Next - Michael Crichton

***** Fiction that may already be reality

It is increasingly difficult to review a book by Michael Crichton, on one hand because you are likely to repeat the same things, on the other hand because every book I read is one less to read by the late author, despite posthumous novels continue to come out of nowhere.

“Next” is the last of his novels published when he was still alive and you find in it the tone of denunciation of his previous work, “State of Fear”. At the centre of all is the issue of genetic engineering and what this could lead in the future, or even tomorrow. Around this theme a chorus of characters moves, each with their own story, a thin thread unites them, that of a science that can change the nature for its own use and consumption. Along with other technologies that actually exist, Crichton puts others that might exist soon, or maybe are already being used without our knowledge. The boundary between the two is so difficult to discern that when you read of speaking orang-utans or of turtles with advertising logos you have the doubt that is really happening, you wonder what all of this is really achievable with current biotechnology.

If you are looking for a reading of pure entertainment, this is not the book for you. Nor it is if you are looking for great characters in which you can identify.

“Next” must be read to speculate on the future of science, and legislation related to it, to learn new things and imagine very possible scenarios. You close it, at the end, with the satisfaction of being enriched and at the same time with a sense of unease, which arises from the fear that what you read can become real and you could not do anything to prevent it.

Next on Amazon.com.