The Andromeda Strain was Michael Crichton’s first blockbuster novel. It made his reputation and marked him as the master of scientific theory novels. The basic formula of Michael Crichton novels is to start with a scientific theory, mix it with additional made up scientific theories and throw them together into a novel that lets him explore the reality of the theories. The Andromeda Strain does a wonderful job of pushing a real-life scenario into the scientific theory mix.

A military satellite falls down to Earth and a military team is sent to recover it. When it’s not where they expect it to be, they track the radio signals to a local town. As they enter the town, it seems eerily quiet. The military team moves through town and then everyone loses contact with them. Based on what they’ve seen, the military calls a Wildfire emergency. A Wildfire emergency is when extraterrestrial organism (virus or bacteria) is suspected to have contaminated something or someone on Earth. Our five scientists are gathered in a remote lab in Nevada after a couple of them go and gather the satellite. As they gather the satellite they notice everyone in town is dead except for an old town drunk and a screaming baby.

Once everyone gets to the remote lab, the meat of the novel takes place. The five scientists go over the protocols and start the investigation of the extraterrestrial organism. This is one of the few books that can make a scientific investigation into a thrilling story. Crichton does such a wonderful job explaining everything that even if you known nothing about science, you can still follow along. He also does a great job with the characters. We get a good sense of each of the characters and they all speak in distinct voices. Crichton is such a clear writer that he can make the driest topic exciting and fresh. Highly recommended.