"This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren’t," writes Michael Crichton. Drawing from some of the most controversial topics in medicine and genetics today, he interweaves a set of horrific, loosely related tales of high-stakes intrigue centered on the biotechnology industry and its ethics. Stem cells, transgenic creatures, debates on the future of certain physical traits, the end of drug addiction (but at what cost?), billion-dollar lawsuits over discarded cancerous tissue—it’s all here. The topics are ripped from the headlines. Crichton summarizes his policy recommendations in an author’s note at the end and supplements the text with a lengthy bibliography of further reading in genetics.
HarperCollins. 431 pages. $27.95. ISBN: 0060872985
Dallas Morning News
"In his latest work of fiction, Mr. Crichton has embraced the subject of genetic technology, and the results are as entertaining as anything he has written since Jurassic Park. … He takes the novelist’s liberties with a lot of his material but also polishes the ideas with the sheen that only an imaginative writer can bestow." Alan Cheuse
USA Today
"If you didn’t care for Crichton’s last two techno-novels—Prey and State of Fear—it’s time to kiss and make up. He’s in top form with Next, writing with a lighter touch that complements the absurd but not so far-fetched utilizations of gene technologies he cooks up." Carol Memmott
Philadelphia Inquirer
"With stem cells, embryonic research, and predicted miracle cures so much in the news, the topic is great fodder for headlines. As Next proves, in the hands of the right author, it can provide fine material for fiction as well. Crichton is one of the few writers with the brains and the chutzpah to pull it off, and he has done so in spectacular fashion." David J. Montgomery
Los Angeles Times
"Next is a novel about the implications of genetic research, legal and illegal, well-meaning and tainted by commercialism—a subject that requires all of Crichton’s ingenuity to be stuffed into 400 or so pages along with all the sex, violence and skulduggery that the genre demands. … As entertaining as Next can be, it’s too monochromatic a picture of fecklessness and corruption to stand in credibly for the real world of genetic research." Michael Harris
Wall Street Journal
"In Next, Mr. Crichton conjures so many characters, all of them unsympathetic (and deliciously vivid), that he hardly has space to construct a plot at all. The book is in effect a collection of short horror stories from the biotechnology industry, some of which come together only at the end, and rather uncomfortably if at all." Matt Ridley
Washington Post
"Among his points are that genes should not be patented, that we need clear guidelines for the use of human tissues and that we should avoid bans on research. … All this is fine, and maybe the occasional reader will be inspired to do serious follow-up research, but my guess is that the vast majority will just come for the freak show." Patrick Anderson
Critical Summary
Following State of Fear ( ), Michael Crichton’s controversial statement on global warming, the high priest of the techno-thriller has done it again. He captures readers’ imaginations with cutting-edge research and edge-of-your seat plotting. Each of the scenarios, from a chimp masquerading as a boy to a parrot injected with human genes, is at least possible, if not always plausible. The usual complaints arise—shallow characters, Hollywood story lines (or no story lines), some less-than-subtle sermonizing—but Crichton’s loyal fans and perhaps some new ones will be drawn to the novel’s premise. Even naysayers begrudgingly admit that Crichton knows how to tell a story. More than a dozen best sellers and another irresistible, timely idea suggest that they’re probably right.