This gets marketed as sci-fi but it's really more of a medical thriller and reminded me a bit of those popular old Robin Cook novels. When retrieving an outer space probe, the military finds that some infectious agent on the probe has killed most of a small western town, except for two survivors: a baby and an old drunk. A secret protocol called "Wildfire" is launched, and a team of scientists race to find out what kind of infectious agent it is, why the two people survived it, and how it can be contained or eliminated. As J. pointed out, the team doesn't actually do too much except avert one huge mistake at the end. Spoiler alert: the alien pathogen mutates into a non-lethal form all by itself. This wasn't a bad book, and I think Crichton probably did a lot of research about infectious agents that was very up-to-date when he wrote it, but less so now. Still, if I were recommending a Crichton novel to anyone, I'd suggest starting with "Jurassic Park" instead. The 1971 movie based on "Andromeda" wasn't bad and actually has a female scientist in it, unlike the book!

I have always loved the 1971 film adaptation of this book but had never read it. This is one of those very rare instances of my liking the film more.

Not my favorite of his but the premise is fun (and scary). I still enjoyed it but sometimes the scene setup would trail on and on and became kinda dense so my adhd brain would wonder off which then created many times where I had to go back and reread things

On the scale of excitement, this was not Jurassic Park. Not even close. This was a very interesting plot if you're into science and nerdy laboratory scenes, but if you're looking for a page-turner, this probably isn't the book for you. The writing is very dry, and it was pure curiosity that kept me reading. Even at the end, I'm still not entirely sure what was going on. Crichton writes this as if you are already in the know, so you are left guessing the reason there is an entire town left dead from an instant blow. Was it contamination from a returning space probe? Highly-infectious bacteria? Or aliens? Who's to be sure? I'm marking it down a point because there were some very unpleasant animal testing scenes that were described in the book, and boo to animal testing.

I enjoyed this book. Very interesting concept. I listened to the audible version and the reader's voice was fairly monotone.

Es un libro divertido en general, con una idea muy buena pero que al tener tantos datos técnicos se pierde la tensión y por momentos se hace cuesta arriba la lectura, y el final es bastante flojo, muy deus ex machina.
Se entiende que al ser uno de sus primeros libros le falte pulir cosas, pero con ese argumento se podría haber hecho algo realmente grandioso.

A good read, definitely more about the tension than the resolution as some other readers have said. I'm glad I read it, and it was certainly unique and entertaining. I do think Crichton could have used a better editor, however--he spent about a quarter of the book describing the meticulous multi-step process the scientists used to decontaminate themselves. Satisfying, but I was still ready to move on halfway through it.