Halloween Bingo 2022
This novel is older than I realized when I selected it for this game. Published in 1969, the vast majority of the technologies seem painfully archaic (which is not the book's fault). Also, I generally have a personal rule against fiction books that have diagrams and/or computer printouts. Bibliographies too. It's usually a sign that character development will be unsatisfactory, even for the thriller category. This novel had all three.
Scientific equipment and test methods are described in loving detail, while our [white male] characters remain cardboard cut-outs. They are the epitome of detached experimenters and as a result are pretty boring. There are few dialogs and those that take place are brief and wooden. There are a number of assumptions that we wouldn't make today (probably). The casual decision that an atomic blast would be the sensible way to deal with the contamination site. One scientist thinking that dinosaurs had just grown too big and ponderous to survive. The confident reliance on computers as infallible.
Combine all of that with a lacklustre ending, and this was a difficult read. I can appreciate that it may have been exciting in its time, but we have thankfully moved along. Unless you are interested in the history of science fiction, I would recommend giving The Andromeda Strain a miss. I read this for the Plague & Disease square of my Halloween Bingo card.
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