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Ready for the next big controversy in medical research? If you think the brouhaha over stem cell research is dicey, wait until you read about the use of genes and the custody of human tissues - especially when it’s presented in a fictional format based in a current reality.

That’s the crux of Michael Crichton’s recent work entitled Next.

Crichton the author who was becoming a doctor as the first of his bio-medical thrillers (The Andromeda Strain) was being published possesses a volume of work that includes books such as Jurassic Park and the TV docudrama ER. His work typically highlights the foolish conceptions that can accompany the next big thing when it comes to scientific research technologies and Next is another in that vein.

Just another Crichton novel - right? Wrong. Crichton uses the book as a platform for advocating his case on gene research and does so in a short treatise at the book’s end.

Okay, what about the story itself?

Next is a book that Crichton crafts through the use of real-life information (the author acknowledges a significant bibliography) and manufactured press clippings to frame a yarn that is truly creepy. He explores the intentional cross breeding of species through medical technology and law-circumventing researchers. He discusses the hijacking of human genes by over-zealous genetic engineers and companies hoping to make it big in the market of gene therapy. He even touches on the issue of grave robbing in the name of transplantation. Some of these stories will seem familiar (you may have read or seen something about any or all of these issues recently) and that’s what made me read on.

Next is a story that like many of Crichton’s works is easily readable, but at the same time too involved. The author has so many characters and plot lines that as the story progresses the reader may find it necessary to flip back a few chapters to reacquaint themselves with a particular thread. Amazingly, the author is able to weave all of the story’s separate threads into a seemingly coherent conclusion.

Any of this book’s complications are overcome by the short clip of the chapter lengths which allows for the story to be easily consumed. Both my wife and I read this book in a few hours and enjoyed it thoroughly. I would recommend it to anyone who has a few hours to kill - you won’t consider it time wasted.

Michael Crichton is a true renaissance man. The author of numerous books both fiction and non-fiction, he possesses a degree in medicine and his resume includes television and movie writing, directing and producing credits from programs and films such as ER and Disclosure. He can be reached through his website here.

Next is available through booksellers everywhere and online here. For a comparative review of Next, checkout varnam.