wasteland to deal with, except on a small scale. Instead it is about how a pandemic might be avoided. As such it would best be classified as a Realistic Science Fiction novel – or, if you prefer, Techno-Thriller if you prefer. Whatever genre, it is of the best of its kind.
The 1971 Robert Wise movie is based closely on the book and is well worth watching – one of the best Science Fiction movies of the 70s.
The 2008 TV miniseries is more of a re-imagining, and extends the plot somewhat. It received mixed reviews at the time – commonly described as dull – but of interest to completists and to those who have enjoyed the novel and original film adaptation.
A sequel novel, The Andromeda Evolution, was published in 2019 – written by Daniel H. Wilson at the invitation of Crichton’s widow Sheri, and with Crichton’s name prominently on the cover. It comes across as a credible hybrid of Crichton’s style with Wilson’s primary interest in robotics.
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