The Andromeda Strain is an amazing book by Michael Crichton. Michael Crichton is a fantastic science fiction writer in all of his books, and I love this one in particular. Although one of his most famous books is Jurassic Park, and it’s probably a good starting point, I started with The Andromeda Strain. I, in fact, did not realize that Michael Crichton was the author of Jurassic Park. I didn’t have any expectations going in, I had just found this book and didn’t have anything better to do.
The setting is modern day earth, science is advancing, but nothing truly different from the year it is set in. A strange object lands in a small town, and the next day, everyone is dead. The government panics, taking scientists from all corners of the US, hiding them underground, and putting them to work. They begin to research this strange organism that is killing so many, all under an unknown time pressure of when a slightly off draft of wind blows all of this towards a big city, which would be catastrophic.
This book creates a good balance of suspense while still informing you of what was happening. There are a lot of difficult scientific concepts, perhaps some made up, but most are true to science. Nonetheless, Michael Crichton explains it well. It is an easy to digest, fun, and interesting book. I have to say that this is one of my go-to recommendations, because it is fun to discuss as a conversation topic. After someone reads it, there is a lot of theory you can talk about.