Completed one of the earlier novels by Michael Crichton, "The Andromeda Strain"!
The US government is given a severe warning from one of the country's top biophysicists: the current sterilization procedures they employ for space probes returning to Earth are not adequate enough for an uncontaminated return to the atmosphere.
About two years later at least seventeen satellites have been sent to the fringes of space, with the intent to collect organisms and dust for study. And one of them ends up falling to Earth, where it lands in a very desolate part of Arizona.
In Piedmont, a town twelve miles from the landing site, a horrifying discovery has been made; the dead bodies of it's inhabitants are scattered all over the streets, as if they had died on their tracks. And the horror as only just begun!
My very first introduction to Crichton was through his later novels, "Congo". "The Andromeda" is one of earliest, and quite a bit of his earliest novels were under a pseudonym from 1966-1972, with this being the first one written under his real name in '69.
"The Andromeda Strain" is very fast paced, and combines both hard SF with the standard thriller. And my god did he put a lot of detail into this book! Complete with graphs and transcripts. Tends to be a bit dry, but not overly so. Really liked this one, not great, or anything like that, but still really good!
There's still plenty of other novels by him that I haven't read yet. Those are probably going to include things like "Sphere" and, most famously, "Jurassic Park", and that's also going to include some of his other techno-thrillers. Might seek those out sooner or later!
by i-the-muso-1968
4 Comments
Been meaning to pick this one up for ages. The whole scientific documentation approach he used really sets it apart from his later stuff – almost reads like you’re going through actual government files at times.
Sphere is definitely worth bumping up your list if you dig the hard SF elements. Way different vibe than Jurassic Park but there’s some really trippy psychological stuff in there that stuck with me for weeks after finishing it. Terminal Man is another early one that’s criminally underrated if you want more of that clinical, procedural style.
cool recap! crichton’s blend of science and suspense really gets you hooked, right? if you liked “Andromeda Strain”, “Sphere” and “Jurassic Park” are definitely must-reads for that same intense vibe.
I liked the book quite a bit. They made it into a movie, it was not great – very dry. But, I did enjoy the costumes they used for it.
Make sure you check out his Eaters of the Dead