littlemissattitude
Super Moderator
I began re-reading “The Andromeda Strain”, by Michael Crichton, with a bit of trepidation. Would it hold up, be as good a book as I remembered it having been? After all, it was published in 1969, a couple of months before Apollo 11 took men to the moon for the first time. There were sure to be some anachronisms, seen from the point of view of 2004. And so there were a few. Some of them are, in fact, quite humorous. For example, the main defense against breach of security in a top secret, state of the art scientific facility are little curare-tipped darts. For those of you who missed that day in social studies class, curare is a poison that was used by South American native peoples on their spear tips. But despite raising a smile, this and other little anachronistic details did not mar my enjoyment of the story at all.
The story concerns an investigation that is begun when a satellite designed to bring back samples from the thin atmosphere high above the earth is knocked out of orbit. It lands in a small, isolated Arizona town and promptly kills nearly all the town’s residents. Some of the victims die almost instantaneously, while others live long enough to go mad and kill themselves. An elite team of scientists are brought together at an equally isolated lab in the Nevada desert, a state-of-the-art facility built specifically to handle such emergencies. The crisis unfolds over a four-day period from discovery of the problem, through missteps in the investigation, to a solution that is at once satisfying and troubling in its implications.
The interesting thing for me in reading The Andromeda Strain, beyond the exciting and well-told story, are the issues Crichton touches on. They are, if anything, more relevant today than they were when the book was published. The project the crashed satellite was part of has implications for biological warfare, giving Crichton an excuse to consider some of the ethics behind such research. Another interesting topic Crichton touches on are the biases of scientists. The biases of the scientists on the team are an integral part of the story, as is the idea that how one thinks about a problem can determine how - or even if - the problem is solved. The book even tackles the fascinating problem of the definition of life. I love novels that provide something to think about, and there is plenty to think about here. It is obvious that Crichton, trained as a physician, was educated in the sciences.
All this is not to say, however, that The Andromeda Strain reads like a textbook or that one needs a degree in science to follow the story. Crichton’s descriptions of the victims in the town are chillingly effective. His inclusion of “documents” relating to the research lab heightens the believability factor by a great deal. The pacing of the story pulled me along so that it became hard to put the book down. This, even though I had read the book before and have seen the film made from it a number of times.
The Andromeda Strain is not a flawless novel by any means. It is, however, a very good novel. My own biggest quibble with it comes early, in the description of Dr. Jeremy Stone, the leader of the scientific team called in to solve the problem posed by the errant satellite. His description as an all-encompassing intellect, both a doctor and a lawyer, an egocentric, politically-connected Nobel prize winner at an early age, feels more than a bit over the top. It is the kind of thing one would expect a new writer to do. But, as Crichton was a fairly new writer at the time, one can forgive this lapse. Especially in light of the fact that he also managed to produce a suspenseful, well-crafted novel of scientific speculation.
The story concerns an investigation that is begun when a satellite designed to bring back samples from the thin atmosphere high above the earth is knocked out of orbit. It lands in a small, isolated Arizona town and promptly kills nearly all the town’s residents. Some of the victims die almost instantaneously, while others live long enough to go mad and kill themselves. An elite team of scientists are brought together at an equally isolated lab in the Nevada desert, a state-of-the-art facility built specifically to handle such emergencies. The crisis unfolds over a four-day period from discovery of the problem, through missteps in the investigation, to a solution that is at once satisfying and troubling in its implications.
The interesting thing for me in reading The Andromeda Strain, beyond the exciting and well-told story, are the issues Crichton touches on. They are, if anything, more relevant today than they were when the book was published. The project the crashed satellite was part of has implications for biological warfare, giving Crichton an excuse to consider some of the ethics behind such research. Another interesting topic Crichton touches on are the biases of scientists. The biases of the scientists on the team are an integral part of the story, as is the idea that how one thinks about a problem can determine how - or even if - the problem is solved. The book even tackles the fascinating problem of the definition of life. I love novels that provide something to think about, and there is plenty to think about here. It is obvious that Crichton, trained as a physician, was educated in the sciences.
All this is not to say, however, that The Andromeda Strain reads like a textbook or that one needs a degree in science to follow the story. Crichton’s descriptions of the victims in the town are chillingly effective. His inclusion of “documents” relating to the research lab heightens the believability factor by a great deal. The pacing of the story pulled me along so that it became hard to put the book down. This, even though I had read the book before and have seen the film made from it a number of times.
The Andromeda Strain is not a flawless novel by any means. It is, however, a very good novel. My own biggest quibble with it comes early, in the description of Dr. Jeremy Stone, the leader of the scientific team called in to solve the problem posed by the errant satellite. His description as an all-encompassing intellect, both a doctor and a lawyer, an egocentric, politically-connected Nobel prize winner at an early age, feels more than a bit over the top. It is the kind of thing one would expect a new writer to do. But, as Crichton was a fairly new writer at the time, one can forgive this lapse. Especially in light of the fact that he also managed to produce a suspenseful, well-crafted novel of scientific speculation.
