No cover

Michael Crichton: Next (Paperback, 2008, Random House Mondadori)

Paperback, 300 pages

Published Feb. 5, 2008 by Random House Mondadori.

ISBN:
978-0-307-39198-8
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (6 reviews)

Next is a 2006 satirical techno-thriller by Michael Crichton. It was the fifteenth novel under his own name and his twenty-fifth overall, and the last to be published during his lifetime.

30 editions

Muddled but important

3 stars

Doesn't feel like a story at all, more a bunch of thoughts about genetic engineering bundled together. It's like the writer had too many ideas and couldn't choose one to stick to. My main problem with this is that there are just way too many characters, some are important to remember for later and some exist in one chapter and are never heard from again. All characters are unlikeable except for Gerald the parrot. On the positive side, I found this an easy read despite the structure. All his ideas both interesting and horrifyingly possible. Many chapters start with a real-world news article about genetic engineering and at the end of the book is a well thought out list of the real worries about the science and what laws could be changed for the better. In the beginning of the book a man is constantly being given blood tests, he …

Review of 'Next' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

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.

avatar for dht6000

rated it

4 stars
avatar for DigitalRob

rated it

3 stars