A for Andromeda

Novelization of the BBC TV Series

Originality, excitement, pace, and scientific accuracy—readers who appreciate these elements in science fiction will enjoy thoroughly this outstanding novel of adventure. is the product of a very successful collaboration between an astrophysicist of world-wide reputation and a talented dramatist whose work for British television has received the highest critical recognition.

The scene is set ten years from now. A new radio-telescope picks up from the constellation of Andromeda, two hundred light-years away, a complex series of signals which prove to be a program for a giant computer. Someone in outer space is trying to communicate, using a supremely clever yet entirely logical method.

When the necessary computer is built and begins to relay the information it receives from Andromeda, the project assumes a vital importance: politically, militarily, and commercially. For scientists find themselves possessing knowledge previously unknown to man, knowledge of such a nature that the security of human life itself is threatened.

As a seven-part serial on BBC television, this story established popularity records. The last several installments doubled BBC’s audience, reaching 80 per cent of the viewing audience of Great Britain.