Worthy sequel

Brilliant, gripping story that follows closely in the footsteps on the first novel but with more action and better representation for a modern audience. If you enjoyed the Andromeda strain, you'll enjoy the evolution too.

Fantastic performance from Julia Whelan, very easy listening.

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Weaker than the original

I listened to this back to back with the Andromeda Strain. AS was sharp, thrilling and surprising in places. AE on the other hand is more formulaic - dare I say written like a film as opposed to the more nuanced original.

It's perfectly fine.

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Amazingly performed

It was a great listen, there are some slightly over complicated moments, but I always feel like that’s for us as listen to be more believing in how smart some people in their positions are. Really wish there was a sequel, leaves me wanting to know what’s next!

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Truly riveting Crichton-esque storytelling

The essence of Crichton-esque science fiction is captured herewith: factual, fast-paced and focused. It had so many cliffhangers that I how have altitude sickness (the edgiest being the discovery that James Stone was the baby that survived the Piedmont incident and was thus immune to the Andromeda evolution!).

I was mesmerized by the ai-enhanced personal drones of Dr Stone, the brain-interface technology used by Dr Kline and the quick-thinking scientific efficacy of Dr Vadala.
The diversity of The Wildfire Team was also impressive.

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Frankly, very much an improvement on the original

I've given this book three stars, having given "The Andromeda Strain" only two. The original book was extremely dry, devoid of plot or charm, and propped up only by a very interesting fundamental premise - the Andromeda organism itself. As best as I can understand, people who really enjoyed it did so for the simulated experience of getting a look at a 'top secret' report, complete with time-stamped dialogue transcriptions, inventories and info-dumps.

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.

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A Second Opportunity Missed!

I came late to the original book having loved the film when younger but after being gripped by the opening to 'The Andromeda Strain' felt that it was an opportunity missed as technicality strangled all of the tension out of the book. I said that I wondered if Crichton ever felt as if he should revisit it but sadly whether he wanted to or not we'll never know now.

Anyway, up steps Daniel H. Wilson with an attempt to take that opportunity and although he writes a reasonable tale it sill doesn't feel like the atmospheric tension of that opening scene from all those decades ago will ever be realised. This book follows a group of scientists into the Amazonian Jungle as they are flown in to investigate a strange anomaly. In fairness it does develop into a fast-moving story and there is great action at the end but despite all the pseudo-science and weighty sounding quotes and reports it does get a touch fanciful with characters, even running, out of breath and pushed to the limits still manage to give emotional speeches to their comrades. And logistics get totally ignored in the main setup of the story.

In essence I did enjoy it, Whelan narrates well with enough voices to separate the characters and the story both retains a lot of the elements of Crichton's writing style and crucially moves the story of the Andromeda Strain on considerably. I suspect a lot of people will get more out of it than I did but in the end it just never delivered on that promise of the opening scenes from all those years ago. I never again felt that supremely chill dread and so to me it's again something of an opportunity missed.

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6 people found this helpful

Not as good as the original but a good listen

The original was a hard act to follow, and this one aimed but I don’t feel it quite made it. Relies on megalomaniac scientist plotting in secret trope. Some good twists though - I won’t spoil it for anyone who chooses to listen. It also offers a lot of potential avenues for further reflection, though I think a follow up will be vary hard. My real bugbear was that the US is assumed to own something built in Brazil by someone in secret and without permission. No justification given as to why Brazil wouldn’t at least claim ownership, given how valuable it seems.

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Ok, but flawed

I read the original novel Andromeda Strain when it first came out, and have been a fan of Crichton's work for many years. When I saw this sequel I was surprised and felt rather doubtful about how it would compare. The story is quite good and starts very well, but it has several flaws that I am sure Crichton would never have made, for example accelerating the ISS to reach geostationary orbit. (ISS velocity is 7.9kps, geostationary objects are at approx 3kps, it actually would need to slow down). The flaws I found to be an irritation. The performer gives a rather dry, clinical narration which in the context of the story rather worked for me. I am not a fan of books where a dead author's name appears in big bold letters and "written by..." appears in fine print below the title, this audiobook, whilst not bad, did not change my opinion.

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a good listen but a little predictable

An enjoyable listen overall but a little heavy handed on a couple of literary devices which leads to some obvious and frustrating moments. The story is presented as an account verified by various recordings from devices littered around the environment in which it takes place, but it's overdone a little, and in onecase relating to drones references a recording taken from them at a later date having previously said they were all inoperable. There's also the point of the recovery of the information throughout the story which becomes increasingly unlikely. other than that, and some predictability in the progression, it's OK. I'd I'd read it it would be 3 stars but the performance as an audio book improved it. Read Robopocalypse and you'll forgive the author.

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Very entertaining

Excellent story progression skipping quickly but seamlessly through to an interesting finale. A mix of science fact and science fiction woven together. HG Well would have been proud

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