The cast of characters is vast. I spent far too much time trying to keep track of them. This book is not about characters. It is a novel about ideas, and the characters are there to illustrate the underlying concepts. What if private corporations are able to copyright genetic information? The implications are staggering. Crichton uses examples from real life, dramatized. One such is a guy who is found to have a natural resistance to a form of cancer. He was misled into returning over and over to a doctor who was extracting cells from him to sell to a company that was going to reproduce those cells and use them as medicine, without the original cell-producer’s permission. This has actually happened. Transgenic issues arise as well. Dave is a chimp with a difference. Human genetic material from a researcher has allowed him to develop the vocal apparatus necessary for speech. Turns out Dave has things to say. What is he? Human? Chimp on steroids? What rights might he have? Another transgenic character in the book, the most amusing, and probably the likeliest piece of the story to make it to the silver screen more or less intact, is an African gray parrot named Gerard. He is highly intelligent, vastly chatty, and capable of mimicking a wide range of sounds both human and non. Laugh out loud funny. The issues raised are not so funny, and it is clear that Crichton believes that a course correction is much needed.

I saw him interviewed recently on Charlie Rose where he talked about the genesis of this project. He had attended a conference on genetics biology and the law, was shocked, and began accumulating stories illustrative of the dangers. Many of those stories have made it into this book. It is a fast, enjoyable read, and has the distinct benefit of being eye-opening for the vast majority, like myself, who know far too little about this startling new branch of science. Of course, Crichton is still Crichton, so he manages to set up his share of straw men as stand-ins for those he dislikes, environmentalists, the NY Times. Cheap shots which soil an otherwise interesting as well as an entertaining read. Recommended.

Next by Michael Crichton is a ridiculous, silly book. But I bet a lot of people said the same thing about Brave New World, Dune, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, and 1984 when they came out. No, Next can not hold a candle to these science fiction classics, but it is the same kind of book, and it is poignant for its time. The fact is, Crichton writes satire, and the general perception of him does not accept this. Next is both silly and excellent. More importantly, I learned quite a bit from reading it. I did not know that genes can be patented, human tissues can be used in any way by whomever happens to end up with them, and that gene testing results can be hidden in such a way that deaths have been covered up because they were "trade secrets". Crichton shows the extreme possibilities of these insane laws. In Next, a man has a gene that could be a groundbreaking cure, but when the company that has the patent for it is sabotaged and loses all its samples it believes it is within its rights to hire bounty hunters to track down this man's daughter and grandson and surgically take some of their genes since they are the company's property. This is just one story that intersects the others in Next (Oh, by the way, there is a transgenic chimpanzee-human in the book). Will it happen? Probably not. But do we only produce children in test tubes like in Brave New World? Have we colonized the moon like in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress? And while surveillance gets scarier and scarier are we actually being watched all the time like in 1984? No. Satire, by definition, is trafficking in exaggeration to warn people about where we are going. Crichton might be mentioned more frequently in a list that includes John Grisham and Danielle Steel, then with the likes of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, but he is a satirical science fiction writer, and a pretty good one. His popularity and high quantity output is making people think he is for thirteen-year-old boys only. He is better than that. Give the man a chance. Start with Next.

RTC

So I got this in a book haul and so excited to read this! it may not have many great reviews and here's what I say about those who say they don't like Crichton or give 1-2 star ratings and would think me weird.....



I FREAKING LOVE AND MISS MICHAEL CRICHTON!! the ONLY reason I think sooooo many people gave/give up on him or rate so low is because of all his science talk. yeah, it's boring I get it and I DESPISE science but he still manages to put in a thriller and an actual story and set you up for it in some places. so if you EVER EVER read him, DO NOT QUIT! besides Jurassic Park was classic, Timeline one of my favorite books and movies, and the last one I read was Prey and a good chunk was a set up and BOOOORING as heck BUT the second half was INCREDIBLE and in a good weird way, it was sooooo well written I seriously thought I'd have freaking nightmares from that book! so sad cancer took him in 2008 but glad and ecstatic that there's been other works he'd been working on YEARS back and were found recently so his books still live on past the grave. I don't think I've been more excited to read a Crichton book after reading up on the premise of this story!!!

Boring and idiotic, like a mix of Douglas Adams & Paul Verhoeven parody commercials.

This was another biothriller about gene therapy and trans-genetic beings. Lots of intrigue. Good story.

It is a good thriller by Michael Crichton, who denounces genetic experiments and the privatization of living things. For the author, a pretext to defend several theses, which he exposes at the end of the book:
- Stop patenting genes
- Establish clear guidelines for the use of human tissue
- Let us make laws ensuring that data from genetic experiments is made public
- Avoid bans on research
- Repeal the law that privatizes discoveries made in universities.

It is an excellent idea to denounce these abuses through a novel that keeps us going. On the other hand, it pushes the stopper a little far with a parrot, which speaks for us, and a monkey that we confuse with a little boy.

The later few Crichton novels seem to have a higher vision and intent than to only entertain; they also seek to educate and encourage debate. To that end, Next throws light on areas such as the government's policies on intellectual property rights for genetic discoveries, the absurd practice of patenting entire genes (and all uses and interactions that genome may carry out with anything else - in all of mankind) and diseases, what exactly constitutes cell ownership, and the moral grey areas such as the ethics of genetic engineering, stem cell research and genetic therapy. For example, I never thought about the impact that publishing a deceased's genetic information would have on their relatives and descendants with respect to insurance companies using the said info.

The one irksome aspect is the high number of characters that keep getting introduced with plot lines of their own, with some of them made to cross over forcefully at Crichton's hand, who sacrifices pace in the narrative head so that he may bring to light the many different facets of the subject. In one of the interviews included in the ebook version (note: the two interviews and an essay by Crichton are all excellent), Crichton weighs-in: I think there were two considerations. One was that I was unable to overlook the structure of the genome as we are now starting to understand it, and how individual genes interact with other genes, or may seem to be silent, or we don’t really know what they do, or sometimes there are repetitions that are not clear to us, and it struck me as an interesting idea to try to organize the novel in that way, even though it’s not what one ordinarily does. The second thing that was driving me was the notion that there are a great many stories of interest in this area, and they’re all quite different in terms of the legal and ethical problems that are raised in the field, so I wanted to do a number of different stories.

The story, though it moves along quite nicely, doesn't really have a meaty enough middle to it (well, except for Gerard, the talking African grey parrot, who's a riot), and is more a device for the larger intent and theme that Crichton has in mind.

So, as a novel, I wouldn't rate this one too high. But as a book, it's quite a good read.

I love the way that Michael Crichton takes seemingly non-related parallel story lines and brings them all together in the end. Being a scientist, the topic of this book was interesting to me and I liked the book. I could really do without the profanity in the book... the F-word being his word of choice. I must say that Crichton sure did exhaust it's usage... as verb, noun, adjective, and maybe even some new ways to use it. I had to laugh when on page 370, one of the characters, "shouted and swore." Any other place in the book, he just put it right out there. Even when the character was not directly talking or thinking, Crichton would use profanity as an adjective when describing what was going on. It took a 4-star book down to a 3-star for me.

Ôi cuối cùng cũng đọc xong ... Phew!
Chuyện của một tương lai không xa lắm đâu, khi một mã gene hay mô, tế bào của ai đó được cấp quyền sở hữu cho một tổ chức, thương mại hoặc phi thương mại. Nghe thật phức tạp nhưng hãy cứ hiểu rằng thứ vốn thuộc về cơ thể bạn lại được chính quyền cấp phép sở hữu cho một tổ chức. Vậy là, nói một cách sỗ sàng, bạn đang sở hữu "trái phép" thứ cha sinh mẹ đẻ thuộc về bạn. Ngày ấy đang đến gần, công nghệ gene đang phát triển vượt bậc nhưng hệ thống pháp lý vẫn còn chưa cập nhật tới, còn muôn vàn lỗ hổng để các doanh nghiệp có thể lách vào kiếm lợi nhuận.

Lúc đầu đọc giới thiệu thật chẳng hiểu mô tê gì, cứ tưởng Next là một cuốn phản địa đàng (dystopian), nhưng hóa ra bối cảnh của truyện gần hơn mình tưởng rất nhiều. Michael Crichton viết Next khi đang điều trị căn bệnh ung thư. Có lẽ vì vậy mà đọc Next, độc giả dễ thấy sự tức giận của tác giả mỗi khi nhắc đến nỗi bất lực mỗi lúc chính quyền phải giải quyết các vụ việc về công nghệ gene.

Điểm cộng:
+ Cung cấp khá nhiều thông tin về công nghệ biến đổi gene, tế bào gốc, ... Không học Sinh và bị choáng ngợp giữa cả đống thông tin mới
+ Mỗi chương khá ngắn, đọc không mệt mỏi. Chương nào cũng có mở kết trọn vẹn không chơi vơi
+ Ngoại đạo vẫn có thể đọc được vì văn phong đặc Mỹ, dụng từ thông dụng, sử dụng nhiều khẩu ngữ và văn nói.

Điểm trừ:
- Cứ vài chương tác giả lại đan xen một bài phát biểu chuyên môn và một vài bài báo học thuật từ một tạp chí chuyên ngành và báo nào đó. Không quen và khiến cho mình cảm giác cuốn sách giống như một bài tiểu luận chuyên khoa của tác giả với dày đặc phân tích chuyên môn về gene.
- Truyện có quá nhiều nhân vật, mỗi chương lại là một tuyến nhân vật khác nhau và lần lượt chuyển tuyến ở những chương kế. Việc nhớ hết tên và tuyến chuyện thực sự mệt mỏi

Cuối cuốn sách, tác giả rất cẩn thận tóm tắt lại các quan điểm của mình về các vấn đề và lỗ hổng pháp lý xung quanh biến đổi gene và sở hữu gene. Ngoài ra, tác giả cũng trích kèm danh sách các cuốn chuyên ngành và tài liệu ông đã tham khảo trong quá trình viết Next. Các bạn yêu thích hoặc theo ngành Sinh học chắc sẽ có hứng thú check qua.

Kết lại, cuốn sách khá phù hợp với các bạn yêu thích công nghệ biến đổi gene. Dù vậy, mình vẫn chưa hiểu sao Next lại được dịch thành Thế giới nghịch, cũng không hiểu liên quan gì tới nội dung sách nữa

Michael Crichton has some really cool plots and ideas and definitely delivered. It was an interesting audiobook to listen to but not a new fave. 3.7 stars

Solid bio tech thriller from Michael Chrichton. Lots of characters and changing perspective/narrator throughout the book, but still easy to follow. Love that some of the chapters are from the perspective of animals haha

This was riveting! The book is about all of the possibilities of gene therapy and genetic engineering and it blends fact and fiction in clever ways that leave the reader with the unnerving sense that some of the fictional story lines are probably happening somewhere in the world right now. It also gives a strong sense of just how uncontrolled this field is and what ethical questions arise if a person allows a company to "purchase" their cell line...or a scientist decides to insert human genes into an animal fetus and create a "transgenic" animal...or someone claims to have isolated a particular gene that could cure a disease. The behind the scenes buying and selling of gene patents between universities and/or drug companies is downright scary. It doesn't take too much of a leap of imagination to visualize very muddy ethical lines between a scientific pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of the almighty dollar. I couldn't put it down!