Andromeda Strain
In the grand hacker tradition of writing book reviews and the personal goal of improving his communication, this geek has decided to regularly review the books he reads, starting with an explanation of his weekend experience reading Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain:
Seeing that the SciFi channel is airing a miniseries film adaptation of Andromeda Strain, I thought I had better read it again. I'm glad I did.
What has always struck me about Crichton's writing is his ability to write very technically on any topic as an expert would. He is helped by the fact that he is an expert on many of the topics: he is a medical doctor, graduating from Harvard Medical School, and an excellent scholar in general (graduating summa cum laude from Harvard's undergraduate program). It his his ability to thoroughly research any topic and present its technical details convincingly that makes his writing so compelling. It's science fiction, but believable.
The Andromeda Strain's plot revolves around a space program Scoop looking for extra-terrestrial life, and the associated Wildfire Project, a group headed by five scientists (the protagonists) responsible for responding to any extra-terrestrial biological threats brought back by Scoop spacecraft. The book begins with a Scoop satellite unexpectedly crashing in a rural town in Arizona. Immediately thereafter, the majority of the town is found mysteriously dead in the streets.
The book describes in great detail the military procedures surrounding the event, including the chain of command, flow of information, and especially failures in that system. Wikipedia points out:
The book is written as a single large false document; it appears to be an overview document written in the fictional world by an author surrogate narrator, scientifically documenting the events that took place and the systemic failures that worsened the situation. It is written in the style of the document one might expect to read tracing the events leading up to the
shuttle Columba disaster. The narrator's view subtly segues into first-person accounts of the protagonists.
The plot follows the chain of events set in motion beginning with the satellite's crash, the military's notice of it and subsequent clandestine issuance of a "Wildfire Alert", the activation of the scientists. The scientists travel to a secret hyper-modern (for the 1970s) computer-automated laboratory consisting of five separate underground levels of increasing clean-room strictness. Crichton details the uncomfortable, intrusive medical procedures the scientists must endure to sterilize themselves, their bodies, for experimentation on a hostile alien bacterium. The laboratory had much thought put into it and is prepared for the most dire of pathogenic villains; it comes equipped with a nuclear device that will computer-detonate if the facility detects that it has been compromised.
The narrator details the history of the structure and the scientific and political concerns surrounding its construction in great detail. Many false documents are presented to the reader describing contingency plans and possible interactions with Cold War-era Soviet Union in the event of a (test-ban-treaty-breaking) deployment of the nuclear device. It goes so far as to describe the command structure of the complex and explains psychological theories that advise who should be trusted to make the decision to stop or deploy the weapon.
When the scientists finally reach the fifth, most-clean level of the laboratory, they are faced with the monumental task of treating the two survivors and characterizing the nature of the plague; containment in the Arizona desert being nearly impossible, the team is in a race against time to develop an antidote before it spreads to the surrounding population and, presumably, the entire country.
As they work around the clock (having decided not to take amphetamines unless there is a *real* crisis), the characters and narrator explain the medical investigative process and experiments used to characterize the pathogen. Crichton's expert medical knowledge and hard scifi writing ability shine as he explains the various techniques and instruments, such as X-ray crystallography, and how it all fits together in the (although it is not explicitly mentioned).
Although the book is a great example of hard science fiction, Crichton only develops the characters enough to be passably believable; little time is spent on their motivations or emotions except as cogs in the larger system. The book's theme is clearly centered around the failure of large systems despite their planner's best efforts, and in general has a pessimistic view of applied science, explaining the herculean research efforts across decades needed to produce the most basic understanding of biology, and how futile this knowledge can be when confronted with the unknown (such as alien bacteria).
Andromeda Strain is quite a pessimistic book, but it is not gloomy. The conclusion of the book is merely that it is easier for things to go wrong than to go right, but beneath the surface of negativity is realism, a social commentary meant to counter what Crichton sees as blue-sky optimism. Ultimately, the book advocates a humanist philosophy: that humanity can control its own fate against adversity if we put in enough careful effort.
Overall, the book was quite enjoyable, a stroll into medicine and military policy that this software engineer found refreshing and intriguing. Andromeda Strain has the feel of a grand thought experiment, exploring both the depths and interactions between the military, US government, politics, science, and individual psychology. Although probably not the best example of Crichton's writing, Andromeda Strain has cemented its place on my list of must-read books in hard science fiction.
Seeing that the SciFi channel is airing a miniseries film adaptation of Andromeda Strain, I thought I had better read it again. I'm glad I did.
What has always struck me about Crichton's writing is his ability to write very technically on any topic as an expert would. He is helped by the fact that he is an expert on many of the topics: he is a medical doctor, graduating from Harvard Medical School, and an excellent scholar in general (graduating summa cum laude from Harvard's undergraduate program). It his his ability to thoroughly research any topic and present its technical details convincingly that makes his writing so compelling. It's science fiction, but believable.
The Andromeda Strain's plot revolves around a space program Scoop looking for extra-terrestrial life, and the associated Wildfire Project, a group headed by five scientists (the protagonists) responsible for responding to any extra-terrestrial biological threats brought back by Scoop spacecraft. The book begins with a Scoop satellite unexpectedly crashing in a rural town in Arizona. Immediately thereafter, the majority of the town is found mysteriously dead in the streets.
The book describes in great detail the military procedures surrounding the event, including the chain of command, flow of information, and especially failures in that system. Wikipedia points out:
A notable recurring theme in Crichton's plots is the pathological failure of complex systems and their safeguards, whether biological ("Jurassic Park"), military/organizational ("The Andromeda Strain") or cybernetic ("Westworld").
The book is written as a single large false document; it appears to be an overview document written in the fictional world by an author surrogate narrator, scientifically documenting the events that took place and the systemic failures that worsened the situation. It is written in the style of the document one might expect to read tracing the events leading up to the
shuttle Columba disaster. The narrator's view subtly segues into first-person accounts of the protagonists.
The plot follows the chain of events set in motion beginning with the satellite's crash, the military's notice of it and subsequent clandestine issuance of a "Wildfire Alert", the activation of the scientists. The scientists travel to a secret hyper-modern (for the 1970s) computer-automated laboratory consisting of five separate underground levels of increasing clean-room strictness. Crichton details the uncomfortable, intrusive medical procedures the scientists must endure to sterilize themselves, their bodies, for experimentation on a hostile alien bacterium. The laboratory had much thought put into it and is prepared for the most dire of pathogenic villains; it comes equipped with a nuclear device that will computer-detonate if the facility detects that it has been compromised.
The narrator details the history of the structure and the scientific and political concerns surrounding its construction in great detail. Many false documents are presented to the reader describing contingency plans and possible interactions with Cold War-era Soviet Union in the event of a (test-ban-treaty-breaking) deployment of the nuclear device. It goes so far as to describe the command structure of the complex and explains psychological theories that advise who should be trusted to make the decision to stop or deploy the weapon.
When the scientists finally reach the fifth, most-clean level of the laboratory, they are faced with the monumental task of treating the two survivors and characterizing the nature of the plague; containment in the Arizona desert being nearly impossible, the team is in a race against time to develop an antidote before it spreads to the surrounding population and, presumably, the entire country.
As they work around the clock (having decided not to take amphetamines unless there is a *real* crisis), the characters and narrator explain the medical investigative process and experiments used to characterize the pathogen. Crichton's expert medical knowledge and hard scifi writing ability shine as he explains the various techniques and instruments, such as X-ray crystallography, and how it all fits together in the (although it is not explicitly mentioned).
Although the book is a great example of hard science fiction, Crichton only develops the characters enough to be passably believable; little time is spent on their motivations or emotions except as cogs in the larger system. The book's theme is clearly centered around the failure of large systems despite their planner's best efforts, and in general has a pessimistic view of applied science, explaining the herculean research efforts across decades needed to produce the most basic understanding of biology, and how futile this knowledge can be when confronted with the unknown (such as alien bacteria).
Andromeda Strain is quite a pessimistic book, but it is not gloomy. The conclusion of the book is merely that it is easier for things to go wrong than to go right, but beneath the surface of negativity is realism, a social commentary meant to counter what Crichton sees as blue-sky optimism. Ultimately, the book advocates a humanist philosophy: that humanity can control its own fate against adversity if we put in enough careful effort.
Overall, the book was quite enjoyable, a stroll into medicine and military policy that this software engineer found refreshing and intriguing. Andromeda Strain has the feel of a grand thought experiment, exploring both the depths and interactions between the military, US government, politics, science, and individual psychology. Although probably not the best example of Crichton's writing, Andromeda Strain has cemented its place on my list of must-read books in hard science fiction.
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posted by Justin Crites at
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