From: "John Beamish" 

I think the first reference I saw to "Next" was here and so I
feel somewhat compelled to report back.

If you weren't aware, the plotline revolves around genetic engineering and
the book has an approach similar to "State of Fear" with just
enough science mixed in with cardboard characters and thinly sketched out
plotlines to stretch out for several hundred pages of prose.

It's a typical Crichton read:  it's a page turner.  It's also a chapter
turner ... in two cases the chapters were a page long.  It's also a
plot-turner ... there are enough sub-plots to compare this with Syriana
(though they are nowhere nearly as well handled).  And it's also an
interesting -- but very, very brief -- exploration of some of the moral and
ethical issues.

I don't think it will be to all tastes ... even to fans of the genre.  It
requires a lot -- a LOT -- of willing suspension of disbelief:  a
transgenic monkey/man who converses and can be enroled in school; an
African Grey who has rudimentary conversational abilities; an orang with
unnatural vocal chords letting it speak and curse in several languages
(haul out your English-French and English-Afrikaans dictionaries to learn
some new phrases!) and a court scene that defies all belief.

But those are minor cavils.  A significant resolution of the plot depends
on the African Grey (after making a cross-country flight) and the
transgenic monkey/man inadvertently thwarting a kidnapping!

The book has all the care and gentle nurturing of an idea that one would
expect from someone who seems to have needed a quick "few hundred
thou". I have trouble recommending it for anything other than a
library borrow. At best, it's an "on the hammock under the tree or on
the beach with a couple of cool ones" read.  At worst it's an
"who will give me back the time that I spent reading it" book.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5