A military space probe, sent to collect extraterrestrial organisms from the upper atmosphere, is knocked out of orbit and falls to Earth. Twelve miles from the crash site, an inexplicable and deadly phenomenon terrorizes the residents of a sleepy desert town in Arizona, leaving only two survivors: an elderly addict and a newborn infant.
The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory located five stories beneath the desert …
A military space probe, sent to collect extraterrestrial organisms from the upper atmosphere, is knocked out of orbit and falls to Earth. Twelve miles from the crash site, an inexplicable and deadly phenomenon terrorizes the residents of a sleepy desert town in Arizona, leaving only two survivors: an elderly addict and a newborn infant.
The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory located five stories beneath the desert and fitted with an automated atomic self-destruction mechanism for cases of irremediable contamination. Under conditions of total news blackout and the utmost urgency, the scientists race to understand and contain the crisis. But the Andromeda Strain proves different from anything they’ve ever seen—and what they don’t know could not only hurt them, but lead to unprecedented worldwide catastrophe.
Paperback, 304 pages
English language
Published Jan. 24, 2017 by Vintage.
Content warning Ending revealed
The plot and science is compelling 50+ years later. I found the ending unsatisfying: the organism evolved to be no threat to humans, on its own? Does that make all of their research pointless - the outcome for humanity would have been the same if Project Wildfire didn't exist? But I thoroughly enjoyed the book overall.
"Andromeda" non è un libro per tutti, visti molti risvolti tecnici (a cui siamo diventati abituati con la pandemia), ma è un thriller con i fiocchi. Ormai sono passati quasi vent'anni da quando ho letto gli altri libri di Crichton, ma questo non ha fatto altro che ricordarmi quanto l'autore sia bravo a far crescere la suspense da un capitolo all'altro.
Il finale l'ho trovato un pochino... diverso dal resto del testo, ma da pseudo-scrittore-in-erba l'ho trovata una soluzione piuttosto comoda.
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