If you’ve never seen (or read) the Andromeda Strain, this may pique your interest, but it will also spoil the ending.
However, in the way that life appears to imitate art, the release of the sequel to the very first “techno-thriller” in November 2019 seems a little prophetic or predictive, depending upon one’s viewpoint.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/michael-crichton/andromeda-evolution.htm
Fifty years after The Andromeda Strain made Michael Crichton a household name and spawned a new genre, the techno-thriller, the threat returns in a gripping sequel that is terrifyingly realistic and resonant.
The evolution is coming.
The sequel might be worth reading for any one of 601 reasons.
In any case, the Washington Post’s witty review of the recently released sequel is, well, witty.
The Andromeda Strain original movie pretty good,saw it when it came out as a kid.
I will be honest and say am a bit sick of the mexi beer virus news,really do not care personally unless it gets a lot worse.I feel the poor citizens in China going to face a large death count due to the lack of deliveries of basic goods ect.,they are getting as most citizens fucked by their govt.
I will say on a personal note am thinking what if any products do I buy made in China that I really need(if any).I will make a list of things if I feel I really need and get a few more and like most here prepped pretty well if things hit the fan here.
Operation Sea Spray. Really happened.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/blood-and-fog-the-militarys-germ-warfare-tests-in-san-francisco
Here’s what I remember, the blood in the dead bodies was granulated, only an old drunk dude and a baby had survived. That’s about it.
I remember a TIME or some top tier magazine maybe 35-40 years ago with a front cover picture that looked dead on like coronavirus. The headline read something to the effect that viruses are the biggest threat to humanity.
I read the Andromeda Strain in a Readers Digest Condensed book version when I was probably nine or ten.
I never saw the movie. I am considering watching it now, but I have a feeling it might ruin it for me.
When studying literature at Harvard, Michael Crichton thought one of his professors was grading him unfairly so M.C. submitted one of George Orwell’s essays under his name. When the professor gave Orwell’s essay a “B”, M.C. dropped his English major and was later accepted into Harvard’s medical school.
That’s a true story and the moral is this:
November 11, 2019 7:00am PT by Chris Gardner
Michael Crichton’s Widow, Sherri, Opens Up on ‘Andromeda Strain’ Sequel With “Female Scientific Edge”
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rambling-reporter/michael-crichtons-widow-opens-up-andromeda-strain-sequel-i-cant-say-it-was-ever-a-slam-dunk-1253606
Just funny how short Tom is
Actually, I believe Crichton was like 6’8″ tall.
I watched that movie. Funny thing… the movie reflects on the viewer the same situation that is going on now with the coronavirus.
There is a “theory” in the writing business that really good fiction ideas kind of float around in a thought plasma cloud. There have been a lot of pandemic tales since then and The Stand by King probably outdid Crichton, but Andromeda started it all.
‘The Andromeda Evolution’ an infectious sequel to Michael Crichton’s classic best-seller
Don Oldenburg
Special to USA TODAY
“The Andromeda Evolution,” by Daniel H. Wilson and Michael Crichton.
If this disease turns out to be “the big one” then this 50 year anniversary sequel is sure to get some big credit.
Posted this earlier and somehow it disappeared, so try it again.
See? Within a couple of years very similar fictional works written, including The Stand, which is about as Blatantly Apocalyptic and Theatrically Appropriate, as Mygirl made note of just the other day…
Who bests “Trashcan Man” as a better Harbinger of the End of The World As We Know It?
ODE TO TRASH CAN MAN
Mags- I read Whitley Strieber’s books back in the day (not sure about Straub(?), I’m pretty sure he was outted as MIC/MIEC writer.
I wondered as a kid reading why angels poured out disease upon humanity (REVELATION), seemed contrary to what any angel, even vitriolic (or not) should ever bring forth on the defenseless.
Well, I actually edited my comment to correct, Bea, because I realized I’d confused Strieber and Straub. Straub and King actually co-wrote a book “The Talisman” which was very well done, although the merge was bulky and poorly done from this editor’s point of view. No one asked me.
But, the idea of cyclical contagion visited upon communities or regions was one that was sort of “popular” among the different genre authors at the time. What sells for one, sells for others.
I read a lot of these books while in high school and often would discuss the themes with my father. He was interested in the books I read… to a point (unlike me, in later life, I realized I had better be reading what my kid was reading to speak his language). But, when I was a teen, the context and content of young adult books had not gotten so coarse. King was crude, but he wasn’t obscene until a bit later, when he weirded out.
So, my father brought up the idea that every few decades people seem to want to write about different ways the world might end. Like that Huxley guy. And Orwell. Dad saw things from the 1930s.
Sometimes, so do I.
Maggie- I prefer to look at things from old school perspective. It is apparent that the books/movies/media from decades ago were to imprint certain things….killer viruses for sure. I’ll make you a Malthusian bet of one dollah that a butt load of people die from war/disease/famine in the next twenty years.
You just named all four of the horsemen, BL: war, disease, famine and DEATH
It’s part of the construct, a recurring cycle of human history. We have no control over these events Maggie. I had that “Come to Jesus” moment many moons ago.
Fear not, those who are “true of heart” will survive as they cannot be touched by this evil.
Only Christ is true of heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 KJB… “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Do you have Christ?
Remember when this book came out? I do.