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The only thing worse than the story and writing was the performance by the reader. Ok, hotshot, save it for summer-stock. You have got to be kidding me. Bigshot with all his Tony awards was giving children & monkeys his pseudo-Shakesperean Madonna-quality English accent. WHAT AN UTTER WASTE OF TIME. If this so-called novel had been written by anyone but a successful author with a big name and a wide audience it would have been laughed at by any publisher. I listened to this book via the audio edition.
After a while, I was 100 pages in with no problem remembering who was who. This book, at least for me, was nothing like what many reviewers wrote. I finally picked it off my bookshelf and thought that I'd give it a shot.
'Next' has many elements that make it a great read: it has humor, action, thought-provoking (almost terrifying) stories, and a great message. If you have an open mind, a good memory, and love a good story, then 'NEXT' is for you. My only regret is that I didn't read this book sooner.
I can't believe that there are so many negative reviews for this book.I put off reading this book for an entire year because I didn't want to waste my time with a book so badly reviewed. One reviewer complained that Crichton was too preachy: a) Crichton ALWAYS has a message behind his writing; b) In a world where 'American Idol' is the number one priority among many Americans, Crichton did us a HUGE favor in helping get the word out about the awful possibilities of genetic science. 5/5
At first, it took me a while to get used to all the characters and stories (this is not like Crichton's usual writing style). I don't see how Crichton could have written this novel without all the characters and stories: the book would be terribly boring if we were just following around the talking parrot or the hybrid human/monkey.The stories all worked together and they all make for an explosive ending.
But that sensation is completely destroyed when 40-something and 50-something year-old characters open their mouths and post-pubescent drivel pours out. It is completely unenjoyable. I put "subplot" in scare quotes because there is no real "plot," only a bunch of small stories jumbled together like a Mississippi mud pie and loosely connected by a theme. There is no coherent story and no characters worth caring about.
Too bad I couldn't give this zero stars. "Next" has one thing going for it: it's better than the best avante-garde/post-modern garbage out there. Crichton thinks he's being cute by interspersing news accounts to steep his novel in reality. When I read "State of Fear," I was sure it was Crichton's worst novel to date.
Crichton skips from one "subplot" to the next schizophrenically, making it extremely difficult to focus. Though that's not saying much. He set a new low with "Next." This book is pointless. I was sick of it less than a third of the way through.
That the reader is asked to believe no one called his cell phone to ask him to return the creature that belongs to the Federal Government or that a SWAT team would not show up at his house to take the animal back, but that the newest member of the family can freely take up a desk at the local elementary school where no one questions why he's throwing poo at his playground bullies is just absurd.The whole Gerard thing, the talking bird, is reduced to similarly ridiculous plot construction even though this is the only truly likeable character in this idiot's tome. What do you say about a scatological story more suited to eschatology than to fiction in which every single human being makes exactly the wrong decision when confronted with choices. That there are way too many characters in this book to care about is reflected in how shallow each is developed. And humanity benefits from neither.
It might even have made a difference and benefitted humanity. But this book as fiction is just a waste of time and talent. The ideas in this work would have been nicely suited to the reader if it had been written as an essay about the very real problem of gene patenting. But unlike State of Fear, the story telling here is boring, predictable and littered with cliches.
Upon learning this he goes to the top secret facility where shazam, his swipey card still works a year after he left the facility. And the protagonist of the book, or so it would seem, just seems to disappear with those loose strings sort of being tied up in a court decision, but if the author doesn't care to write a proper ending for what is really his main character why should any of us care.Like State of Fear, MC does a good job of mixing fact with fiction and defends this by his foreword in which he states the book is true except for the parts that aren't. But worse, what do you say about a story in which the outcomes of those decisions are people not acting the way experience says they should act. At least he's the only character for which an adequately developed sense of self is conveyed even if the play of bird poop is twice important to the plotAnd that is just one plot arc of many that play out without any sense of logical context.
Really. In one of the three main arcs of no less than ten story arcs is a scientist who unknowingly helped create a talking monkey. Upon learning that his "offspring" is going to be "terminated" he monkeynaps said simian and takes off for, wait for it, his family's home in La Jolla, where it's pointed out that liberal acceptance would only go so far in accepting a talking monkey into the community.
But the story is broken up into tiny pieces just like a sitcom. I never read other books by this author, and this one will probably turn me away for them. Some of the issues described are very interesting and even somewhat educational.
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