Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 16 years old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

I do a lot of reading and figured I would write up some quick reviews here as I finish a book … here’s my first WIJFR (What I Just Finished Reading) post.

Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There’s a new genetic cure for drug addiction–is it worse than the disease? What’s coming Next?

So I just finished reading “Next” by Michael Crichton and have to say I was slightly disappointed. This is the second Crichton novel that has underwhelmed me (the last book I read by him was “Prey“). Maybe it’s because the science wasn’t science-fictiony enough for me (like “Jurassic Park” or “Timeline“), or maybe it was just that there were so many different story lines that got tied up way too quickly (almost abruptly) in the end.

The underlying theme of “Next” is genetics and it does raise some interesting topics including gene patents, tissue ownership, genetic engineering, and transgenic animals. Off the top of my head I can recount seven separate story lines and their associated cast of characters (some human, some transgenic animal like Gerard the African Grey parrot or Dave the humanzee). It just seemed too busy and crowded. Peppered in between chapters are news articles and clippings on various genetics topics (like “Blondes will be extinct in 200 years!”). For the first half of the book I was wondering if any of these threads were going to intersect and what exactly the plot was. Eventually everything comes together, but by that point you’re on the last few chapters (hence my feeling of an abrupt ending).

Despite all of that, it was an easy, relatively quick read, and it certainly hasn’t turned me off to Crichton’s work (he’s had me hooked since “The Terminal Man” and “The Andromeda Strain.”

On Amazon’s page for this book I found a link to NEXTgencode, a website tie-in to the book that tries to look real and references a lot of the genetic products talked about in the book (check out the PermaPuppy!).