Next

This is, decidedly, not the book I was looking for. Next feels like an early draft of something that could have ended up being an interesting scientific thriller, but it’s a mess. And even saying that much is kind.

Where Next starts to dive a little into genetics, it struggles to find footing on an exact aspect of the science it wants to target. There’s corporate policy, ownership, patents, ending, morality in extraction, morality in experimentation… that’s the tip of the iceberg. While Crichton can be a bit preachy at some times, he’s often more balanced than he was in Next.

Every character in this book is the worst example of humanity. Male characters consistently belittle female character. All characters are incredibly show more greedy, going sideways outside the law in any way they can to get what they want. Every character is extreme and there’s so. many. POVs. I don’t think I saw a POV repeat until about page 100. There’s so many dramatic character interactions. This includes children trying to kill one another, animal testing, and a woman who was hired to frame a man for statutory rape (that whole scene… I have so many issues). While I don’t want to belittle these things, because they happen in real life and they are tragic and terrible, Crichton just went for all the most depraved aspects of humanity as though to say “genes will destroy humanity”. … Which is just… a little too conspiracy theory for me.

The storytelling itself almost entirely missing. There’s almost no consistent storyline, and the end of he book feels very much like a quick “oh shit” wrap up where most of the storylines come together. Of course, some characters and storylines were abandoned in the first half of the book and there’s no closure. Each chapter is one screenshot after another of some way gene therapy or genetic experimentation has ruined the lives of the character.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend Next to anyone. Not only is it an unimpressive story content-wise, it’s such a hot mess as a novel. It feels like a first draft more than a finished book and it’s a little surprising that it got all the way to publication in this state, because it’s such a mess? But bestselling authors do tend to get some leeway on these things. Crichton has a lot of a better books than this, and I suggest picking up one of those instead. show less

So here we have another Crichton book that makes people flip out because he doesn’t deify scientists and constantly kiss their asses. He makes the assertion that science is a career these days and what do people do to get ahead in careers? They lie, cheat, steal and betray. Surprise.

One should not read Crichton for deep characterizations or esoteric dialogue. One reads Crichton for fast action, scientific inquiry and treachery. We get it in spades in Next. What we also get, unfortunately, are a lot of characters and sub-plots. At first, they are very hard to get involved with because each chapter devoted to them is very short, but soon enough we see parallels and they start to connect.

The most engaging and hilarious bit involves show more Gerald the transgenic parrot. His owner discovers that the human genetic element she installed is manifesting itself when she finds out he’s been helping her son with his math homework and it’s perfect (classwork is poor, homework is good – red flag for teacher). Soon Gerald talking up a storm and in addition to talking, he’s a biological tape recorder and starts playing back the scene of her husband’s latest affair. The husband flips out and gives the bird away. He ends up out west and is abandoned by the person transporting him to his new owner. Driven crazy by the bird’s incessant babbling, he just lets him go in the California desert. From there he ends up at an exclusive spa.

Gerald ties together many of the sub plots in the end. The Burnet family is being chased by the Biogen corporation so they can harvest some cells. Prior court rulings say that they own Mr. Burnet’s cells because he signed away his rights to them if used in any experiments, which of course they were. The Biogen Corporation is being taken apart from the inside because the major investor wants it all for himself. He is working with Mr. Burnet to make sure the cells are not recovered.

There’s an alleged ‘bioterrorist’ who decides to protest the industrialization of the world by genetically altering sea turtles. There’s a doctor at UCLA Medical who is selling organs and bones out of the bodies that come into the morgue. He performed some tests on some blood that his buddy brought to him to prove his own paternity of a transgenic chimpanzee. There’s a biologist and tour guide in Sumatra who is tracking a talking (and multi-lingual swearing) orangutan. There’s the head of the NIC who steals research papers and sets up younger doctors in positions he can exploit. In the end, Crichton weaves all of these seemingly disparate threads together.

But amid all the excitement and creeping dread, Crichton did make me think. And I didn’t like what I had to think about. All the hype and media exploitation of gene research and therapy. How gene research companies are patenting genes left and right even though they have no real evidence that the effects they are patenting are real. Companies are taking possession of human tissues and courts are ruling that people have no rights to their own body parts. Scary.

And that’s the point. Crichton wants to shock. To scare. To make us think. How much good it actually does is debatable. Peons like me have no say as to how the architecture of society gets built. I’m not stupid. I know this. And it worries me. Glad I don’t have kids. show less

In Next, Michael Crichton delivers another fun, intellectually stimulating read as he explores the topic of today's completely unregulated world of genetic science and genetic engineering. The story takes the reader from the wilds of Borneo to the NIH's primate research campus to corporate labs and boardrooms, where careless researchers and financially-driven biotech CEOs play Russian roulette with the human genome and our collective future. Well researched, with a vaguely drawn line between what is and isn't real, Next tantalizes as it terrifies us with the unimaginable consequences that can, and probably do, occur regularly, when reckless hubris, unbridled greed, out-of-step courts, absentee legislators and human frailties collide. show more The book's depth, however, does not match its breadth. In his effort to keep the pace of the book galloping forward, Chrichton misses an opportunity to create more multidimensional characters and a far richer reader experience. Still, a fascinating and intriguing read. show less

This is a smart science-based thriller about the ethical and legal issues surrounding genetic engineering. Crichton manages to cram so much material and thought into this book, that I'm almost shocked it's still a page-turner, but it is. The characters are absolutely believable, and the situations are frighteningly believable. Many of the questions addressed here are already drifting into our court-systems, and I'm sure some of the others are sure to follow. Yet, at heart, this is an intelligent novel that entertains even as it drives thought--I can't recommend it highly enough if you're interested in either the subject or the genre. There's also plenty of humor in the book, which is a welcome addition to the action and suspense. For show more animal lovers, especially, this will provide plenty of smiles. My only warning? This is a book that you need to read relatively quickly, whatever that is for you. There are so many different sub-plots and characters that you can't just drift through this one over the course of two or three weeks while reading other books on the side---though, really, the book will probably hook you quickly enough that you won't Want to put it down.

Yet, I do have some qualms that make it a less-than-five-star read, for two small reasons that don't really detract from the book in the end, Depending on you subjective take on what you want to gain from reading and your taste. First, there are So many sub-plots, that at times I was frustrated at how they'd all fit together. Yet, Crichton never let go of the ones that held the most interest, and balanced them admirably. Once I'd finished the book, considered the work as a whole, and given some thought to the title, I was satisfied with the structure and just decided to reread it at some later date if I have time--still, it was at times an inkling of an annoyance as to how it would all come together in the end.

Second, Crichton does have an agenda here. He did extensive research, and there's a "for further reading bibliography" at the end of the book that gives the proof, along with a short essay-like list of Crichton's post research conclusions on the questions he explores. For me personally, this is a welcome addition to the book, but then, I like books that make me think. If you're looking for a thriller that you can pick up and put down, reading it without letting it affect your thinking or drive you to consider larger contemporary issues facing our society, this may not be the best book for you. For me, again, I think it was well done, and makes this an intelligent book, but I realize others are looking to solely escape reality with their reading...and for them, this may not be quite sci-fi enough or live up to Jurassic Park, though I'd say it surpasses the earlier works that I've read.

In the end, if you're interested, I recommend it, but with the understanding that it's not for everyone, as described above. show less

it's been a while since i've read a biological thriller. this was really fun. the science and biological ethics that he brings up are super intriguing. as a thriller it's not great - there are so many strands of the story and many of them are thin, plus he goes too far with some of the speculative biology - but overall the ethical questions and biology were so interesting that i didn't really mind. the main issues are patenting (and therefore ownership) of genes and biological specimens and transgenic organisms/animals/creations. he brings up a lot of really interesting questions in the novel, and if you aren't sure his point, he has a nice author's note in the back that tells you what he thinks about all of it, with a reading list to show more back it up. i loved it for this ethical biology aspect and everything he does with it. the rest is honestly just meh, but it's totally worth reading for the good parts. it's also nice to read a thriller that has deeper implications. this was a fast, good read for me. show less

I always enjoy a book that makes me think about things I hadn't yet considered. And if it can do so while keeping me entertained with good story telling then all the better. This book succeeded on both accounts. It's prefaced with the text:

"Welcome to our genetic world. Fast, furious, and out of control. This is not the world of the future -- it's the world of right now." (bookflap)

and

"This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren't." (intro page)

The book is enjoyable in your typical suspension of disbelief way, none of it seems real. But, as it gets further in, you do begin questioning what of this is real today, and realize that the rest may not be far behind at all.

It makes you think about the moral issues behind genetic show more research and, while I'm as big of a fan of capitalism as the next American, if we might not be taking things too far. If corporations can patent genes (which is one of the parts that is of course NOT fiction), can they patent the cells in an individual? And what would that mean for the person? Should corporations be allowed to patent ideas or information that may be required to cure diseases, effectively preventing others from researching and potentially finding cures to the things that ail us? If health insurance companies can refuse to cover us for pre-existing conditions, what does that mean when genetic testing is able to expose conditions that we're predisposed to from birth? And do we need to think twice about how much we trust our morticians when the high dollars associated with medical research mean a black market for body parts?

These aren't the questions we typically hear around the morality of genetic research, but if the average consumer doesn't know about these things, then they will occur without hindrance. I think Crichton clearly wrote the book to bring attention to them for this reason. So, kudos to him for doing it in an entertaining way and one that's accessible to even those of us that come in knowing nothing about the field. show less

Someday in the distant future people will be reading their history books and shaking their heads at us, chuckling and wondering how we could behave so absurdly...not unlike the way we do now with some of the absurd science that took place a century before us, really. You see, we patent genes. GENES. The genes in your body can be legally owned by a private company, and they don't even have to do anything, they just have to point at it and say "That's ours" and poof, they own it. What? Hm? How? It's like pointing to the moon and saying "that's mine" and poof, the moon is yours and no one else can have it.

It's so head-slappingly preposterous, yet it's exactly what happens. Big businesses and major pharmaceutical companies OWN YOUR GENES, show more which means a part of you is THEIR PROPERTY. And if you find out a way to profit from it, they can sue you! And if you have a genetic disease but the owner of the patent is too busy working on other things so your gene (and disease) is on the back burner, guess what? No one else can help you find a cure, because it would be illegal to cure you! Only that company can work on it legally. Intriguingly, despite all this, if you contract a patented genetic disease that is killing you, you are not allowed to sue the company. So you can't cure yourself because they OWN the gene, but if you are dying as a result of THEIR gene that's too damn bad. Isn't capitalism wonderful?

That is what Next is about, in a nutshell. The story is hard to summarize, because it's all over the place. Crichton obviously had some very important things he wanted to write about, but he seemed to have a hard time bringing them all together in a cohesive way. There is a huge cast of characters and approximately a bazillion horrible things happening to all of them, but it wasn't as engaging as it should have been because there was just so much happening. I also grew wearing after reading about how every person in the book is banging their secretaries and every other woman they know or meet. All the chauvinism is totally obnoxious and icky, even if it only pertains to the a couple characters.

I think the topic is one that needs to be discussed, and I really appreciate what Crichton is doing here, but the book itself could be better. show less