Book: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Krishna
We have reviewed some of this author’s work, Next and Prey to quote just two examples. This is a well known book from the author, who revels in mixing science with fast paced stories. And makes the science simple enough to understand for any layman.
Lieutenant Roger Shawn was in Arizona, binoculars in hand. He was with Lewis Crane, the electronics expert. Their job was to find the capsules of Scoop Satellite, which went out to upper atmosphere and then returned. This seemed to have landed in Piedmont, Arizona, a very small town, instead of about 20 miles North. They go into the town, spooked by how quiet it was. They then “imagine” they saw a body. As per protocol, they establish a communication with Lieutenant Edgar Comroe.
They report seeing several bodies at various positions. It is as if they all died suddenly. Then they hear Shawn and Crane talking about a white robed figure walking towards them, at which point the transmission is abruptly cut off and they were unable to raise them again from the control room.
Comroe reports it up to Major Manchek who seems to grasp something. He orders the town bombed by fighter pilots but one pilot who comes to take pictures of the ‘after’ sees all the bodies strewn there.
When he gets the picture and videos, he sees a figure in white moving – alive! – among the corpses. He declares a State of Emergency in the camp and also calls the unit – as he has been trained – to investigate contamination from space.
Due to an error, the emergency unit’s automated service called only two experts instead of the required five initially. One of them is Dr Jeremy Stone, who is summoned. He is the originator of the program called Scope, and is a Nobel Prize winning biologist, well respected in academia and government alike.
Dr Mark Hall, the surgeon, is interrupted at the start of a surgery by the Wildfire call. He is irascible and frankly, not the choice that Stone liked but was thrust into the team by the government.
Jeremy Stone and Charles Burton go with Manchek in a helicopter to ground zero in Arizona in full Hazmat suits.
They find no bleeding in all the corpses and finding a doctor who was dead in his chair, they fully disect him and amazed to again find no blood. When they cut an artery, and later, the heart, they find all blood had instantaneously clotted inside the body!
But they find that not everyone died instantly. Some had time to plan – mostly to take their own life – and they found a living baby too – hungry and needed diaper changing and therefore crying – but definitely alive! They also find the old man – Peter Jackson – who mistakes them for the aliens who killed the town. When he falls unconscious, they carry him back as well – still inside the suites since they do not know if the rescued have been contaminated or could contaminate others.
Now, the next interesting thing is that the infected animals, safely are exposed to others and they die. Autopsy (by remote computers) reveals that the infection starts in the lungs and then spreads all over the body. In addition, they determine that the size of the infectant is that of bacteria and not a virus. They miss a crucial factor by not autopsying the brain to determine if the death is due to something there as opposed to “just” coagulating blood. All very fascinating and told in layman’s terms – which is the hallmark of this author.
Leavitt is troubled to see that he has lapses where time has sped up and he did not know what he was doing. To protect his career, he decided to ‘keep it a secret’ for now.
Dr Hill has been found in a coma but was revived. The strain seems to be evolving into a plastic and PVC eating version but luckily not fatal to humans anymore.
Interesting, and an abrupt ending, until you understand that the author has written some sequels later!!
6/10
— Krishna