Tis the season for returning from the dead.Goodreads is one of the few websites that I allow to send me notices.I try to check them daily, and I even read their monthly updates of new books by authors I’ve read.I was a bit surprised when November’s newsletter began with The Andromeda Evolution by Michael Crichton.I really enjoyed The Andromeda Strain when I was in high school.The fact that I was in high school four decades ago made me wonder about the robustness of Dr. Crichton, especially since I knew that he had died over a decade ago himself.I don’t know about you, but the writing industry feels crowded enough without dead people keeping in the competition.It’s like those professors who refuse to retire, but also refuse to teach or do research.Some people, apparently, can never get enough.
We live in an era of extreme longevity.In the scope of human history, people haven’t lived so long since before the flood.Some of us—not a few, mind you—work in fields with limited job openings.We are the sort who don’t really get the tech craze, intelligent Luddites who’d rather curl up in the corner with an actual book.There are very few professorates available.Even fewer editorships.And anyone who’s tried to get an agent without being one of the former knows that there are far too many writers out there.Now the dead keep cranking ‘em out.I’ve got half-a-dozen unpublished novels sitting right here on my lap.Crichton’s gone the way of all flesh, but with an active bank account.
The end result of this Novemberish turn of events is that I want to read The Andromeda Strain again.I haven’t posted it to Goodreads since when I read it the internet itself wasn’t even a pipe dream, except perhaps in the teenage fantasies of some sci-fi fans.Since you can’t rate a book twice on Goodreads, and because paper books don’t disappear when you upgrade your device, I can do it.I can actually walk to the shelf and pull a vintage mass-market paperback off it.Even if the Earth passes through the tail of some comet and all networks are down.And I seem to recall that the original strain came from outer space.As did the strange radiation that brought the ghouls back to life on The Night of the Living Dead.Now if only some of the rest of us might get in on the action.
