Is your loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? It's 2006: do you know who all your children are? Do you know humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes? And why does an adult human being resemble a chimp foetus? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction - is it worse than the disease? Ever want to design your own pet? Change the stripes on the fish in your aquarium? Ever think to sell your body fat - or donate it to charity? Or sell your eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars? Did you know one fifth of all your genes are owned by someone else? Come to think of it, could you and your family be pursued cross country just because you happen to have certain genes in your body? Welcome to our genetic world. Fast, furious, and out of control. This is not the world of the future - it's the world right now. Most of the events in this book have already happened. And the rest are just around the corner. Get used to it.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [425]-431).
Crichton's books dazzle listeners with technical jargon that sends them fleeing to an encyclopedia to find answers and actual characters who rub elbows with their fictitious counterparts. The subjects here are genetic engineering, genetic tampering, cross-cultural gene experiments, and stem cell research. Crichton screeches down the genetic highway at breakneck speed, tossing out truth and fiction in equal amounts. Can an African Grey parrot be able to carry on conversations with its owners? What about experiments to place commercial advertising on animals and fish? Throughout these flights of fancy are several story lines that bring the gene question down to a human level, pitting firm believers against equally firm opponents. Lawsuits that touch on the furthest reaches of genetic research confuse the jury and irritate the judges. Actor Dylan Baker has a multitude of voices to contend with as well as some tongue-twisting medical terms, and he handles the job very well. Some of his characters whine too much or speak sarcastically when the situation doesn't really call for it, and one has to wonder why journal headlines are read in a plummy British accent. Still, don't be diverted from diving head first into one of the most important fiction books of modern time. Highly recommended for all public libraries.-Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Lompoc, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
Bestseller Crichton (Jurassic Park) once again focuses on genetic engineering in his cerebral new thriller, though the science involved is a lot less far-fetched than creating dinosaurs from DNA. In an ambitious effort to show what's wrong with the U.S.'s current handling of gene patents and with the laws governing human tissues, the author interweaves many plot strands, one involving a California researcher, Henry Kendall, who has mixed human and chimp DNA while working at NIH. Kendall produces an intelligent hybrid whom he rescues from the government and tries to pass off as a fully human child. Some readers may be disappointed by the relative lack of action, the lame attempts to lighten the mood with humor (especially centering on an unusually bright parrot named Gerard), and the contrived convergence of the main characters toward the end. Still, few can match Crichton in crafting page-turners with intellectual substance, and his opinions this time are less likely to create a firestorm than his controversial take on global warming in 2004's State of Fear. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Crichton's best novels are cautionary tales that contain just enough truth to make them feel unsettlingly real. Here, the author of Jurassic Park (1990), Prey (2002), State of Fear (2005) and many others extrapolates on the current movement toward the patenting and marketing of human genes. The story focuses on an embattled biotech company that is being sued by a man who claims the company acquired exclusive rights to his genes unethically. Complicating matters, the company president is getting divorced from the woman whose money financed the operation. Meanwhile, a researcher discovers that a gene-extraction experiment has produced startling results with world-changing implications. Some readers may find this novel a little loopier than some of Crichton's recent work (one principal character could have walked off the pages of an unproduced Planet of the Apes script), but, as always, he sells the story by solidly anchoring it in scientific reality. He's not saying this stuff is going to happen, merely that it could happen-and that we'd better think about it now, before it's too late."--"Pitt, David" Copyright 2007 Booklist