The Andromeda Evolution
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The Andromeda Evolution
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Narrated by:
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Julia Whelan
About this listen
Fifty years after The Andromeda Strain made Michael Crichton a household name – and spawned a new genre, the technothriller – the threat returns, in a gripping sequel that is terrifyingly realistic and resonant.
THE EVOLUTION IS COMINGIn 1967, an extraterrestrial microbe – designated the Andromeda Strain – came crashing down to Earth and nearly ended the human race. A team of top scientists worked valiantly to save the world from an epidemic of unimaginable proportions. In the ensuing decades, research on the microparticle continued. And the world thought it was safe.…
Deep inside Fairchild Air Force Base, Project Eternal Vigilance has continued to watch and wait for the Andromeda Strain to reappear. And now, a Brazilian terrain-mapping drone has detected a bizarre anomaly of otherworldly matter, bearing the tell-tale chemical signature of the deadly microparticle.
With this shocking discovery, a diverse team of experts hailing from all over the world is dispatched to investigate the potentially apocalyptic threat. But the microbe is growing – evolving. And if the team can’t reach the quarantine zone, enter the anomaly, and figure out how to stop it, this new Andromeda Evolution will annihilate all life as we know it.
‘A meticulously crafted adventure story, packed with action, mystery, wonder, and just enough hard science to scare the hell out of you. So good!’ Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One
‘Wilson invokes the best of [Crichton’s classic novel], and updates everything with terrific flair’ Mail Online
‘Does a good job of mixing hard science and thrills’ The i
‘Satisfyingly amplifies the original’ Financial Times
Would make Crichton proud” Washington Post
‘Tautly told, often exciting and tense’ SFX magazine
©2019 Michael Crichton (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Very entertaining
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The Andromeda Evolution improves on Crichton's formula by laying out much more of a readable story and actually feeling more like a novel, especially from about 40% of the way in. The beginning of the book is still bogged down with lengthy bios about the main cast of characters, delivered in the style of a report, not at all in the style of a novel.
In fact, I got the distinct impression I would have enjoyed the Andromeda Evolution more if it had NOT attempted to mimic Crichton so closely. The book is weakest where it emulates its predecessor most emphatically. Indeed, in the 'acknowledgements' at the start of the book, it seems almost to apologise for trying to be a better book than Crichton's:
"In some cases the reader must bear with technical reports based on little more than hard data, but when possible, this reportage has been bolstered with subjective opinions, thoughts, and emotions reported after the fact. By using both avenues of information, I have taken the liberty of reconstructing events to provide a more traditional narrative experience."
This book has so much that the original lacked, such as plot, rising tension, characters who manage to seem almost human. Yet the author - enlisted to the job by Crichton's widow, as I understand it - pays nauseating homage to the original by, for example, beginning some chapters with a Michael Crichton quote (especially baffling since Crichton is credited as an author of the book), and even by acknowledging a debt of thanks to him in the introduction, even though the introduction seems to be part of the fictional narrative.
Aside from all that, what you have here is a really interesting techno-thriller building on Crichton's fascinating take on alien invasion. Towards the end it gets a little bit larger-than-life, almost to an anime-worthy degree, but I found that my willing-disbelief was never stretched beyond its limits.
The epilogue is almost offensively trite (I'm talking about the big that mentions a marriage and an adoption) and the cast of characters has a distinctly box-ticking approach to diversity. But I finished the book with a sense that if another one was written, I would probably read it.
Frankly, very much an improvement on the original
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a good listen but a little predictable
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be better
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I looked for every opportunity to listen to this audiobook which told me I enjoyed to story and narration.
It’s not Michael Crichton, but the story and style were influenced by his work and Daniel Wilson has done an excellent job of taking the story forward.
Well worth a download and listen, once the story starts moving it really doesn’t stop till the conclusion!
Not quite Crichton but still a compelling listen
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