Andromeda Strain addresses a "worst case" scenario, where an unknown bacteria has the potential to wreak havoc on society, and a secret government agency has to deal with it before it gets completely loose.

The construction of the events and the execution feels very real - rather than an elite team of geniuses who use super spy powers to do whatever they want, you get a feel for the bureaucracy created by a government organization made to address an unknown threat, and the hodge-podge nature of a team of fallible humans. While I'm not up to snuff on my biochemistry, I'm willing to bet the analysis methods presented in the book (in extreme detail) would probably hold up to scrutiny.

While logically I understand the sequence of events that lead up to the ending and it does make sense, it still felt like a cop-out to me. As I was approaching fewer and fewer pages left in the book, I kept wondering, "How is he going to wrap this up in a satisfying way with so few pages left?" Well, he didn't.