HarperCollins Publishers announced in early 2019 that the Crichton estate has approved the publication of The Andromeda Evolution, a direct sequel to Michael Crichton’s 1969 classic technothriller The Andromeda Strain.
Now I have most of Michael Crichton's books and generally love them, The Andromeda Strain included. Incidentally, this was the first novel published under his own name and established him as a best-selling author.
I was in Kmart at Airport West (Melbourne) in December 2019 when I saw the newly minted sequel on the shelves. It was the first I had heard of it so I read the blurb and it sounded ok. But I was not prepared to spend $30 on a whim so decided to source it in ebook format. This done, I read it in the space of a week. What a disappointment.
Matthew rated it on Goodreads as follows:
I thought this was a far fetched, outlandish, unbelievably boring mess. The whole plot is held together by the thinnest of spiderwebs. Most of the time when something happened, I said to myself,"seriously . . . SERIOUSLY!? Ugh *sigh*". Also, it felt like plot points were being randomly generated to move the questionable story along. The only thing I was interested in was finishing it so I could move on.
Alas, I must follow suite. The author has tried to emulate the writing style of Crichton but he has failed badly in the story line. The book jerks from one ridiculous premise to another. I found it frustrating to read and was glad when I had finished.
Just to be sure, I re-read The Andromeda Strain which I have in triple book format, along with Rising Sun and Binary. The original left it for dead in terms of story line and plausibility.
Sometimes sequels by other authors work and sometimes they don't. Check out these ones I've come across.
https://timsbestreads.blogspot.com/p/the-night-of-triffids-by-simon-clark.html
https://timsbestreads.blogspot.com/p/i-decided-that-for-my-next-dickens.html
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