Chrichton is slipping. He is counting on his notoriety and controversy to sell books. Like his last book, "State of Fear", "Next" is a cautionary tale. Unlike his "State of Fear", "Next" causes more chuckles than concern. For background, "State of Fear" warned us to be skeptical of global warming because it was being used as a tool by power elites to generate fear in the populace, making them susceptible to persuasion. "Next" warns us of how the application of genetics could threaten each of us.
Unfortunately the scenarios that Chrichton creates in his book come across as ludicrous more than scary. Because they seem so ridiculous, for instance, by positing that our right to be secure in our person would be trumped by a tenuous claim by a corporation of intellectual property right to our genetic material. Or, because the possibility seem so remote, such as a chimp/human hybrid actually being admitted to public school. Because of this, this book comes across as a humor punctuated sci-fi tale more than anything.
Again unfortunately, it isn't very good at that, either. The over all story is pretty good, but it is told with far to little literary meat. Not enough character development, not enough detail. It being based on science, not enough science, something Chrichton is usually better at. It is told as several separate but loosely connected stories that just wind up feeling disjoint. One winds up feeling like Chrichton, "phoned this one in," so to speak.
Chrichton does hit on how screwed up intellectual property law seems to be in this country. His focus on how it is being used in regard to biology, medicine and genetics was somewhat illuminating. However, it seems unlikely that this would have made much of an impact if one wasn't already concerned with some aspect or other of the topic.
Over all, I am not sorry I read the book. Despite it's failings, it was sufficiently entertaining to be worth the time spent reading it. I recommend waiting for the paperback or checking it out of the library.
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I've not read the book, but there is a very real threat posed by genetic IP. Because R&D firms are allowed to patent genes that are naturally occuring in the human body, development of some drug therapies that enhance production of those genes are being stalled.
In all other IP disputes, these sort of constraints would be dismissed due to "prior art", but for some reason human genes don't count as prior art...
Very short sighted of the creator not to seek patents, don't ya' think?
It sounds like Chrichton's musings go a bit farther afield... too bad, he could have had a captivating thriller about a desperate father trying to get his dying kid some necessary, but politically unavailable drugs...
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