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| {{short description|1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton}} | |||
| {{about|the novel|the 1971 movie|The Andromeda Strain (film)|2008 miniseries|The Andromeda Strain (2008 miniseries)}} | |||
| {{About|the novel|the 1971 film|The Andromeda Strain (film)|the 2008 miniseries|The Andromeda Strain (miniseries)}} | |||
| {{Infobox |
{{Infobox book | ||
| | name = The Andromeda Strain | | name = The Andromeda Strain | ||
| | author = ] | | author = ] | ||
| | |
| border = yes | ||
| | image = Big-andromedastrain.jpg | |||
| | language = ] | |||
| | caption = First edition cover | |||
| | image = ] | |||
| | country = United States | |||
| | image_caption = First edition cover | |||
| | |
| language = English | ||
| | genre = ], ] | |||
| | publisher = ] | | publisher = ] | ||
| | release_date = May 12, 1969 | | release_date = May 12, 1969 | ||
| | media_type = ] | | media_type = Print (] and ]) | ||
| | pages = 350 | | pages = 350 | ||
| | isbn = |
| isbn = 0-394-41525-6 | ||
| | oclc = 12231 | |||
| | followed_by = ] | | followed_by = ] | ||
| }} | }} | ||
| '''''The Andromeda Strain''''' |
'''''The Andromeda Strain''''' is a 1969 novel by American writer ], his first novel under his own name and his sixth novel overall. It documents the ] of a deadly ] ] in ] and the team of scientists investigating it. The book is framed as a report from a secret government project, which the scientists are part of, and includes text-based computer imagery illustrating the results of various tests on the organism. | ||
| ''The Andromeda Strain'' appeared in the ], establishing Michael Crichton as a ] writer, and as an early example of the ] genre. | |||
| == Plot summary == | |||
| When a military ] returns to Earth, a recovery team is dispatched to retrieve it; during a live radio communication with their base, the team members suddenly die. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in ], the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead. The base commander suspects the satellite returned with an extraterrestrial organism and recommends activating Wildfire, the government-sponsored team that counters ] biological infestation. | |||
| ==Plot== | |||
| The Wildfire scientific team studying the unknown strain comprises Dr. Jeremy Stone, ] specialist; Dr. Peter Leavitt, disease ]; Dr. Charles Burton, ] specialist; and Dr. Mark Hall, M.D., surgeon, ] and ] specialist. He is the 'odd man', since he is the only one without a family. A fifth scientist, Dr. Christian Kirke, ] specialist, was unavailable for duty because of ]. | |||
| A team from an ] base is deployed to recover a ] 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. The ] of the base tasked with retrieving the satellite suspects it returned with an ] ] and recommends activating "Wildfire", a protocol for a government-sponsored team of scientists intended to contain threats of this nature. | |||
| The |
The Wildfire team, led by Dr. Jeremy Stone, believes that the satellite—intentionally designed to capture upper-atmosphere ]s for ] exploitation—returned with a deadly microorganism that kills through nearly instantaneous ]. 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, ]-addicted, geriatric Peter Jackson and the constantly bawling infant Jamie Ritter—are biological opposites who somehow survived the organism. | ||
| The man, infant, and satellite are taken to the secret underground Wildfire laboratory, a secure facility equipped with every known capacity for protection against a biological element escape into the atmosphere, including a nuclear weapon to incinerate the facility if necessary. Wildfire is hidden in a remote area near the fictional town of Flatrock, Nevada, sixty miles from Las Vegas using a method similar to that in the book '']'', by locating it in the sub-basements of a legitimate ] research station. | |||
| 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, ], {{convert|60|mi|km|-1|spell=in}} from ], concealed in the sub-basements of a legitimate ] 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 bizarre deaths were caused by a crystal-structured, extraterrestrial microbe on a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit. The microbe contains ] required for terrestrial life, but lacks ], ], ], and ]s, yet it directly transforms matter to energy and vice versa. | |||
| Further investigation determined 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 (]) and appears to have a ], but lacks the ], ], ]s, and ]s 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 microbe, code named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biologic properties. The scientists learn that Andromeda grows only within a narrow ] range; in a too-acid or too-basic growth medium, it will not multiply — Andromeda's pH range is 7.39–7.43, like that of ]. Thus, that is why Jackson and Ritter survived, both had abnormal blood pH; however, by the time the scientists realize that, Andromeda's current mutation degrades polymer plastic and escapes its containment. Trapped in an Andromeda-contaminated laboratory, Dr. Burton demands that Stone inject him with ] ("the universal antibiotic"); Stone refuses, arguing it would render Burton too vulnerable to infection by other harmful bacteria. Burton survives because Andromeda has already mutated to nonlethal form. | |||
| The scientists learn that the current form of Andromeda grows only in a narrow ] range; in a too-acidic or too ]ne 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 (Jackson ] from consumption of Sterno and ], Ritter ] from ]). However, by the time the scientists realize this, Andromeda has mutated into a form that degrades the lab's plastic seals and escapes ]. Trapped in a contaminated lab, Dr. Charles Burton demands that Stone inject him with a "universal ]"; Stone refuses, arguing that it would render Burton too vulnerable to infection by other harmful bacteria. Burton survives because the mutated Andromeda is no longer ]ic. | |||
| The mutated Andromeda attacks the ] door and hatch seals within the Wildfire complex, racing to the upper levels and the surface. The self-destruction atomic bomb is automatically armed when it detects a containment breach, triggering its detonation countdown to incinerate all exo-biological diseases. As the bomb arms, the scientists realize that given Andromeda's ability to generate matter directly from energy, the organism would feed, reproduce, and ultimately benefit from an ]. | |||
| The mutated Andromeda ] 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 atomic detonation, Dr. Hall must insert his special key to an emergency substation anywhere in Wildfire. Unfortunately, he is trapped in an unfinished section with no substation. He must navigate Wildfire's obstacle course of automatic defenses to reach a working substation on an upper level. He barely disarms the bomb in time. Andromeda eventually mutates to a benign form and is suspected to have migrated to the upper atmosphere, where the oxygen content is lower, better suiting Andromeda's growth. | |||
| 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 barely disarms the bomb before all 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 form and migrated to the upper atmosphere, ]. | |||
| The novel's epilogue reveals that a manned spacecraft, ''Andros V'', was incinerated during atmospheric re-entry, because its polymer heat shield failed. Space flights are discontinued. | |||
| 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 laminate heat shield and caused it to burn up. | |||
| == Odd-Man Hypothesis == | |||
| The "Odd-Man Hypothesis" is a fictional ] articulated in the novel's story and named in the film. In the novel, the Odd-Man explanation is a page in a ] report of the results of test series wherein different people (married, unmarried men and women) were to make command decisions in nuclear and biological wars and chemical crises. This is in the film: | |||
| ==Main characters== | |||
| {{Cquote|''Results of special testing confirm the Odd-Man Hypothesis, that an unmarried male should carry out command decisions involving thermonuclear or chem-biol destruct contexts.''}} | |||
| * Dr. Jeremy Stone: Professor and chair of the ] department at ]; Stone is fictitiously the winner of the 1961 ], whereas the actual winner was ]<ref>Nobel Laureate ] was convinced that "Jeremy Stone" was modeled strongly after himself and wrote to Knopf Publishers to protest on June 25, 1969. See https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/BBGAAI.pdf.</ref><ref>In 1984, "the real Dr. ]" expressed complete surprise that Crichton had named the lead character for him.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}</ref> | |||
| * Dr. Charles Burton<!-- not Dutton as in the film. -->: Professor of ] at the ] | |||
| * Dr. Peter Leavitt<!-- Please do not change this to "Ruth"; this article is about the book, and in the book, the character is a MAN named PETER, even though in the movie it's a WOMAN named RUTH. -->: Clinical ]; suffers from ] | |||
| * Dr. Mark Hall: ] | |||
| * Prof. Christian Kirke: one of the intended five, an ] from ], was hospitalized with appendicitis | |||
| ==Background== | |||
| The Odd-Man Hypothesis 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 automatic destruct sequence is triggered. | |||
| Crichton was inspired to write the novel after reading, '']'' by ] while studying in the UK. Crichton says he was "terrifically impressed" by the book—"a lot of ''Andromeda'' is traceable to ''Ipcress'' in terms of trying to create an imaginary world using recogniseable techniques and real people."<ref name="israel"/> He wrote the novel over three years.<ref name="israel"/> | |||
| ==Odd-man hypothesis== | |||
| Statistics follow, ''Group: Index of Effectiveness'': 0.343 for married men, 0.824 for single, male scientists, et cetera; then each scientist's command decision effectiveness index: Stone 0.687, Burton 0.543, Kirke 0.614, Leavitt 0.601, and Hall 0.899; thus, Dr. Hall is given the key to halt the Wildfire Laboratory's automated self-destruction, should it become necessary. Moreover, considering Hall's knowledge of ], Leavitt admits that the Odd-Man Hypothesis is essentially why Hall was drafted to the Wildfire team. | |||
| The "odd-man hypothesis" is a fictional ] 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 make ] 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. | |||
| In the book, Stone admits the Odd Man Hypothesis was basically a created theory to justify handing over a nuclear weapon to private individuals (the Wildfire team). | |||
| 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 to ''disarm'' the weapon, rather than to ''arm'' it: Stone then admits that the odd-man hypothesis, while accurate (in the confines of the book), was essentially a ] used to justify handing over a nuclear weapon to private individuals and out of government control. | |||
| In both book and film, Hall is briefed on the Hypothesis after his arrival at Wildfire. In the film, he is criticized for failure to read the material ahead of time, while in the book, his copy of the briefing materials has the Hypothesis pages removed. | |||
| ==Adaptations== | |||
| This fabrication of scientific documentation (numbers, charts, etc.) is part of the ] ]. | |||
| In 1971, ''The Andromeda Strain'' was the basis for the ] directed by ], and featuring ] as Stone, ] as Hall, ] as Leavitt (changed to a female character, Ruth Leavitt), and ] as Dutton (Burton in the novel). | |||
| In 2008, ''The Andromeda Strain'' was the basis for ] executive-produced by ] and ] and ], and featuring ] as Stone. Other characters' names and personalities were radically changed from the novel. | |||
| == Main characters == | |||
| * '''Dr. Jeremy Stone''' — Professor of Bacteriology at the ]; a Nobel Prize winner | |||
| * '''Dr. Charles Burton''' — Professor of pathology at the ] | |||
| * '''Dr. Peter Leavitt''' — Clinical microbiologist; suffering from ] | |||
| * '''Dr. Mark Hall''' — Medical doctor and surgeon; | |||
| * '''Dr. Christian Kirke''' — Anthropologist; electrolytes specialist does not participate in Wildfire project due to illness | |||
| == |
==Reception== | ||
| Reviews for ''The 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 the ] genre.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}} | |||
| * "A man with binoculars. That is how it began: with a man standing by the side of the road, on a crest overlooking a small Arizona town, on a winter night. Lieutenant Roger Shawn must have found the binoculars difficult. The metal would be cold, and he would be clumsy in his fur parka and heavy gloves." page #3 | |||
| * "Biology, the retarded child. . . . Even in the time of Newton and Galileo, men knew more about the moon and other heavenly bodies than they did about their own." | |||
| * "First contact with extraterrestrial life will be determined by the known probabilities of speciation. . . . Complex organisms are rare on earth. . . . Simple organisms flourish in abundance. . . . There are millions of bacteria, thousands of insects but few primates. . . . Frequency of speciation goes with a corresponding frequency in numbers. . . . Human interaction with extra terrestrial will . . . identical to bacteria or viruses." | |||
| * "It was equally possible for extra terrestrial to contaminate the earth via space probes." | |||
| * "We've faced up to quite a planning problem here. How to disinfect the human body — one of the dirtiest things in the known universe — without killing the person at the same time." | |||
| '']'' said it was "Relentlessly suspenseful... A hair-raising experience." '']'' called it "Hideously plausible suspense... will glue you to your chair." '']'' said ''The Andromeda Strain'' was "One of the most important novels of the year". | |||
| == Adaptations == | |||
| In 1971, ''The Andromeda Strain'' was the basis for the eponymous ] directed by ], and featuring ] as Stone, ] as Hall, ] as Leavitt (changed to a female character, Ruth Leavitt), and ] as Dutton (Burton in the novel). | |||
| '']'''s 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's ''The Andromeda Strain''. And he had me convinced it was all really happening."<ref>First Ballantine Books Edition: January 1993</ref> | |||
| In 2008, ''The Andromeda Strain'' was the basis for an eponymous ] executive-produced by ] and ] and ], and featuring ] as Stone. Other characters' names and personalities were radically changed from the novel. | |||
| ==Sequel== | |||
| Musically, the novel's wider, cultural influence is evidenced in the ], ] band ] who sing, inspired by the novel, the "Andromeda Strain" on their début album, '']''; the ] band ] have a song titled "The Andromeda Strain," about genetically engineered ], on their album '']''; and ] has a concert recording titled "Andromeda Strain." In 1995, an independent band from Indianapolis, Indiana named themselves Odd Man and released a CD entitled ''Hypothesis'' in reference to the fictional hypothesis contained in the story.<ref></ref> | |||
| A sequel titled '']'' written by ] was published on November 12, 2019.<ref name=Cbc2019-02-26/> Crichton's name still appears on the cover in large print, despite the book being written after his death. | |||
| == |
==References== | ||
| {{Reflist|refs= | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| <ref name="israel"> | |||
| {{cite news | |||
| | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1969/06/08/archives/michael-crichton-rhymes-with-frighten-michael-crichton.html | |||
| | title = Michael Crichton (rhymes with frighten); Michael Crichton | |||
| | work = ] | |||
| | author = Israel Shenker | |||
| | date = 1969-06-08 | |||
| | page = BR5 | |||
| | access-date = 2019-06-06 | |||
| }} | |||
| </ref> | |||
| <ref name=Cbc2019-02-26> | |||
| == References == | |||
| {{cite news | |||
| * Crichton, Michael (1969). ''The Andromeda Strain''. ISBN 0-345-37848-2. | |||
| | url = https://www.cbc.ca/books/sequel-to-michael-crichton-s-andromeda-strain-due-in-fall-1.5033793 | |||
| | title = Sequel to Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain due in fall | |||
| | work = ] | |||
| | author = Hillel Italie | |||
| | date = 2019-02-26 | |||
| | access-date = 2019-06-06 | |||
| | quote = 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. | |||
| }} | |||
| </ref> | |||
| }} | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * {{ISFDB title|6349}} | |||
| {{Michael Crichton}} | {{Michael Crichton}} | ||
| {{Authority control}} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Andromeda Strain, The}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Andromeda Strain, The}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 23:19, 25 November 2024
1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton This article is about the novel. For the 1971 film, see The Andromeda Strain (film). For the 2008 miniseries, see The Andromeda Strain (miniseries). 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 and paperback) |
| Pages | 350 |
| ISBN | 0-394-41525-6 |
| OCLC | 12231 |
| Followed by | The Terminal Man |
The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 novel by American writer Michael Crichton, his first novel under his own name and his sixth novel overall. It documents the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona and the team of scientists investigating it. The book is framed as a report from a secret government project, which the scientists are part of, and includes text-based computer imagery illustrating the results of various tests on the organism.
The Andromeda Strain appeared in the New York Times Best Seller list, establishing Michael Crichton as a genre writer, and as an early example of the techno-thriller genre.
Plot
A team from an Air Force base is deployed to recover a military 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. The duty 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 for bio-weapon exploitation—returned with a deadly microorganism that kills through nearly instantaneous blood 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) from Las Vegas, concealed in the sub-basements of a legitimate Department 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 determined 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 a crystalline structure, but lacks the DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino 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 narrow pH 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 (Jackson acidotic from consumption of Sterno and aspirin, Ritter alkalotic from hyperventilation). However, by the time the scientists realize this, Andromeda has mutated into a form that degrades the lab's plastic seals and escapes containment. Trapped in a contaminated lab, Dr. Charles Burton demands that Stone inject him with a "universal antibiotic"; Stone refuses, arguing that it would render Burton too vulnerable to infection by other harmful bacteria. Burton survives because the mutated Andromeda is no longer pathogenic.
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 barely disarms the bomb before all 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 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 laminate heat shield and caused it to burn up.
Main characters
- Dr. Jeremy Stone: Professor and chair of the bacteriology department at Stanford University; Stone is fictitiously the winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, whereas the actual winner was Georg von Békésy
- Dr. Charles Burton: Professor of Pathology at the Baylor College of Medicine
- Dr. Peter Leavitt: Clinical microbiologist; suffers from epilepsy
- Dr. Mark Hall: Surgeon
- Prof. Christian Kirke: one of the intended five, an anthropologist from Yale, was hospitalized with appendicitis
Background
Crichton was inspired to write the novel after reading, The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton while studying in the UK. Crichton says he was "terrifically impressed" by the book—"a lot of Andromeda is traceable to Ipcress in terms of trying to create an imaginary world using recogniseable techniques and real people." He wrote the novel over three years.
Odd-man hypothesis
The "odd-man hypothesis" is a fictional hypothesis 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 make command 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 to disarm the weapon, rather than to arm 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.
Adaptations
In 1971, The Andromeda Strain was the basis for the film of the same name directed by Robert Wise, and featuring Arthur Hill as Stone, James Olson as Hall, Kate Reid as Leavitt (changed to a female character, Ruth Leavitt), and David Wayne as Dutton (Burton in the novel).
In 2008, The Andromeda Strain was the basis for an eponymous miniseries executive-produced by Ridley and Tony Scott and Frank Darabont, and featuring Benjamin Bratt as Stone. Other characters' names and personalities were radically changed from the novel.
Reception
Reviews for The 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 the Techno-thriller genre.
The Pittsburgh Press said it was "Relentlessly suspenseful... A hair-raising experience." Detroit Free Press called it "Hideously plausible suspense... will glue you to your chair." Library Journal said The Andromeda Strain was "One of the most important novels of the year".
The New York Times's 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's The Andromeda Strain. And he had me convinced it was all really happening."
Sequel
A sequel titled The Andromeda Evolution written by Daniel H. Wilson was published on November 12, 2019. Crichton's name still appears on the cover in large print, despite the book being written after his death.
References
- Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg was convinced that "Jeremy Stone" was modeled strongly after himself and wrote to Knopf Publishers to protest on June 25, 1969. See https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/BBGAAI.pdf.
- In 1984, "the real Dr. Jeremy Stone" expressed complete surprise that Crichton had named the lead character for him.
- ^ Israel Shenker (1969-06-08). "Michael Crichton (rhymes with frighten); Michael Crichton". The New York Times. p. BR5. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- First Ballantine Books Edition: January 1993
-
Hillel Italie (2019-02-26). "Sequel to Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain due in fall". CBC News. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
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.
External links
- The Andromeda Strain title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- 1969 American novels
- 1969 science fiction novels
- 1960s horror novels
- Alfred A. Knopf books
- American novels adapted into films
- American science fiction novels
- Fictional diseases and disorders
- Novels about diseases and disorders
- Novels about extraterrestrial life
- American novels adapted into television shows
- Novels by Michael Crichton
- Novels set in Arizona
- Science fiction horror novels
- Science fiction novels adapted into films
- Speculative crime and thriller fiction
- Techno-thriller novels
- Yavapai County, Arizona