The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain

Summary

NOW CELEBRATING ITS 50th ANNIVERSARY
Read the spectacular techno-thriller that catapulted Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton to fame.

Five prominent biophysicists give the United States government an urgent warning: sterilisation procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, Project Scoop sends seventeen satellites into the fringes of space in order to 'collect organisms and dust for study'.

Then a probe falls to the earth, landing in a desolate area of northeastern Arizona. A little while later, in the nearby town of Piedmont, bodies are discovered heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. But the terror has only just begun, because when they try to find the cause of death, the scientists don't realise just what kind of unearthly danger they are dealing with...

Brilliantly filmed by Robert Wise in 1971, The Andromeda Strain was the first book to introduce Michael Crichton's audacious combination of believable plots and white-knuckled excitement to a wide audience.

Reviews

  • He had me convinced it was all really happening
    Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

About the author

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton remains one of the most popular writers in the world, best known as the author of the global phenomenon Jurassic Park. He sold more than 250 million copies of his books worldwide, which have been translated into forty languages and adapted into fifteen films. He wrote a number of global bestsellers, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, Rising Sun, Disclosure, Airframe, and The Great Train Robbery. His influence and creativity extended far beyond books –he was the creator of the landmark television series ER, which ran for fifteen seasons, won twenty-three Primetime Emmy Awards, and received 124 Emmy nominations. He cowrote the screenplays of Jurassic Park and Twister and wrote and directed the film Westworld, which served as the basis for the HBO series. Crichton is the only writer in history to have a number one book, film, and television series at the same time, and he did it twice.
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