Boldly going where I have not been before and continuing with my decision that 2026 I will read authors that I never read before, after old fashioned 1902. western, I decided to check out something completely different and took The Andromeda Strain". It was not the first novel by Michael Crichton but first he published under his own name (until than he was publishing what he was calling "airport books" - "I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back."). There is also a movie, but I really wanted to read the novel. The change of pace was very welcome and it was so refreshing to switch from old fashioned western to something relatively modern - even though it was published in 1969, it was still super exciting.
In the middle of the night, group of scientists are quickly summoned to a secret place in Nevada desert where they have to research satellite that brought some kind of lethal microbes to earth. The little town where the satellite had landed was completely wiped out, except some crazy old man and a crying baby. It turns out the deaths were caused by an extraterrestrial microbe transported by a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit. The miracle of all of this is that Crichton packs his novel full of technicality and medical jargon that would usually surely be boring but in his capable hands it somehow turns into extremely exciting thriller and I found myself totally immersed and reading it until 2:30 a.m. last night. Just briliant!
