 First edition cover | |
| Author | Michael Crichton |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Techno-thriller,science fiction |
| Publisher | Knopf |
Publication date | May 12, 1969 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover andpaperback) |
| Pages | 350 |
| ISBN | 0-394-41525-6 |
| OCLC | 12231 |
| Followed by | The Terminal Man |
The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 novel by American writerMichael Crichton, his first novel under his own name and his sixth novel overall. It documents the outbreak of a deadlyextraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona and the team of scientists investigating it. The book is presented as a report from a secret government project involving scientists, and features text-based computer imagery that illustrates the results of various tests on the organism.The Andromeda Strain appeared inThe New York Times Best Seller list, establishing Michael Crichton as agenre writer, and is an early example of thetechno-thriller genre.
A team from anAir Force base is deployed to recover amilitary satellite that has returned to Earth, but contact is lost abruptly. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is dead. Theduty officer of the base tasked with retrieving the satellite suspects it returned with an extraterrestrial contaminant and recommends activating "Wildfire", a protocol for a government-sponsored team of scientists intended to contain threats of this nature.
The Wildfire team, led by Dr. Jeremy Stone, believes that the satellite—intentionally designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms forbio-weapon exploitation—returned with a deadly microorganism that kills through nearly instantaneousblood clotting. Upon investigating Piedmont, the team discovers the townspeople either died in mid-stride or went "quietly nuts" and committed bizarre suicides. Two survivors—the sick,Sterno-addicted, geriatric Peter Jackson and the constantly bawling infant Jamie Ritter—are biological opposites who somehow survived the organism.
Jackson, Ritter, and the satellite are taken to the secret underground Wildfire laboratory, a secure facility equipped with every known capacity for protection against microorganisms escaping into the environment. Wildfire is hidden in a remote area near Flatrock, Nevada, sixty miles (100 km) fromLas Vegas, concealed beneath a legitimateDepartment of Agriculture research station. Dr. Mark Hall is the only scientist authorized to disarm the automatic self-destruct mechanism; he is an unmarried, childless male and thus presumed to make the most dispassionate decisions during a crisis.
Further investigation determines that the deaths were caused by an extraterrestrial microbe transported by a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit. The microbe contains chemical elements required for terrestrial life (CHNOPS) and appears to have acrystalline structure, but lacks theDNA,RNA,proteins, andamino acids present in terrestrial life, and directly transforms energy to matter with no discernible byproducts. The microbe, code-named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biological properties.
The scientists learn that the current form of Andromeda grows only in a narrowpH range; in a too-acidic or too-alkaline growth medium, the organism will not divide. Andromeda's ideal pH range is 7.39–7.43, within the range found in normal human blood. Jackson and Ritter survived because both had abnormal blood pH (Jacksonacidotic from consumption of Sterno andaspirin, Ritteralkalotic fromhyperventilation). However, by the time the scientists realize this, Andromeda has mutated into a form that degrades the laboratory's plastic seals and escapes containment. Burton survives, as the mutated Andromeda is no longerpathogenic.
The mutated Andromeda attacks the plastic door and hatch seals within the Wildfire facility, rapidly migrating toward the upper levels and the surface. The self-destruct nuclear weapon is automatically armed when it detects the containment breach, triggering its detonation countdown to prevent the spread of the infection. As the bomb arms, the scientists realize that given Andromeda's ability to generate matter directly from energy, the organism would be able to consume the released energy and ultimately benefit from a nuclear explosion, mutating in thousands of ways, potentially "each killing in a different way".
To halt the detonation, Hall must insert a special key he carries into an emergency substation, one of which should be accessible from any location in Wildfire. Unfortunately, he is trapped in a section that, due to an oversight, has no substation. He must navigate Wildfire's obstacle course of automatic defenses to reach a working substation on an upper level. He disarms the bomb only seconds before the air is evacuated from the deepest level of the Wildfire complex, which contains the remainder of the team and their assistants. Andromeda is suspected to have eventually mutated into a benign,anaerobic form and migrated to the upper atmosphere, where the oxygen content is lower, better suiting its growth.
The novel's epilogue reveals that a crewed spacecraft,Andros V, was incinerated during atmospheric re-entry, presumably because Andromeda had eaten its tungsten/plastic laminateheat shield and caused it to burn up.
Crichton was inspired to write the novel after readingThe IPCRESS File byLen Deighton while studying in theUK. Crichton says he was "terrifically impressed" by the book—"a lot ofAndromeda is traceable toIpcress in terms of trying to create an imaginary world using recogniseable techniques and real people."[3] He wrote the novel over three years.[3]
The "odd-man hypothesis" is ahypothesis that states that unmarried men are better able to execute the best, most dispassionate decisions in crises—in this case, to disarm the nuclear weapon intended to prevent the escape of organisms from the laboratory in the event the auto-destruct sequence is initiated. In the novel, the odd-man explanation is a page in a Hudson Institute report of the results of test series wherein different people were to makecommand decisions in nuclear and biological wars and chemical crises.
Hall is briefed on the hypothesis after his arrival at Wildfire. In the book, his copy of the briefing materials has the hypothesis pages removed; in the film, he is criticized for failure to read the material beforehand.
Dr. Hall is assumed to have the highest "command decision effectiveness index" among the Wildfire team; this is the reason why he is given a control key to the self-destruct mechanism. Hall initially derides this idea, saying that he has no intention of committing suicide before he is told that it is his job todisarm the weapon, rather than toarm it: Stone then admits that the odd-man hypothesis, while accurate (in the confines of the book), was essentially a false document used to justify handing over a nuclear weapon to private individuals and out of government control.
In 1971,The Andromeda Strain was the basis for thefilm of the same name directed byRobert Wise, and featuringArthur Hill as Stone,James Olson as Hall,Kate Reid as Leavitt (changed to a female character, Ruth Leavitt), andDavid Wayne as Dutton (Burton in the novel).
In 2008,The Andromeda Strain was the basis foran eponymous miniseries executive-produced byRidley andTony Scott andFrank Darabont, and featuringBenjamin Bratt as Stone. Other characters' names and personalities were radically changed from the novel.
Reviews forThe Andromeda Strain were overwhelmingly positive, and the novel was an American bestseller, establishing Michael Crichton as a respected novelist and science-fiction writer.The Andromeda Strain is one of the books credited with creating thetechno-thriller genre.[4][5]
The Pittsburgh Press said it was "relentlessly suspenseful... A hair-raising experience." TheDetroit Free Press called it "Hideously plausible suspense... will glue you to your chair."Library Journal saidThe Andromeda Strain was "One of the most important novels of the year".
Writing forThe New York Times,Christopher Lehmann-Haupt said, "Tired out by a long day in the country, I was awake way past bedtime. My arms were numb from propping up my head. By turning from side to side, I had driven the cats from their place at the foot of the bed, and they were disgruntled. I was very likely disturbing my wife's sleep. But I was well into Michael Crichton'sThe Andromeda Strain. And he had me convinced it was all really happening."[6]
A sequel titledThe Andromeda Evolution written byDaniel H. Wilson was published on November 12, 2019.[7] Crichton's name still appears on the cover in large print, despite the book being written after his death.
HarperCollins announced Tuesday that The Andromeda Evolution will come out Nov. 12. The book will be a collaboration between science fiction author Daniel H. Wilson and CrichtonSun LLC., for which the author's widow, Sherri Crichton, serves as CEO.
