I read very little science fiction these days, but at the end of last year, while getting over COVID, I decided to re-read Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain. In doing so, I quickly discovered there’s a sequel to the novel, though it’s not written by Crichton, who passed away in 2008. Here are my thoughts after tearing through both books.
The Andromeda Strain
All the news about virus variants has had me thinking about The Andromeda Strain for some time. In fact, I’ve often used the story as an analogy for where the virus may be heading as it slowly becomes endemic. It will be hard to talk about this aspect of the book without some *SPOILERS*, but this novel has been around since 1969, so folks have had plenty of time to read it.
I first read The Andromeda Strain in 1993, and it has stuck with me ever since. The book’s premise is that in the 1960s, the U.S. government deployed satellites to find alien microorganisms to weaponize them. When one of these satellites crash lands in a small Arizona town, it unleashes a germ that makes The Stand’s Captain Trips look like a head cold. Almost immediately, it infects and kills most of the town’s inhabitants, while others are driven insane and commit suicide. Only two people – an older man and an infant – survive.
Like most of Crichton’s novels, the story is built around a scientific concept that Crichton calls The Messenger Theory – the notion that advanced life in other parts of the galaxy would make first contact with Earth by sending alien life in the form of a bacterium or virus.
Also, like so many of Crichton’s novels (Sphere and Jurassic Park jump top of mind), a team of four brilliant scientists, code-named Wildfire, is assembled to deal with the problem. There is Dr. Jeremy Stone, the team’s leader and a Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist; Dr. Peter Leavitt, a clinical microbiologist; Dr. Charles Burton, a pathologist; and Dr. Mark Hall, a physician (like Crichton) who proves to be the unlikely hero of the group.
Once the satellite is retrieved, almost the entire novel takes place in a secret underground laboratory in Nevada. The lab has numerous containment levels, leading to the bottom, where the team studies the virus and the two survivors. But there’s a hitch: Because of the danger the Andromeda Strain poses to the outside world, any containment breach triggers a nuclear explosive designed to detonate in three minutes unless manually stopped. And only one of the four team members has the key to disarm the weapon. You can imagine where this is going.
The novel is suspenseful, though slightly less so on the second read. It’s also packed with a lot of science, which I found especially interesting given the pandemic, though it sometimes slowed the story down. Also, much of the science, particularly the computers and technology – all high-tech in the 1960s – is quite dated by 21st century standards. But the story about a deadly alien virus and the scientists who race to understand it is a worthwhile read.
A Ray Of Hope (the *SPOILER* part)
Skip this section if you don’t want to know how The Andromeda Strain ends. With that said, you’ve been warned.
The only reason the four intrepid scientists survive their encounter with the Andromeda Strain is because the microorganism mutates. What started as a micoorganism that causes one’s blood to immediately clot (hence the lethality) quickly transforms into a far less deadly variant. The new variant dissolves plastics, which causes its own problems, particularly for one Air Force pilot and the U.S. space program, but the threat to human life is greatly diminished.
While I’m not an expert on infectious diseases, this may be what we are seeing with COVID-19. Viruses mutate over time, often becoming more contagious but less deadly. This appears to be the path the virus is following with the Omicron variant, and if it keeps up, we’ll be living with the virus, but one much less deadly than the earlier strains. To me, that’s a ray of hope.
The Andromeda Evolution
All of this brings me to The Andromeda Evolution, a sequel to The Andromeda Strain written in 2019 by author Daniel H. Wilson (Crichton is given credit too, though the book was written years after his passing). Unlike The Andromeda Strain, where the organism was the true antagonist, this time, the ultimate enemy proves to be very human.
Since the events of the first book, Project Wildfire has become Project Eternal Vigilance. Once again, it’s a secret team of scientists formed by the government in the event the Andromeda Strain were to appear again. And re-appear it does after a Chinese space station crashes in the Amazon jungle. A massive structure seems to be growing at the crash site, and it’s composed of the same organism as the Andromeda Strain. Even more, it’s already started killing the forest’s native inhabitants.
The Eternal Vigilance team turns out to be far more diverse than the 1960s-era group that made up Project Wildfire. The new team’s strong-willed leader is Dr. Nidhi Vedala, an Indian-born nanotechnologist who has developed a spray to prevent infection from the Andromeda Strain. Next, there’s Dr. Harold Odhiambo, a Kenyan-born anthropologist; Peng Wu, a Chinese doctor and military officer; and Dr. Sophie Kline, a nanotechnologist and robotics expert who monitors the situation from the International Space Station (ISS). There’s also a last-minute addition to the team: roboticist James Stone, who happens to be the son of Dr. Jeremy Stone from the first novel.
Except for Kline, the team is sent into the Amazon jungle to investigate the mysterious structure. And soon, it becomes clear that someone is trying to kill them to prevent the mission’s success. This element was missing from the first novel, and it turns the sequel into a gripping thriller. While the plotline surrounding the organism is a tad far-fetched, the technology and science are pure 21st century, and the addition of the ISS as a setting gives this novel a more sweeping scope than its predecessor.
Add a few plot twists plus an unexpected reveal near the end, and you have a novel that reads more like Sphere than Crichton’s original. Also, the book left me with plenty to think about, including Crichton’s Messenger Theory. But for the most part, the sequel is simply a fun, suspenseful read that I found almost impossible to put down. If you like The Andromeda Strain, I think you’ll really enjoy The Andromeda Evolution.