The Andromeda Strain
by Michael Crichton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael CrichtonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN: 006170315X
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Harper
Book Reviews of The Andromeda Strain
Book Review: An Odyssey of Timeless Possibilities
Summary: 5 Stars
Michael Crichton's first novel, "The Andromeda Strain", is an odyssey of timeless possibilities. The classic 1971 film vision, The Andromeda Strain (directed by Robert Wise), unfortunately could not include all of Crichton's little gems buried within the narrative of the text. The first time I tried reading the novel I couldn't get into the story, but recently I started over and actually forced myself to read the whole book. But this time it wasn't difficult once I got past the first parts and found myself compulsively reading it. I don't know what I was thinking the first time, but this book is exciting for the mind and still has much to offer even today.
The plot begins a little too slowly perhaps, but once the wave of ideas start coming it is a thoughtful and intelligent read. If you like his Jurassic Park, then this is an excellent novel to read for similar arguments about our human flaws. Like in "Jurassic Park", he questions the evolutionary and survival value of human intelligence. Are we too smart and powerful for our own good? Are we self-destructive like a ticking time bomb? All of these questions made famous by "Jurassic Park" get their start in this novel (Crichton's first). Besides his usual warnings against us humans trying to act as if we can control and manipulate nature without producing unknown, unpredictable, and potentially disastrous side effects, there are many other little gems for the imagination that I found even more interesting (and no I didn't find the Odd Man Hypothesis the most interesting idea).
Here are a few highlights to try to capture my meaning and point out all the excellent questions and SF possibilities mentioned in the text (most of which were not in the movie):
1. What sort of alien life are we likely to meet? It includes a table summarizing the odds of encountering certain types of alien life. The numbers indicate that we are most likely to discover non-complex and non-intelligent life. I found this interesting because Stephen Hawking notes a similar idea in his popular science book, The Universe in a Nutshell; he suggests that we are most likely to encounter lifeforms that are either less intelligent or much more intelligent than us.
2. What is life? He expresses skepticism over defining life in perfectly clear terms. Yes, most (if not all) definitions of life have counterexamples (just like almost all non-mathematical definitions)!
3. Could our first encounter come from below? He suggests a fascinating possibility that intelligent life might exist at tiny scales. Could we examine a piece of space debris under a microscope and see a message of greetings and peace from little aliens? Perhaps continuing trends of the miniaturization of technology would allow these little aliens to harness extreme types of power, at least for their size.
4. Would microorganisms from outer space be likely to harm us, or is it more likely that our environment will harm them? Bacteria on earth rarely exists in forms that are dangerous to humans, for over time microorganisms and humans co-evolved with each other and built immunities to each other. If a bacteria was too harmful and killed its host, then it is unlikely to survive in abundance.
4a. Though this means we are dependent on our 'good bugs' (our good bacteria) and we could be in danger if left 'naked' to our environment (the way an advanced alien life form would be, as H. G. Wells nicely used in The War of the Worlds (Modern Library Classics)). For example, Crichton discusses a kind of super-curing drug that could cure cancer completely by destroying all of one's microorganisms - including important ones in the stomach. Sounds great, but it would create the nasty side effect of undoing years of evolution and producing a quick death by some odd infection (that evolution regularly defends us against). So perhaps the odds are higher that bacteria will harm humans (or any life form) when man (or the life form) is stripped of centuries of co-evolution and left bare to the elements.
5. Is life as we know it 'normal' or could there be lifeforms very different? It speculates that an alien life form might use very different life-processes, such as not using amino acids (which we find in just about all life forms). Perhaps some sort of crystal life-processes could replace the 'normal' biological functions we observe on earth, and perhaps these processes would help equip such an alien life form to survive in space, travel the stars, meet new lifeforms, and seed new civilizations. Carl Sagan has an interesting discussion of life in his Cosmos: Carl Sagan (7 DVD Set) series and he suggests that carbon is essential for his classification of life, but Crichton is much more liberal about new life (in the tradition of Star Trek).
6. Would an atypical life form find other 'atypical' environments better for healthy life-functioning? Crichton points out that some forms of life survive best in very different environments than humans. Some live in the deep ocean in high pressure. So it may be possible that some lifeforms would survive best above the oxygen atmosphere of Earth. In the story, several scoops orbit the earth in search of microorganisms for the development of biological weapons.
7. Last on my list but not least -- How could an advanced civilization explore the universe within the constraints of vast distances, immense time intervals, and the rigors of space travel? One exciting option is that an advanced civilization might choose to send out microbiological organisms that adapt well to deep space. These microorganisms could announce the existence of their civilization and contact other life around the universe. And perhaps, just maybe, these organisms would have the ability to replicate and reproduce once they land in the right environment. They might even grow into a full life form, examine any life forms found in its area, and greet new life and new civilizations! How could they not put that into the movie!
The plot nicely weaves these seven questions into the story. The story is similar to the one in the movie. A group of scientists get a call to action to study a new microorganism scooped from an orbit around the earth. The scientists must find a way to defeat the deadly microorganism before it spreads, but many of their safety precautions produce unpredicted side effects. So they also have to battle against the limits of their humanity as well. They spend an immense amount of time decontaminating, and they go over the Odd Man Hypothesis in which studies show that a single person makes the right decisions more often than a married person. The Odd Man would have to decide whether to explode the entire facility if the microorganism gets out of control; and, by the way, only the Odd Man can turn off the count down to detonation.
I found the story surprisingly full of ideas, as if the author took his time and took great care to produce a near masterpiece. Some of his other stories seem too stock. Some of his stories carry along one or two interesting ideas near the end. But then he has "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain" -- my two favorites by far. I also love Prey for a couple ideas but I didn't find it nearly as filled with gems as "The Andromeda Strain". I highly suggest this novel even though it was a little difficult for me to get into initially and science has probably advanced quite a bit since it was written. But the vision of the text and many imaginative possibilities seem very well intact (if not timeless).
Summary of The Andromeda Strain
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.
Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to "collect organisms and dust for study." One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona.
Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.
The terror has begun . . .
Some biologists speculate that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrials, those life forms are likely to be--like most life on earth--one-celled or smaller creatures, more comparable to bacteria than little green men. And even though such organisms would not likely be able to harm humans, the possibility exists that first contact might be our last.
That's the scientific supposition that Michael Crichton formulates and follows out to its conclusion in his excellent debut novel, The Andromeda Strain.
A Nobel-Prize-winning bacteriologist, Jeremy Stone, urges the president to approve an extraterrestrial decontamination facility to sterilize returning astronauts, satellites, and spacecraft that might carry an "unknown biologic agent." The government agrees, almost too quickly, to build the top-secret Wildfire Lab in the desert of Nevada. Shortly thereafter, unbeknownst to Stone, the U.S. Army initiates the "Scoop" satellite program, an attempt to actively collect space pathogens for use in biological warfare. When Scoop VII crashes a couple years later in the isolated Arizona town of Piedmont, the Army ends up getting more than it asked for.
The Andromeda Strain follows Stone and rest of the scientific team mobilized to react to the Scoop crash as they scramble to understand and contain a strange and deadly outbreak. Crichton's first book may well be his best; it has an earnestness that is missing from his later, more calculated thrillers. --Paul Hughes
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