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A review by ihateprozac
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
3.0
Not gonna lie, I was expecting more from this book, and I actually enjoyed the recent tv miniseries much more. The TV series was much scarier, and even though there was a lot of emotional relationship bullshit thrown in there to supposedly appeal to the audience, I felt it was just better and provided more closure about the Andromeda Strain.
I really didnt like the vague way that Crichton dealt with the strain in this book. It was a supposedly terrifying extraterrestrial microorganism that would either kill you instantly or turn you insane- and it was such a mystery for a large portion of the book, but then it felt like the author couldnt be bothered to come up with a logical answer. So instead he just said 'oh it mutated and its safe now, dont worry'
UGH. >=|
In the tv miniseries, the Messenger theory is expanded upon, and its found that the Andromeda strain actually has a message encoded in the cells, and its sent from a futuristic/extraterrestrial civilisation. I wish that had been what happened in this book, but the end solution was so similar to other half-arsed alien invasion stories, where the organism eventually just dies off or leaves because it cant tolerate our atmosphere.
The tv miniseries also allows for the viewer to monitor the havoc being wreaked outside of Wildfire - the Andromeda strain spreads a lot further than Nevada/Arizona, and it really is quite terrifying. Overall, I prefer the tv miniseries better (as a purist, I'd usually consider that statement quite blasphemous XD), but I'll continue to read some more of Crichton's more famous texts.
I really didnt like the vague way that Crichton dealt with the strain in this book. It was a supposedly terrifying extraterrestrial microorganism that would either kill you instantly or turn you insane- and it was such a mystery for a large portion of the book, but then it felt like the author couldnt be bothered to come up with a logical answer. So instead he just said 'oh it mutated and its safe now, dont worry'
UGH. >=|
In the tv miniseries, the Messenger theory is expanded upon, and its found that the Andromeda strain actually has a message encoded in the cells, and its sent from a futuristic/extraterrestrial civilisation. I wish that had been what happened in this book, but the end solution was so similar to other half-arsed alien invasion stories, where the organism eventually just dies off or leaves because it cant tolerate our atmosphere.
The tv miniseries also allows for the viewer to monitor the havoc being wreaked outside of Wildfire - the Andromeda strain spreads a lot further than Nevada/Arizona, and it really is quite terrifying. Overall, I prefer the tv miniseries better (as a purist, I'd usually consider that statement quite blasphemous XD), but I'll continue to read some more of Crichton's more famous texts.