A Review of the Book "Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton

Title: Andromeda Strain
Author: Michael Crichton
Publisher: CrichtonSun LLC
Year: 1969
291 pages

Have you ever thought of what it might be like to meet an alien, an extra-terrestrial? So many movies, books, and TV shows are based on first contact with life from outer space. Little green men and similar images are the stereotypical view of what alien life would look like.

It seems pretty presumptuous of us that we depict the majority of visitors from another planet to look humanoid. What if the first sign of interplanetary life was a small as a bacteria, maybe a virus?

Crichton takes readers on an adventure of humanity's first contact with life from outer space, a deadly virus that kills almost instantly. Scientists hurry to figure out what is happening and how to stop the deaths, making right and wrongs turns along the way that make The Andromeda Strain a page-turner.

I happened to have read the sequel first, a book written 50 years after this one was published. I very much recommend reading the stories in order - Andromeda Strain followed by Andromeda Evolution. There are pieces of the story that make a lot more sense now that I have read the first book.