Oldies But Goodies
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: Next
by Michael Crichton
by Karen S. Wiesner
Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review.
Next was a 2006 technothriller fiction novel, the very last published in author Michael Crichton's lifetime. When explaining how he got the idea, he spoke of the issue of nature/nurture and how our genetic material interacts with the environment. As such, he included transgenic (an organism with genetic material that's been altered via genetic engineering) characters--in the form of a chimp-boy named Dave and a parrot with human genes called Gerard--navigating a world overrun with greed and not always legal, let alone, moral agendas.
In at least one back cover blurb I read for this book, it says: "We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and test our spouses for genetic maladies. We live in a time when one-fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else--and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes…"
Crichton has the power to terrify in just this short paragraph, and I remember reading Next for the first time, wondering how real any of it was, or if it's actually possible that, like one of the characters in this book who has an aggressive form of cancer, someone could unwittingly find his disease and treatment becoming little more than a pretext for genetic research being done in a shrouded background. The hospital university of this character's own physician has sold the rights to his cells, and a judge goes on to rule that they were "waste" that was lawful for the college to dispose of in whatever manner it saw fit. In another case, the lawyers for a genetic engineering company claim they have the right under United States law to all of an existing patient's cells and thus the right to gather replacement cells at any time, by force if necessary, and that's not all--they can also take them from any of the patient's descendants.
So much in this story feels too realistic and terrifying to read with ease and freedom. The tension starts right from the very first page and doesn't let up often, if at all. The cast, especially those in the transgenic characters' families, are so well fleshed out, readers will be racing alongside them through a whirlwind plot filled with terror, hoping they're victorious in escaping capture by those who consider themselves owners of human, genetics, and genetically engineered property. We want to see these heroes securing their individual rights, just as we want to maintain our own. But that outcome is in constant doubt fictionally, and potentially even realistically.
There's no way to elude the haunting qualities of this gripping, thought-provoking novel. The story might have been ripped from current headlines. It seems foolish to even consider that simply because we go to experts who can help make us medically well, we're giving away things for all time that no one but we ourselves and those we specifically designate should be allowed to rule over. But, all too easily, something like it may happen sooner or later.
I was reminded of two quotes from another favorite book of mine, The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells, after I finished reading Next for the first time:
"Before, they had been beasts, their instincts fitly adapted to their surroundings, and happy as living things may be. Now they stumbled in the shackles of humanity, lived in a fear that never died, fretted by a law they could not understand; their mock-human existence, begun in an agony, was one long internal struggle, one long dread..."
"I do not expect that the terror of that island will ever altogether leave me. At most times it lies far in the back of my mind, a mere distant cloud, a memory, and a faint distrust; but there are times when the little cloud spreads until it obscures the whole sky. Then I look about at my fellow-men; and I go in fear..."
Whether or not you've read this story before, you might want to consider it if you're looking for a fast-paced, deep and well developed tale from a master of the fantastic.
Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.
Karen Wiesner is an
award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books
and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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