I first read Crichton's 'Andromeda Strain' when it came out in paperback, so this may have been nearly four decades ago; at the time, the term 'multimedia' meant little more than a book with some pictures in the middle.
I remember distinctly the bending of the rules that was the type-font of this story, with text that took on a pictoral role, enabling a kind of voyeuristic thrill to an already-exciting story.
I saw the author's name in reviews on and off over the years, always hoping to re-connect. With the recent 'Epigenetics' by C. David Allis just coming off my nightstand, I decided this would be a good audiobook to renew aquaintences.
Boy, am I sorry I did.

A snide talking parrot, a monkey-boy, some thread about a chatty ape in Java, cadaver-bone theft, gratuitous sex worthy of an adolescent boy: either Crichton phoned this one in, or he had a poor fiction-generating program churn it out.
My suggestion: grab a cheap used copy of 'Anromeda Strain' off Amazon or eBay, and leave it at that. The writing here makes Dan Brown look like Hemingway.