I'm a hardcore Michael Crichton fan - I've read every one of his (science) fiction books. However, I must say after reading Next - "Is this the same Crichton who gave us The Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Jurassic Park and Congo?" - You've got to be kidding me. The cover of the book says "A Novel" I disagree - this isn't a Novel - Its more of a Journal which accounts for a ton of fictitious events which are very loosely coupled together as a story line.
I agree with Keith Phipps of A.V Club - here's a quote from his review - I think he hit the nail on its head!
"But calling Next a novel is something of a stretch. A series of plots looking for a plan, Crichton's latest is as carefully researched as it is sloppily assembled"
Crichton goes about introducing characters even almost till the end of the book, it’s a good thing I bought an e-Book, every time I forget who was person X - I could quickly do a search to look up his introduction. I wonder how it is like to read this on print. The eBook idea is pretty fancy; I could even use Microsoft Reader on my Pocket PC to take my book around.
I think another most striking thing about this book is that, this isn't primarily about Genetics, in fact I would say its Genetics at its minimal, he doesn't discuss much about Genetics but more about Genetics and the Law. The books about the way Genetics will affect our Law and how unprepared our legal system is for this new era. Which I think Crichton's done a fabulous job of researching and presenting.
It’s the Hangover/After effects of reading a brand new Crichton book that I enjoy the most - it used to get me thinking, in short "Inspire" me. However, the last two books have failed to leave that after effect. In fact I lost my "State of Fear" book while I was about to finish it, I never bothered to buy another one to finish the ending. It was such a drag, easy to guess “what’s next” plot! NEXT is also mostly on the same lines, however, slightly better than State of Fear, it fails to leave any after effects on me.
It’s not just the plots that are loosely coupled, it’s also the characters in this book - Some characters in Crichton’s books stand out so much that I use their names in whatever little writing I do. But none of the characters in this book stand out like how Ian Malcolm and Allan Grant did from Jurassic Park or even Casey Singleton from Airframe. And I must say there is a lot more explicit content in this book that any other (Disclosure being an exception).
Overall I would give this book a C. I think Crichton could have had done a better job in weaving the story together and quite honestly, spent a lot more time on the book, maybe a couple more re-writes. After a disappointing "State of Fear" and now "NEXT", it looks like Crichton is in a hurry to churn out books - I remember seeing a quote somewhere in which Crichton mentions how many years Sphere and Congo took to write - I wonder how many months did he spend on NEXT. Another such book and Crichton probably slips out of my Must Read authors list.
To end on a good note – here is a very very interesting piece of Trivia which recently appeared on Wikipedia – Sweet – After all, I guess Crichton will always be the same J
“In his 2006 novel Next, Crichton introduces a character named "Mick Crowley" who is a Yale graduate and a Washington D.C.-based political columnist. "Crowley" is portrayed by Crichton as a child molester who is on trial for the anal rape of his two-year-old nephew. "Crowley" is also said to have a small penis. The character is not important to the plot and appears only incidentally.
A real person named Michael Crowley is also a Yale graduate, and a senior editor of The New Republic, a Washington D.C.-based political magazine. In March 2006, the real Crowley wrote an article strongly critical of Crichton for his stance on global warming in State of Fear.”