Decades after the Andromeda Strain wiped out Piedmont, Arizona, people have forgotten the danger. All but Eternal Vigilance, a military operation put in place to monitor for evidence Andromeda has returned. Now the remnants of a crashed ship in the Amazon have triggered alerts. Andromeda is back. A new Wildfire team is selected to investigate the reports. 

Continuing in the vein of Crichton’s classic, Daniel Wilson’s The Andromeda Evolution introduces a whole new generation of readers to the deadly organism. This time it is out in the wild, not contained in a lab. This new team faces untold dangers not just from the organism itself, which is rapidly constructing something in the depths of the Amazonian rainforest, but from the jungle itself and the uncontacted tribes living within. 

I enjoyed this story immensely! This Wildfire team is far more diverse, including an anthropologist, and a roboticist who has a small flock of ‘canary’ drones. At one point, to communicate with one of the natives they accidentally came in contact with, a canary drone is turned into a universal translator. Too cool. Another member is an astronaut on the ISS. There’s definitely more action and diversity in this story. The ending was neat too, though it does stretch the imagination. Andromeda continues to evolve. It’s here to stay. I hope there’s sequel! I’d love to see further evolutions. 

***Reviewed for the Tulsa Book Review