Talk:Next (Crichton novel)

Sources & notes

Reviews: --Philcha (talk) 10:01, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

• Metacritic: "Next" by Michael Crichton - 48%, "mixed or average reviews.
• Geneticists Gone Wild. What’s the World to Do? NY ties review, gen favourable. "one of Mr. Crichton’s more un-put-downable novels". Many of the incidents are (NYT) "replays of real events", incl: the "news reports"; theft of corpses' bones for medical purposes (Alistair Cooke!); claims of eminent domain over patients' tissues; how claims of genetic predispositions are used by defense lawyers; divorce case tactics. "cross-cuts mechanically from story to story, giving the appearance of a focused narrative to what are actually only loosely linked events". "the strange moral wilderness in which geneticists and biotech profiteers suddenly find themselves". Their opponents fare little better: the evangelical in the story is not an outright opponent of stem cell research but "an opportunist who exploits the claim that God intended mankind to improve upon nature". "does occasionally turn ham-handed": the genetic artist; political journalist who raped toddler. Innacuracy of press reports, esp re the talking orang. Press printing details of the child rape. Gerard the cunning talking parrot one of the best chars.
• What's 'Next' for Crichton? Genetics running amok "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." "there's a lot to like and to scare you." "The book is not so much a novel as a series of intertwined scenarios that all come together in a very neat but open-ended conclusion." Plot summary can be used to source article plot summary.
• Trouble Helix "so many characters, all of them unsympathetic (and deliciously vivid), that he hardly has space to construct a plot at all", creating threads "some of which come together only at the end, and rather uncomfortably if at all". "his uncanny prescience in choosing subjects where fact will soon catch up with his fiction". "I can't always discern in the novel where fact ends and fiction begins -- sometimes it is halfway through one of Mr. Crichton's sentences" (this is Matt Ridley speaking!).
  NB some good stuff here for article on MC. "Mr. Crichton cleverly subverts some stereotypes". "Turning this so far benign scientific realm (biotech) into tragedy (or farce, as Mr. Crichton does here) requires far-fetched conspiracy theories." "Turning this so far benign scientific realm into tragedy (or farce, as Mr. Crichton does here) requires far-fetched conspiracy theories."
• Review: Next, by Michael Crichton - a mixed & sketchy review, but good backup for others' cmts.
• Next (2006) – Michael Crichton "Next is the most unintentionally rib-tickling book Crichton has ever written." (??? US reviewers can't handle embedded comedy / farce) "intersecting multiple stories and more than three dozen named characters in a book".
• various reviews quote MC's cmt at one of the inside cover pages: "This novel is fiction except for the parts that aren't" (NYT, USA Today)

Biotech industry comments

• In Defense of Gene Patenting "One is tempted to dismiss the novel, hoping that its poor reviews will limit the number of readers and, therefore, the dissemination of misinformation. Unfortunately, the biotech industry cannot be complacent" & reports 2 Congressmen's plans for a retrospective ban on gene patents.

Crichton (general)

• Why Readers Loved Michael Crichton and Critics Didn't
• Michael Crichton obit
• Patenting Life opinion piece by MC

Reference on precidents backing up sub-plots

It came up in a discussion on the legalities of cell culture rights from patients, so I'll point a couple of references here for quicker reference. https://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/HeLa https://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Moore_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California Wzrd1 (talk) 14:14, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

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External links modified

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