Review: The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

I didn’t realize this novel was written in 1969. While it was easy to pick up some hints that it’s not a modern science fiction (computer usage based on timesharing, phone switchboard, plot revolving around atomic bombs and government carrying out rather successfully large conspiratorial projects), it holds up remarkably well!

I think it’s quite a stretch even in near future to build a lab similar to the secret lab depicted in the novel. Lots technologies that we would love to have right now - autodoc, useful voice recognition, biometric authentication good enough for atomic security.

Michael Crichton makes the world very believable and leaves you wondering why don’t we have extraterrestrial microbes trying to kill us?

The detail in the novel about medicine and biology is wonderfully written and certainly juicy enough for a sci-fi geek.

There is a bit of a deus ex machina to the “solution” in the book. But it’s mostly believable.

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