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The Andromeda Strain  By  cover art

The Andromeda Strain

By: Michael Crichton
Narrated by: David Morse
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Publisher's summary

First published fifty years ago, The Andromeda Strain redefined the science fiction genre, and immediately established Michael Crichton as one of the brightest voices in contemporary literature worldwide.

"I love anything Michael Crichton writes." (Stephen King)

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.

©1969 Constant c Productions, Inc.; Copyright renewed 1996 by CrichtonSun LLC (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

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Clarkenesque

Horton Hears a Who
Based on thinking out of the box (not cliché in 1969), Crichton was a genius. His theories on possible aliens is not the expected. After he explains them you will be a believer. He is to biology, what Clarke was to rockets. I have always had a great interest in biology and the diversity it can have. I have a certain awe and wonder on the many different places life takes hold, on the many different strategies life comes up with. Life is everywhere, bottom of the ocean, deserts, and in the air, so why not in space?

I'M SURE IT'S A FLUKE
This book is not for everyone. I would not call it hard science, which is what I call books that have so much complex science they are hard for the average person to understand. The science is understandable, it is just the plethora of facts that are included. At times, I felt, surely he could have just gave us a summary of the facts instead of laboriously going over each and every detail. In the hardback some of these are in graphs and drawings. In the audible version they are monotonous. In one part we are read a TRANSCRIPT OF VOICE COMMUINICATIONS SCOOP MISSION CONTROL, in which we hear the hours, minutes and seconds before each verbal communication. These communications are often 2 or three seconds apart, yet we still get 0097, 03, 31, etc... There are some other faults, such as it is dated and the amount of times the geniuses miss obvious clues. The reader gets them immediately and we find ourselves screaming at the radio, it's the acid stupid, the acid. Also the statement is made that we have never had a biological crisis. I would think the Black Plague or the Influenza in 1918, would be consider biological crises.

WILDFIRE
Besides coming up with a great alien invasion, Crichton comes up with a great underground facility. The emergency secret group of scientists and doctors, who must answer the call immediately when something happens is also pretty cool. He used this again in Sphere.

The narrator is sufficient, not great. He has a gravely voice that he uses for a number of characters. This book is not about character development, so that lack of distinction does not play that heavily as it would in some other books.

If you are a fan of Arthur C. Clarke you will enjoy this book. If books with too much data, turns you off, then read one of Crichton's later books. When this was written, data, was important to Science Fiction books. The concepts and imagination of Crichton over ride some of the flaws in the writing style. Don't get me wrong, there are some very exciting action parts to the book, it is not all about the numbers. I give the book a B+.

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93 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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45 years old..

...and still my favorite Crichton. It holds up very well because it's simply a great story. Excellently narrated as well.

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80 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Best science + biology fiction book I have read

The author leaves just enough out of the plot to make this a follow along detective novel for biochemists and science fiction enthusiasts alike. Get ready to day dream all types of alien biological attacks for the next few days, because when microorganisms come from space, your mind can make anything believable. I wish this book was 2 times longer, I feel the author finished it in a rush!

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65 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Rush to finish

The book just seem like its in a hurry to finish. You get to the good parts of the book and there's only 20 minutes left.

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40 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Very good medical /scientific thriller!!!

The story was good, but the performance made it that much better. I would recommend this book to those who share the love for a good sci-fi book. Enjoy!

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31 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Interesting but soooo slow

Narrated well. Started out fairly exciting but very anticlimactic after struggling through 6 hours of extreme detail with little action. Not an audio book to run to.

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26 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Are we sure this narrator is fully awake?

I can't make it through this book. The narrator sounds like he's half asleep and bored out of his mind.

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24 people found this helpful

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Sooo boring!

Since Jurrasic Park, I have read all Michael C's books that I could lay hands on. This one is a huge disappointment. With all the 'he said' and 'he replied' and all the counting down of times and ... And ... And ...
Listening to this drove me batty. I would say that this book is better suited to reading, where one can skip over all the boring detail.

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16 people found this helpful

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A great listen

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed listening to this book from beginning to end. I would recommend this to other Sci Fi fans

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15 people found this helpful

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Lukewarm

The direction for this reading seemed poor in some places... Hindered by the vocal similarity that the speaker gave the characters

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11 people found this helpful