Next

by Michael Crichton

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

This is, decidedly, not the book I was looking for. Next feels like an early draft of something that could have ended up being an interesting scientific thriller, but it’s a mess. And even saying that much is kind.

Where Next starts to dive a little into genetics, it struggles to find footing on an exact aspect of the science it wants to target. There’s corporate policy, ownership, patents, ending, morality in extraction, morality in experimentation… that’s the tip of the iceberg. While Crichton can be a bit preachy at some times, he’s often more balanced than he was in Next.

Every character in this book is the worst example of humanity. Male characters consistently belittle female character. All characters are incredibly greedy, going sideways outside the law in any way they can to get what they want. Every character is extreme and there’s so. many. POVs. I don’t think I saw a POV repeat until about page 100. There’s so many dramatic character interactions. This includes children trying to kill one another, animal testing, and a woman who was hired to frame a man for statutory rape (that whole scene… I have so many issues). While I don’t want to belittle these things, because they happen in real life and they are tragic and terrible, Crichton just went for all the most depraved aspects of humanity as though to say “genes will destroy humanity”. … Which is just… a little too conspiracy theory for me.

The storytelling itself almost entirely missing. There’s almost no consistent storyline, and the end of he book feels very much like a quick “oh shit” wrap up where most of the storylines come together. Of course, some characters and storylines were abandoned in the first half of the book and there’s no closure. Each chapter is one screenshot after another of some way gene therapy or genetic experimentation has ruined the lives of the character.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend Next to anyone. Not only is it an unimpressive story content-wise, it’s such a hot mess as a novel. It feels like a first draft more than a finished book and it’s a little surprising that it got all the way to publication in this state, because it’s such a mess? But bestselling authors do tend to get some leeway on these things. Crichton has a lot of a better books than this, and I suggest picking up one of those instead.