The Andromeda Strain

Michael Crichton

From Shelf: Thrillers, chillers, page-turners, luggage-fillers

A space probe, designed to collect organisms and dust for study, falls to earth in a desolate area of north-eastern Arizona. In a nearby town, bodies lie flung about, faces frozen in surprise. The terror has begun. This bestseller is by the author of "Jurassic Park".

NOW CELEBRATING ITS 50th ANNIVERSARYRead the spectacular techno-thriller that catapulted Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton to fame.Five prominent biophysicists give the United States government an urgent warning: sterilisation procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, Project Scoop sends seventeen satellites into the fringes of space in order to 'collect organisms and dust for study'. Then a probe falls to the earth, landing in a desolate area of northeastern Arizona. A little while later, in the nearby town of Piedmont, bodies are discovered heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. But the terror has only just begun, because when they try to find the cause of death, the scientists don't realise just what kind of unearthly danger they are dealing with...Brilliantly filmed by Robert Wise in 1971, The Andromeda Strain was the first book to introduce Michael Crichton's audacious combination of believable plots and white-knuckled excitement to a wide audience.