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Fiction. Science Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why an adult human being resembles a chimp fetus? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addictionâ??is it worse than the disease? We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps; a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars or test our spouses for genetic maladies. We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes . . . Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems, and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn. Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions, and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect. The future is closer than you think. Get used to it.… (more)
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(a) Badly written and ill-conceived. It's a mish-mash of stories put together with no apparent respect for any vague flow of storytelling, seemingly just to prove a point.
(b) The science is just
(c) It's opinionated without being informed - a dangerous combination
(d) It's just bad. But then it cites a Matt Ridley book as source material so what should I expect?
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.
Unfortunately, unlike several previous novels that clung, however breathtakingly, to fantastic plausibility, this novel frequently descends into the absurd and ridiculous. This is enormously disappointing given the quality of many of Crichton's previous novels, especially such classics as "The Andromeda Strain" and "Jurassic Park." While the late authors literary skills are evident, they never coalesce into a pleasing novel here.
In part, this is due to Crichton's attempt to offer a complex narrative of multiple overlapping stories that eventually converge, similar to films such as "Crash" and "Babel." Too often, this ambitious approach leads to confusion and disinterest. Those who tend to be critical of Crichton's character development might blame the confusion on that, though it is more likely due to the author's intentional use of multiple narrative voices, including frequent extended quotations of journalistic sources (whether these are actual quotations or fictitious creations attributed to real sources is never clear).
Fans of Crichton's previous books are unlikely to appreciate this attempt, while those unfamiliar with his work will likely the unimpressed.
Crichton got much more open about his politics
Although some storylines were a
Many readers and reviewers have criticized Next as having too many characters and too many subplots going on. This is actually a strength. The novel is the literary equivalent of films like Crash and Syriana, that take on huge topics by creating a pastiche of interrelated characters on all sides of the issue. In Next, those characters include researchers in many shades of gray on the scale between good and evil. There are many individuals who stand to profit financially from this new science. There are interesting explorations of the legal ramifications of this emerging technology. We are even introduced to some amazing transgenic animals.
When I read Prey, I was amazed by the potential of nanotechnology. I am wowed again by the potential of genetics. But as with everything that involved money and power, there's a very real dark side citizen's need to be aware of. There are gray areas in the ethics of this research. As always after reading a Crichton novel I feel better educated about these issues. I feel I've actually learned something in a thoroughly entertaining way. Because I was entertained. The story being told had me fully engaged and the short chapters kept everything moving at a brisk pace.
Now, I can explore some of the books in Crichton's bibliography of Next to explore the non-fictionalized aspects of these important issues. Even if you don't feel like reading a bunch of science books, it would be well worth your time to read Next.
Crichton has consistently raised the question of how science will negatively impact the future. His dystopian view of science is interesting coming from
It is not that science is completely evil. It just seems to get a pass when it gets ahead of how we should proceed with the powerful new technologies that we have developed over the last 100 years.
This book raises the questions in very practical and disturbing ways. It reminds us that laws are often simply a speed bump to people dead set on trying the morally gray experiments. It is not a question of if these things will happen. It is a question of when. And often the answer is: it has already happened and they haven't published it yet.
Perhaps we have passed a tipping point. The release of scientific knowledge to the masses may be the fulfillment of the parable of Pandora's Box or a re-enactment of devouring the forbidden fruit only to discover too late that the knowledge of good and evil ultimately destroys you. Maybe the genie is out of the bottle and we can't put it back, no matter what. Wow, that sounds fatalistic now that I have typed it. The information on developing weapons of mass destruction is commonplace, easily accessible on the Web. Can we ever constrain the knowledge that we have released so that we will not be destroyed by it? It is hard to come up with a scenario, isn't it?
While the novel obviously spurs some very deep thinking, it has its faults. Too many characters, too many threads, requires too much suspension of my disbelief (especially the ending). The book felt unfinished, as if he got all the information into the book that he wanted but had to tie it all up into a neat little package.
Fascinating, informative, fun, but ultimately a little disappointing. I'll read it again, but I'll do Timeline, Sphere, Jurassic Park, or Congo first.
I'm sorry to report, however, that "Next" fell short of my lofty expectations. The story reminded me of a four-hundred-page law school hypothetical, crammed to the hilt with unsavory, one-dimensional characters whose actions often served little purpose other than to generate issues for the reader to spot and analyze. There are the unethical biotech executives, patenting gene sequences willy-nilly and brazenly asserting ownership of human cells mined from unsuspecting citizens. And there are, of course, the shyster lawyers, all too eager to profit, in the most unscrupulous ways imaginable, from every new scenario presented by the biotech revolution. And finally there are the trans-genetic parrot and chimpanzee, living examples of the ethical minefield that lies before us.
That's not to say this the book wasn't entertaining or informative. Crichton certainly knows how to keep the pages turning with non-stop action, and he cannot be faulted for failing to cover the full spectrum of issues in the genetic engineering debate. I only wish he had spent as much time and energy on creating a believable plot and populating it with real characters as he did on researching and analyzing controversial genetic engineering issues. (Gerard the parrot, with his relentless quotation of movie lines, was the one memorable character in the lot.) And Crichton's attempt, in the closing chapters, to bring the myriad of plot strands together through numerous contrived happenings and coincidental intersections of the many characters, came off poorly. But for those who appreciate the haphazard plotting of movies like "Crash" and are more interested in the genetic engineering debate than in a coherent, well-told story, "Next" may prove satisfying, nonetheless.
-Kevin Joseph, author of "The Champion Make