Hardcover, 431 pages
English language
Published Aug. 19, 2006 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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 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; test our spouses for genetic maladies and even frame someone for a genetic crime.
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 …
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 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; test our spouses for genetic maladies and even frame someone for a genetic crime.
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. --jacket
What stuck with me is the turtle. Ad companies knew that normal ads don't work anymore because people ignore them. But a turtle with words glowing on it's shell, yeah. A person is gonna remember that.
A collection of loosely related short stories clumsily cobbled together.
Good:
Raises valid concerns about genetic engineering and US patent law.
Bad:
Most characters appear morally wrong for no good reason. It detracts from valid criticism of corporate wrongdoers if all characters are adulterers & chauvinists.
Ending is unbelievable.
There's almost no narrative structure to the novel.
* It should have been an essay.
Leider kein übergeordneter Handlungsstrang. Wirkt wie die Zusammenfassung der Publikation zum Zeitpunkt des erscheinens. Nicht wirklich ein Thriller.
вислухав аудіоверсію перекладу французькою. сам роман не вразив: сюжет сшито з кількох ліній, жодна з котрих не витягує до рівня технотрилера, якого ми чекаємо від крайтона. деякі перебільшення, до яких автор вдається, аби надати гостроти перспективі генетично-заклопотаного майбутнього, особливо в галузі юриспуденції, викликають лише посмішку. коротше, не вразило.
An editorial couched as a story, this book starts with a contemptible cast and finally grows a couple of characters you wouldn't choose for a shallow grave in the desert.
In the process he tackles some serious issues such as gene patents and what happens when you sic lots of value on a field once viewed more as a public service.
I listened to this as an audiobook on my absurdly long commute. I rate commute audiobooks differently than non-audiobooks. Requirements for a commute audiobook: 1. It has to be simple enough that I can follow along while also paying attention to driving. 2. It has to be interesting enough to keep me alert.
Sufficiently engaging, sufficiently simple to follow along. I was interested mostly in the science and political/legal/ethical issues surrounding genetic research and genetic engineering.
It's not a great book by any means. There isn't really a central plot, just a lot of subplots, some of which converge near the end. Most plots are developed a scene at a time, interspersed with the other plots, but there's one that doesn't start until halfway through and gets several scenes over a relatively long period of time all at once, which was out of place given the book's structure.
Based on …
I listened to this as an audiobook on my absurdly long commute. I rate commute audiobooks differently than non-audiobooks. Requirements for a commute audiobook: 1. It has to be simple enough that I can follow along while also paying attention to driving. 2. It has to be interesting enough to keep me alert.
Sufficiently engaging, sufficiently simple to follow along. I was interested mostly in the science and political/legal/ethical issues surrounding genetic research and genetic engineering.
It's not a great book by any means. There isn't really a central plot, just a lot of subplots, some of which converge near the end. Most plots are developed a scene at a time, interspersed with the other plots, but there's one that doesn't start until halfway through and gets several scenes over a relatively long period of time all at once, which was out of place given the book's structure.
Based on this book, you'd think that the world was populated almost entirely by men. Almost all the characters are men; certainly all the characters with power are men; the few women are bombshells, wives/mothers, or ineffectual at their jobs. The one female lawyer loses her case then has to go on the run from a big bad bounty hunter hired by a corporate big shot--she is effectively powerless. For a book with as many plot lines and characters as this one, there really should be more women. And more people of color. This is supposed to be realistic, but the world of Next is almost entirely white and male. Gross.
Towards the end Michael Crichton creates a character who has the purview to talk at length about the legal/ethical implications of genetic research and tissue donation/tissue ownership. It is obvious that this character (male of course) is a stand in for Crichton; it is confirmed in the afterward, which gives Crichton's views on the issues raised in the book, and which strongly echoes the stand-in's monologue. It might have made for a more interesting--certainly more subtle-- discussion in the context of the book if "Crichton's Opinion" had been divided among multiple characters and introduced slowly over the course of the book in multiple plot lines.
However, it was fast paced, action-packed, and interesting enough to keep me awake while driving. 3-star commute audiobook. I will probably return to more of his books for my commute listening pleasure.
I shoulda heeded the cover copy. "As good as anything since Jurassic Park" or something similar.
True enough. It was a fast read, quite interesting, for sure, but not exciting in the slightest. Buy it used if you have to read it. DEFINITELY don't pay airport book store prices.
