The Andromeda Strain: A Critical Analysis

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The Andromeda Strain: A Critical Analysis

In 1969 Michael Crichton wrote The Andromeda Strain, a book that would

forever expand the limits of a science fiction novel. Although written

in 1969, it deals with very current issues facing the modern day

boilogical and even political realm. Technically a science fiction

novel, the meticulously crafted plot is so intertwined with actual

science and technology that some have catagorized it as "science

fact." It is this realistic overtone that gives the impression that

perhaps, someday, events in the book could actually take place.

Plot Synopsis

The book opens up with a fictional page of acknowledgments stating

"This book recounts the five-day history of a major American

scientific crisis." From this opening sentence, the author immediately

sets the tone as one of historical narration of events that actually

took place. It is supposed to be a retelling of a scientific tradgedy

with monumental implications. From here, the story the author relates

begins.

Five years earlier the United States government initiated a program

called Project Scoop. The project's purpose was to send unmanned space

capsules into the earth's outer atmosphere to collect samples and

examine them. The hope was that undiscovered biological agents could

be found for potential use as biological weapons of war. Overall, the

Scoop program had been somewhat of a dissapointment until the seventh

launch. It reentered the earth's atmosphere over small town in

Arizona, where a team of two men were sent to retrieve it. Upon

entering the town they found no signs of life and suddenly and

unexplicably died themselves. This occurence set in motion something

the government had secretly planned for ca...

... middle of paper ...

...ploy would be to grow a

number of microorganisms that would grow uninhibited in the vastness

of space. The alien race would send them out in random directions

where they would drift perpetually until finally reaching other life.

Once reaching their destination, they would develop into full organ,

or organism capable of communication. They would inform the other race

of the presence of the other, and possible ways to communicate back.

This seemed amusing to the more practical scientists, but it had to be

considered a possibility with Andromeda.

Overall, "The Andromeda Strain's" extremely technical subject matter

made it challenging to read, but informative on a level usually not

touched on by other science fiction novels. The plot itself as well as

the concepts conveyed in this book make it relevent to the modern

biologic world, even over 30 years later.

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