The Andromeda Strain
Michael Crichton, 1969
Knopf (1969); HarperCollins (current)
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780061703157
Summary
This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis. As in most crises, the events surrounding the Andromeda Strain were a compound of foresight and foolishness, innocence and ignorance. Nearly everyone involved had moments of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity....
Thus begins this extraordinary novel of the world's first space-age biological emergency.
The Andromeda Strain sets forth with almost documentary verisimilitude the unfolding story of "Project Wildfire"—the crash mobilization of the nation's highest scientific and medical resources when an unmanned research satellite returns to earth mysteriously and lethally contaminated.
Four American scientists, chosen in advance for their experimental achievements in the fields of clinical microbiology, epidemiology, pathology, and electrolyte chemistry, are summoned under conditions of total news blackout and utmost urgency to Wildfire's secret laboratory five stories beneath the Nevada desert.
There—surrounded by banks of the most sophisticated computer-assisted equipment, and sealed off from the outside world except for a telecommunications link with the national security apparatus—they work against the threat of a worldwide epidemic to find an antidote to the unknown microorganism that has inexplicably killed all but two inhabitants (an elderly derelict and an infant) of the tiny Arizona town where the satellite was retrieved.
Step by step they begin to unravel the puzzle of the Andromeda Strain, until, terrifyingly, their microbacterial "adversary" ruptures the hypersterile seal of the laboratory and their already desperate search for a biomedical answer becomes a split-second race against an atomic deadline.
With its narrative force, its scientific detail, its suspense—as four brilliant individualists work together under ultimate pressure—this novel makes real for the reader the real world of today's science and medicine at the top-secret levels of the Science-Space-Military high command. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 23, 1942
• Raised—Roslyn (Long Island), New York, USA
• Death—November 4, 2008
• Where—Los Angeles, California
• Education—A.B., M.D., Harvard University
• Awards—Edgar Award for Best Novel (1969)
John Michael Crichton—the American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter—is best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films. In 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at #1 in television, film, and book sales (with ER, Jurassic Park, and Disclosure, respectively).
Crichton's literary works are usually based on the action genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. Many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. He was the author of, among others, Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Travels, Sphere, Rising Sun, Disclosure, The Lost World, Airframe, Timeline, Prey, State of Fear, Next (the final book published before his death), Pirate Latitudes (published November 24, 2009), and a final unfinished techno-thriller, Micro, which was published in November 2011
Background
John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, but raised on Long Island, in Roslyn, New York. He showed a keen interest in writing from a young age and at the age of 14 had a column related to travel published in The New York Times. Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960. During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to expose a professor whom he believed to be giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style. Informing another professor of his suspicions, Crichton plagiarized a work by George Orwell and submitted it as his own. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of B-minus.
His issues with the English department led Crichton to switch his concentration to biological anthropology as an undergraduate, obtaining his A.B. summa cum laude in 1964. He was also initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He went on to become the Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellow from 1964 to 1965 and Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the UK in 1965.
Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School, when he began publishing work. By this time he had become exceptionally tall. By his own account, he was approximately 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall in 1997. In reference to his height, while in medical school, he began writing novels under the pen names "John Lange" and "Jeffrey Hudson" ("Lange" is a surname in Germany, meaning "long", and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th-century dwarf in the court of Queen Consort Henrietta Maria of England). In Travels, he recalls overhearing doctors who were unaware that he was the author of The Andromeda Strain, discussing the flaws in his book. A Case of Need, written under the Hudson pseudonym, won him his first Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1969. He also co-authored Dealing with his younger brother Douglas under the shared pen name "Michael Douglas." The back cover of that book carried a picture, taken by their mother, of Michael and Douglas when very young.
During his clinical rotations at the Boston City Hospital, Crichton grew disenchanted with the culture there, which appeared to emphasize the interests and reputations of doctors over the interests of patients. Crichton graduated from Harvard, obtaining an M.D. in 1969, and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, from 1969 to 1970. He never obtained a license to practice medicine, devoting himself to his writing career instead.
Reflecting on his career in medicine years later, Crichton concluded that patients too often shunned responsibility for their own health, relying on doctors as miracle workers rather than advisors. He experimented with astral projection, aura viewing, and clairvoyance, coming to believe that these included real phenomena that scientists had too eagerly dismissed as paranormal.
In 1988, Crichton was a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Personal life
Crichton was a diest.
As an adolescent Crichton felt isolated because of his height (at 6'9"). As an adult he was acutely aware of his intellect, which often left him feeling alienated from the people around him. During the 1970s and 1980s he consulted psychics and enlightenment gurus to make him feel more socially acceptable and to improve his karma. As a result of these experiences, Crichton practiced meditation throughout much of his life.
Crichton was a workaholic. When drafting a novel, which would typically take him six or seven weeks, he withdrew completely to follow what he called "a structured approach" of ritualistic self-denial. As he neared writing the end of each book, he would rise increasingly early each day, meaning that he would sleep for less than four hours by going to bed at 10 pm and waking at 2 am. In 1992, Crichton was ranked among People magazine's 50 most beautiful people.
He married five times; four of the marriages ended in divorce. He was married to Suzanna Childs, Joan Radam (1965–1970), Kathleen St. Johns (1978–1980), and actress Anne-Marie Martin (1987–2003), the mother of his daughter Taylor Anne (born 1989). At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander, who was six months pregnant with their son. John Michael Todd Crichton was born on February 12, 2009.
Death
In accordance with the private way in which Crichton lived his life, his throat cancer was not made public until his death. According to Crichton's brother Douglas, Crichton was diagnosed with lymphoma in early 2008. He was undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the time of his death, and Crichton's physicians and family members had been expecting him to make a recovery. He unexpectedly died of the disease on November 4, 2008 at the age of 66.
Michael's talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the earth. In the early days, Michael had just sold The Andromeda Strain to Robert Wise at Universal and I had recently signed on as a contract TV director there. My first assignment was to show Michael Crichton around the Universal lot. We became friends and professionally. Jurassic Park, ER, and Twister followed. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place. —Steven Spielberg at Michael Crichton's death.
Crichton had an impressive collection of 20th century American art, which was auctioned by Christie's in May 2010. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Pre-internet books have few, if any, mainstream press reviews online. See Amazon and Barnes & Noble for helpful customer reviews.
The Andromeda Strain is a reading windfall—compelling, memorable, superbly executed. Everything hangs on plot, and the plot is inspired. Which means that the book probably cannot last as "literature." But Crichton's narrative line is so strong, and his resources for sustaining it are so abundant, that The Andromeda Strain can't miss popular success. It's a sure best seller. And if one judges the book by the standards of its intentions...it achieves something important. It transmits intelligence. It expands our knowledge of the world we live in.
Webster Schott - New York Times (6-8-1969)
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Andromeda Strain:
1. The Andromeda Strain, written over 40 years ago in 1969, remains a classic in the scientific-thriller genre. What is its lasting appeal? Does it have relevance to the 21st century?
2. Research some of the scientific technology—then in its infancy—mentioned in the book. Trace the development, for instance, of remote surveillance, voice activation, computer imaging, handprint identification, and biosafety lab procedures. Was Crichton a visionary...or were these inventions already on their way to common usage?
3. Are extraterrestrial microbes an actual, potentially serious, threat today?
4. What current governmental bodies are chartered to control epidemics—extraterrestrial or earthbound (biochemical or viral)? How equipped are we as a society to cope with a major epidemic? Have the dangers of a planetwide disease (of any kind) lessened or increased since The Andromeda Strain was published?
5. Crichton wrote The Andromeda Strain shortly after the end of the Vietnam War. In what way does that war influence the tone of the novel? In other words, how is Chricton's personal attitude toward the military reflected in the novel? Does his skepticism seem relevant today...or outdated?
6. Jeremy Stone believes that human...
intelligence was more trouble than it was worth. It was more destructive than creative, more confusing than revealing, more discouraging than satisfying.
Crichton's book explores the limits of human intelligence: its vulnerability to self-delusion and irrationality...it's capacity to destroy the planet coupled with its incapacity to control the danger...and its susceptibility to malfunction under stress. How does this idea (or ideas) play out in the novel? Do you agree with Crichton's/Stone's concept of human intelligence? Or is it overwrought?
7. Talk about the "Odd Man" hypothesis, which seems authentic and factual. Is there any truth at all to the theory, or is it purely fictional? If the latter, why the ruse to make it sound plausible? (Hint: look up "false document" literary technique.)
8. This novel might be viewed as a cautionary tale. If so, a caution against what?—disease preparedness, government secrecy, the limits of human intelligence, scientific and technological overreach? Something else?
9. Stone comments at the end that "the important thing is that we now understand." What exactly is understood?
10. Describe the moral dilemma the scientists face regarding the destruction of the Andromeda strain?
11. Does something like Project Scoop exist today? Should it exist? Is it possible for civilians to know whether or not something like it might exist? To what extent should government keep secrets from its citizens...as well as potential foes?
12. Michael Crichton was writing science fiction. Yet a contemporary reviewer wrote in 1969 (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that the author had convinced him—"with his copies of Government files and memos and computer-based output mapping, with his reference notes to actual scientific papers (not to mention the actual news that the crew members of Apollo 11 will be quarantined after their return from the moon)—that it was all really happening." Do you find this same degree of realism in Crichton's novel? Or has the novel become less realistic, less plausible after 40 years.
13. What about the ending of this book? Science fiction thrillers usually end with the defeat of either humanity or the extraterrestrial threat. Is the ending to The Andromeda Strain disappointing? Is it, as one reviewer puts it, "a series of phony climaxes" and "a huge biological cop-out"? Or does Crichton resolve his plot satisfactorily—with a conclusion that flows logically from events in the novel?
14. Watch two movies and compare them to Crichton's novel: The Andromeda Strain (based on the novel) and Contagion, a 2011 film about a (fictional) viral epidemic.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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