steffsteff's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
intensej's review
4.0
This is my second read through of this book. I read all of Michael Crichton's books a few years ago, but I had a vague memory of the events of this book. I wanted to reread this book before starting the sequel, The Andromeda Evolution. When a satellite lands in Piedmont, Arizona, the entire town mysteriously dies. When the government sends in a team of scientists and doctors to investigate, they discover an elderly man and an infant are the town's only survivors.
Although this book was published in 1969, the science aspect of this book held up very well. The only things that felt really jarring were the way the book talked about computers. I also found it hard to take it seriously because the elderly survivor's name is Peter Jackson; I couldn't stop thinking about the director Peter Jackson. I liked the tension between the scientists. I thought it was interesting that the book is telling the story of the five days leading up to the Andromeda Strain crisis. I loved the interjections that pointed out where the scientists went wrong with their conclusions.
Although this book was published in 1969, the science aspect of this book held up very well. The only things that felt really jarring were the way the book talked about computers. I also found it hard to take it seriously because the elderly survivor's name is Peter Jackson; I couldn't stop thinking about the director Peter Jackson. I liked the tension between the scientists. I thought it was interesting that the book is telling the story of the five days leading up to the Andromeda Strain crisis. I loved the interjections that pointed out where the scientists went wrong with their conclusions.
jpalm's review
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Reminds me of Weir's writing, highly technical but in a storytelling way
cblanc3666's review
4.0
This book was a thriller - I loved it and it threw so many twists and made such good use of dramatic irony that it kept me literally on the edge of my seat. This is without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read, and while the narration style and technical nature of some passages isn't for everyone, the emotionless and impartial delivery added a lot for me - it turns out events seem a lot more realistic if they're written with real people and told like a history book. I've been reading a ton of sci-fi and this book stands out from the rest. It's amazing.
smkingsland's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
irongold's review
3.0
A thriller about an alien virus that finds it way to earth on a satellite. Unfortunately, there is some language, most of it taking the Lords name in vain. The plot moved well, with only a few slow spots when characters(and us) were reading computer screens with a bunch of science stuff. I took a star off for the ending, which, though it tied everything up nicely, seemed a bit too anticlimactic. This is my first book of Crichton's that I have read, and hopefully his others will be as good.
"Nearly everyone involved had moments of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity"
"Nearly everyone involved had moments of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity"
scipio_africanus's review
3.0
Dry as sawdust. Chapters which were literally 2 pages from a military report full of numbers and army lingo. Snooze. And I am a big Crichton fan, but I'll cut him some slack because i think it was his first book.
cutlassmeatmouth's review
5.0
Human curiosity brings a deadly organism down from the upper atmosphere. Good thing the US government has contingencies for things like this, right?
Everything of Michael Chrichton that I've ever read has been well researched and well thought out speculative science fiction. Even though much of his work is 50 years old, his predictions for the way technology is going to progress don't seem far off. His timeline may have been overly optimistic, but almost everything he describes still seems like it's coming.
This book is interesting, fast-moving, and (like most of his work) an easy and entertaining read. He strips a lot of non-essential elements from this book, no character development, no morality plays. It's a play-by-play of an unfolding disaster that reads like a novel.
Everything of Michael Chrichton that I've ever read has been well researched and well thought out speculative science fiction. Even though much of his work is 50 years old, his predictions for the way technology is going to progress don't seem far off. His timeline may have been overly optimistic, but almost everything he describes still seems like it's coming.
This book is interesting, fast-moving, and (like most of his work) an easy and entertaining read. He strips a lot of non-essential elements from this book, no character development, no morality plays. It's a play-by-play of an unfolding disaster that reads like a novel.
ayeheartbooks's review
4.0
Did anyone else fund the ending to be anticlimactic? The who book was go-go-go speed. And then the ending was just so random. After all that intellectual action, I was disappointed by the "resolved itself" "shrug it off" ending.
frogqueen's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
- in ninth grade bio class, we had an end-of-year busywork project to read a science-based novel and do a book report about it. this was on the list but i decided against it because it sounded too scary
- anyway thought it would be interesting to pick up in a post-covid world but i actually don't think having lived through the worst of covid makes this any less scary or tense - the stakes are much higher here
- which is why the ending sucked so bad. hard to imagine a more anticlimactic ending in any piece of media let alone for this book
- all the characters are white dudes which is boring but also this book is from 1969 so what can we expect
- the writing is also very dry but this is a story where that kind of style is needed
- however the plot is very very gripping and there were so many little things that the author did to make the book feel like nonfiction which makes it all the more impactful