This Hardcover Book item from HarperCollins was reviewed on 27-Jul-2008.
Search ISBN:B0017TZKRG offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Next Reference Book. Classifications : Subjects Arts & Photography Biographies & Memoirs Business & Investing Children's Books Comics & Graphic Novels Computers & Internet Cooking, Food & Wine Entertainment Gay & Lesbian Health, Mind & Bod . Click the following link to view the cover of Next. Related topics: Subjects. Arts & Photography. Children´s Books. Entertainment. Gay & Lesbian. Health, Mind & Body. History. Home & Garden. Law. Medicine. requestid: e5786ff3-8c34-4176-9ba8-276d7a768c71
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1) Hardcover Book Next by HarperCollins. Michael Crichton´s NEXT is, from a narrative standpoint, a bit of a departure for the author. The novel is a grab-bag of stories, some of which are stand-alone, some of which are intertwined, and only some of which carry through to the end. This narrative approach, which might work well for a literary novel, serves as a bit of a distraction in what is essentially a science fiction/action story. It´s a bit difficult to keep track of the bewildering number of characters and interrupted story lines, and this complexity deflates the suspense. That said, this is one of Crichton´s better works. Stylistically, it is much better written than many novels of this genre.
A number of Crichton´s novels focus on a problem engendered by science gone wild. His is a didactic fiction, one that usually bears a message or warning about some imminent if still future-sounding, science-related problem. NEXT is of this sort. This novel, like the enormously successful JURASSIC PARK, takes up the issue of genetics. (One might say it´s kind of a transgenic novel, PLANET OF THE APES grafted on to JURASSIC PARK.) In this case, the problem that the author principally focuses on is the granting of patents to companies for genes and diseases. Genes and diseases are, of course, naturally occurring things, and so the idea of granting a company legal ownership seems, if you´ll pardon the expression, patently ridiculous. But in fact, U.S. law does recognize patents for genes, which, aside from appearing to be a priori wrongheaded, arguably stunts research and so injures the public good: for instance, it limits who can work on therapies involving the patented gene. The author also notes that the law does not really protect individuals´ rights over their own body parts outside of the body; a school or company may claim ownership of, for instance, blood cells and organs removed during medical procedures. This particular issue sets up a key storyline: a company´s willingness to go to extreme lengths--bizarrely legal lengths--to recover cell lines it obtained and lost from a former patient.
The legal and ethical issues raised by the story are certainly engaging. The central plot, essentially consisting of a chase, is effectively written, with a slow build of suspense and tension and concluding with a nice payoff. There´s humor, particular in the thread involving a talking African grey parrot, Gerard. NEXT, in short, is an enjoyable read. One can´t help but wonder whether Crichton, had he been just a little more self-disciplined, might have written a tighter and ultimately more satisfying novel. As a side point, one might note the recurrence of the issue of child molestation; ultimately, I think, the author´s point is to underscore either that there might be a genetic predisposition to such behavior or conversely, that ascribing such behavior to a gene might be something of a cop-out--it´s not entirely clear what the author has in mind here, and as a result, this unsavory material seems gratuitous.
This audio version of the book is done particularly well. That the reader, Dylan Baker, chose to do voices in "performing" the characters was a risky move, but he carries it off well. The parrot, not to mention another polyglot animal, must have been a particular challenge, but Baker carries it off masterfully. I was less thrilled with his impersonation of older women (sounded like men in drag) and newspaper articles were read in a slightly British-sounding Eastern-establishment voice that quickly grated on the nerves. Overall, though, a fine reading performance of an enjoyable book.
¤ 2) Hardcover Book Next by HarperCollins. The overall story was pretty interesting in my opinion. Raised alot of questions about genetic testing, gene patents, people´s rights to their own cells beleive it or not and transgenic experiments.
My biggest issue with the book is how much it skips around. Towards the end a few of the subplots come together, but there are MANY chapters within the book dealing with characters that never appear again. I suppose this was to flesh out the pros vs. cons of genetic testing, gene patents and the like, but even as far as 300 or so pages in the book, new characters would be introduced that had nothing to do with the main characters in the story, which you´d probably be hard pressed to define who´s a main character. Every person penned in this book seems to have an equal role, that is, the major players anyway. As you can see from that description, it can get a little bit confusing while reading!
It does read rather fast though and brings to light some very interesting true life articles dealing with genes, cloning, things of that nature as well as how much of a slippery slope the whole debate is.¤ 3) Hardcover Book Next by HarperCollins. Written in the form of the superb Brunner novel, _Stand on Zanzibar_ this novel too mixes news stories (some fictional) with narrative elements to form the body of the work.
Unfortunately, the author here is, unlike Brunner, unable to pull the collage into a whole. Rather than tell a story, the book seems to be bits and pieces of unrelated events populated by the most stupid, greedy and uncaring individuals ever assembled into a book. To be fair, the very few last pages do tie some of these characters together in a series of events so unlikely that you´ll strain your eyes rolling them so far.
A book really needs some sympathetic characters or at least one significant character to make you wish to continue to read it. However, here, that doesn´t exist. The only half major character who isn´t an idiot and greedy at the same time is a bounty hunter who´s made to become the comic relief for the book. There are some Costa Ricans who also seem to be normally intelligent humans, but they only get perhaps three paragraphs in the entire novel.
Just to give you a few ideas of how annoying, stupid and idiotic the book´s characters are, consider this idea. One animal in the book not only speaks several languages well, but is a walking encyclopedia of knowlege both popular and esoteric. This animal takes a trip of many thousands of miles encountering many humans. Now if you found such an animal, what would be your reaction? The reaction of all the humans this animal encounters is annoyance at it because it´s better educated and better spoken than they are.
Just to be politically correct, at one point, an untrained small woman takes on a professional bounty hunter who is described as a superbly fit clone of Hulk Hogan AND his assistant. She, barehanded, defeats both bounty hunters, leaving them too stunned to pursue her. That´s one of the more likely events in the novel.
This book was a good idea and should have been much better than this idiotic slapdash mess. It should have caused readers to consider the issues surrounding genetic research and modification. It does to some extent which is why I upped it from one to two stars. However, as a novel, it fails miserably.
¤ 4) Hardcover Book Next by HarperCollins. An enjoyable work of fiction imbued with science (not necessarily science fiction, but rather fiction with lots of science) often requires that the reader accept one or more premises. If the book goes well outside normal scientific fact or understanding, the reader may need to suspend his or her normal scientific understanding or beliefs in order to successfully immerse him or herself in the book. With Michael Crichton´s novels, that´s normally an easy proposition.
What do I mean? Let´s take perhaps his most famous offering, Jurassic Park. All you had to do (which I´d say nearly all his readers--and later movie-goers--did quite easily) was believe the premise that scientists could be successful in removing DNA from the blood of a mosquito, both of which had been locked away for millions of years in a drop of amber. You were then asked to believe it possible that those same scientists could then "hatch" that DNA into living, breathing dinosaurs. No problem! I did, never thought about it again, and thus thoroughly enjoyed the novel.
For another example, in his novel, Timeline, all you had to do was believe that someone might eventually build a working (although not entirely safe) time machine. Again, no problem. Most of us raced through the pages of that book and/or enjoyed the movie as well.
Now, with Next, Crichton asks to believe in trans-genetics and a gone-nuts legal system. Even though Crichton makes it clear that the story is apocryphal, "at least the parts that aren´t..." and even though it´s intended as a warning, I had a little trouble with this one. Not only do parrots and chimps talk, they´re often smarter than their fully-human counterparts! Crichton also asks you to believe that a modern judge would have trouble finding fault with the concept of forced surgery (albeit "minor") to get at innocent people´s (even children´s) DNA "owned" by evil corporations.
Despite coming up for air quite often to wonder about some of the premises behind Crichton´s plot, his master story-telling ability is once again very much on display and I couldn´t help flipping rapidly through the pages.
Caveat Lector: be prepared for the occasional head scratch from this otherwise enjoyable novel!
John Cathcart
Author Delta 7
¤ 5) Hardcover Book Next by HarperCollins. "Next" is not a typical novel, not even typical for Michael Crichton. It seems to have been constructed from spare parts, an array of ideas, insights, and impressions arising from the author´s research into genetic engineering. He takes current and potential outcomes of this emerging technology and extrapolates them into several almost believable interwoven short stories. The result is a novel-sized web of amusing and alarming accounts, peppered with some totally memorable characters.
Could a parent contract away rights to your chromosomes? Could a donor end up unknowingly parenting a partly-human chimpanzee? Could your pharmacist sell you a drug to help your teen act responsibly? Which of our genetic engineering experiments could emerge as an uncontrollable disaster? Crichton has thought about questions of this kind and uses the vehicle of well-told tales to prod and provoke the reader to consider the same cutting-edge issues. As a result, the book cannot be dismissed as mere entertainment. It invites us to think, prepare, and, perhaps prevent unwanted outcomes.
Because the saga jumps among several parallel but largely unconnected plots, it is a challenge to keep the characters and story lines straight in the mind, especially if the book is read in spurts over an extended time period. But is you miss a stitch or two, there is on harm done.
My favorite aspect of "Next" is the transgenic creations that blend human and animal characteristics. While I hope these concoctions are biologically impossible, the particular characters Crichton dreams up are endearing. Dave the chimp-boy strikes blows against boorish bullies and Gerard, the annoying genius dressed up as a parrot now perches on the shoulder of my mind. I applaud Crichton for giving us a book like no other.
¤ 6) Hardcover Book Next by HarperCollins. 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 a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There´s a new genetic cure for drug addiction—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 and to 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 the 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. ¤7) Hardcover Book Next by HarperCollins. 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 a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There´s a new genetic cure for drug addiction--is it worse than the disease? 
What´s coming Next? Get a hint of what Michael Crichton sees on the horizon in this short video clip: high bandwidth or low bandwidth | 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 and to 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 the 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.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 24-Aug-2008, , 710-380-910-Q2B-L8B-RGB-8 
Next, Book, Image © HarperCollins
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