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Next : a novel / Michael Crichton.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Pymble, N.S.W. : HarperCollins Publishers, c2006.Description: 431 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780732283643 (pbk.)
  • 0732283647 (pbk.)
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection CRI Reordered - please request T00434065
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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).

Includes bibliographical references.

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Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Next Chapter One Division 48 of Los Angeles Superior Court was a wood-paneled room dominated by the great seal of the state of California. The room was small and had a tawdry feeling. The reddish carpet was frayed and streaked with dirt. The wood veneer on the witness stand was chipped, and one of the fluorescent lights was out, leaving the jury box darker than the rest of the room. The jurors themselves were dressed casually, in jeans and short-sleeve shirts. The judge's chair squeaked whenever the Honorable Davis Pike turned away to glance at his laptop, which he did often throughout the day. Alex Burnet suspected he was checking his e-mail or his stocks. All in all, this courtroom seemed an odd place to litigate complex issues of biotechnology, but that was what they had been doing for the past two weeks in Frank M. Burnet v. Regents of the University of California . Alex was thirty-two, a successful litigator, a junior partner in her law firm. She sat at the plaintiff's table with the other members of her father's legal team, and watched as her father took the witness stand. Although she smiled reassuringly, she was, in fact, worried about how he would fare. Frank Burnet was a barrel-chested man who looked younger than his fifty-one years. He appeared healthy and confident as he was sworn in. Alex knew that her father's vigorous appearance could undermine his case. And, of course, the pretrial publicity had been savagely negative. Rick Diehl's PR team had worked hard to portray her dad as an ungrateful, greedy, unscrupulous man. A man who interfered with medical research. A man who wouldn't keep his word, who just wanted money. None of that was true--in reality, it was the opposite of the truth. But not a single reporter had called her father to ask his side of the story. Not one. Behind Rick Diehl stood Jack Watson, the famous philanthropist. The media assumed that Watson was the good guy, and therefore her father was the bad guy. Once that version of the morality play appeared in the New York Times (written by the local entertainment reporter), everybody else fell into line. There was a huge "me, too" piece in the L.A. Times , trying to outdo the New York version in vilifying her father. And the local news shows kept up a daily drumbeat about the man who wanted to halt medical progress, the man who dared criticize UCLA, that renowned center of learning, the great hometown university. A half-dozen cameras followed her and her father whenever they walked up the courthouse steps. Their own efforts to get the story out had been singularly unsuccessful. Her father's hired media advisor was competent enough, but no match for Jack Watson's well-oiled, well-financed machine. Of course, members of the jury would have seen some of the coverage. And the impact of the coverage was to put added pressure on her father not merely to tell his story, but also to redeem himself, to contradict the damage already done to him by the press, before he ever got to the witness stand. Her father's attorney stood and began his questions. "Mr. Burnet, let me take you back to the month of June, some eight years ago. What were you doing at that time?" "I was working construction," her father said, in a firm voice. "Supervising all the welding on the Calgary natural gas pipeline." "And when did you first suspect you were ill?" "I started waking up in the night. Soaking wet, drenched." "You had a fever?" "I thought so." "You consulted a doctor?" "Not for a while," he said. "I thought I had the flu or something. But the sweats never stopped. After a month, I started to feel very weak. Then I went to the doctor." "And what did the doctor tell you?" "He said I had a growth in my abdomen. And he referred me to the most eminent specialist on the West Coast. A professor at UCLA Medical Center, in Los Angeles." "Who was that specialist?" "Dr. Michael Gross. Over there." Her father pointed to the defendant, sitting at the next table. Alex did not look over. She kept her gaze on her father. "And were you subsequently examined by Dr. Gross?" "Yes, I was." "He conducted a physical exam?" "Yes." "Did he do any tests at that time?" "Yes. He took blood and he did X-rays and a CAT scan of my entire body. And he took a biopsy of my bone marrow." "How was that done, Mr. Burnet?" "He stuck a needle in my hipbone, right here. The needle punches through the bone and into the marrow. They suck out the marrow and analyze it." "And after these tests were concluded, did he tell you his diagnosis?" "Yes. He said I had acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia." "What did you understand that disease to be?" "Cancer of the bone marrow." "Did he propose treatment?" "Yes. Surgery and then chemotherapy." "And did he tell you your prognosis? What the outcome of this disease was likely to be?" "He said that it wasn't good." "Was he more specific?" "He said, probably less than a year." "Did you subsequently get a second opinion from another doctor?" "Yes, I did." "With what result?" "My diagnosis was . . . he, uh . . . he confirmed the diagnosis." Her father paused, bit his lip, fighting emotion. Alex was surprised. He was usually tough and unemotional. She felt a twinge of concern for him, even though she knew this moment would help his case. "I was scared, really scared," her father said. "They all told me . . . I didn't have long to live." He lowered his head. The courtroom was silent. "Mr. Burnet, would you like some water?" "No. I'm fine." He raised his head, passed his hand across his forehead. "Please continue when you're ready." "I got a third opinion, too. And everybody said to me that Dr. Gross was the best doctor for this disease." Next . Copyright © by Michael Crichton. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

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

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