From: "Rich Gauszka" 

I can agree that the appendix and bibliography are the best parts of the
book unfortunately one has to wade through the rest, especially a far
fetched gene mutant storyline, to understand the points he's attempting to
make. Perhaps Crichton should have only taken 3 days to write the
novel.

I thought it was worth the read for the points Crichton took - not
necessarily the novel itself as about half of it was skim worthy. I can
understand why you would feel it a waste of time though. Additionally
character development doesn't appear to be Crichton's strong point as a
novelist.


"John Beamish"  wrote in message
news:op.tocyjscvm6tn4t{at}dellblack.wlfdle.phub.net.cable.rogers.com...
> That all comes from his four-five page appendix.  I probably wouldn't have
> borrowed a four-five page book by Michael Crichton but it's certainly true
> that his appendix points don't have a context until you've read his book.
> But his book is so lame and easily dismissed that it is, though
> intellectually dishonest, tempting to dismiss his conclusions because it
> was so easy to dismiss the book.
>
> If there is a redeeming feature that I didn't include, it would be the
> bibliography -- but here, again, because the book was so poorly done, it
> is tempting to dismiss the bibliography as being selectively chosen to
> support his point without including dissenting voices.  There was one book
> (forgot to make a note of it) in the bibliography that I will have to
> check out one of these days.
>
> Incidentally, I went to Amazon afterwards to read what others had said.
> Apparently, Crichton claims to have written one book in nine days.  It
> probably took him a while to do the reading necessary for his research on
> this one ... but, once that had been completed, the authoring process
> probably took about that much time.
>
> On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:04:15 -0500, Rich Gauszka
>  wrote:
>
>> I agree that it was a quick read yet Crichton he did present some
>> interesting concerns about gene patenting and it could have been a pretty
>> good corporate/patent horror story without the gene mutants portion of
>> the
>> story.   I agree about your  suspend disbelief remark and Crichton did
>> waste
>> an opportunity to present his case in a real world scenario instead of a
>> mutant fantasy land - nothing against mutant fantasy lands but others
>> have
>> done that part far better than Crichton
>>
>> Crichton's key points
>>
>> . Stop patenting genes.
>>    2. Establish clear guidelines for the use of human tissues.
>>    3. Pass laws to ensure that data about gene testing is made public.
>> He's
>> referring to results of gene therapy trials.
>>    4. Avoid bans on research.
>>    5. Rescind the Bayh-Dole Act (that allows universities to patent and
>> make
>> money off their research).
>>

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