“Andromeda Strain” novel gets a sequel

(FASTNEWS|COLOMBO) – Fifty years on from its release and over a decade on from its author’s death, “Jurassic Park” author Michael Crichton’s early sci-fi novel classic “The Andromeda Strain” is getting a sequel.

The work, which has been adapted to the screen twice as a 1971 film and 2008 mini-series, deals with a group of scientists working in an underground bio-containment lab who are in a race to solve a mystery.

That mystery? A crashed weather satellite near a town in New Mexico has unleashed a virus from the outer edges of the upper atmosphere that has killed every living thing in the town except two random people – a newborn infant and the town drunk. They have to determine how before it spreads.

HarperCollins Publishers have now announced that the Crichton estate has approved the publication of “The Andromeda Evolution” which serves as a direct sequel and has been penned by “Robopocalypse” author Daniel H. Wilson.

Crichton penned and directed the original “Westworld” film, along with other films like “Coma” and an adaptation of his own novel “The Great Train Robbery”. However it was the combined success of “Jurassic Park” and “E.R.” in the early 1990s led to a rush of screen adaptations of Crichton’s works including “Rising Sun,” “Disclosure,” “Congo,” “Sphere,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “Timeline” and “The 13th Warrior” (based on “Eaters of the Dead”). Crichton also produced “Twister”.

Despite attempts, many of his works published in the years before his death remain unadapted including “Airframe,” “Prey,” “Next” and “Micro”.