SciFri Book Club Open Thread: ‘The Andromeda Strain’

Today the book club will be discussing The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton. What did you think of the book?

You can share your thoughts on the book by calling in during the live broadcast from 3:30 to 4:00 ET (800-989-8255) and also chat here in the comments section. Or, join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #SciFriBookClub.

Here are some ideas to get the conversation started:

In The New York Times‘ article “An Appraisal of Michael Crichton,” Charles McGrath wrote:

No one—except possibly Mr. Crichton himself—ever confused [Crichton’s books] with great literature, but very few readers who started a Crichton novel ever put it down.

Did you find The Andromeda Strain to be a page turner? Did you like the style of writing?

In the video below, Michael Crichton talks about how people making predictions about the future are usually entirely wrong. Do you think science fiction can play a role in our understanding of the future?

In this video, Richard Preston talks about a harrowing visit to a U.S. Army biocontainment lab. (His hazmat suit had a hole in it. Terrifying!) Did the safety precautions and proposed solutions to the problem in The Andromeda Strain seem plausible to you? Were there any parts during which you thought, “There’s no way that would really happen!”? If you did notice errors in the science or faulty logic in decision-making, did they detract from the story?