Come In, Michael Chrichton…Your Time Is Up
So..the question, well…one of the questions, thats flapping around the turmoil and disarray that is my brain, is whether or not the so called “Master of the modern technothriller” has finally given up the ghost. Has Mike Chrichton flipped? Is he bovvered? Is he having a midlife crisis? Did he write his latest “novel” on the back of a bus ticket?
See, the reason I wonder this, and the reason i wrote novel is inverted commas, is that his latest book, “Next”, really isnt very good, definately isnt up to par with even his weakest earlier books (Congo is better than this….thats how bad it is), and shouldn’t be classified as a novel. While it is his usual doorstop sized tome…the actual story is tiny. The rest, all the faux newspaper clippings and the side stories about the transgenic ape and the guy who gets arrested because people think hes been mucking around with the genetics of sea-turtles, are all blatant filler. Its like he hada vague idea that he battered out on a PC one week and then realised it was about a third of the size of his usual stuff.
Hes usually so good at doing characters, giving us details of who they are and what they think, mannerisms that define them as people without making them cliches. Next has none of this. Next almost reads like a movie script for a slasher film…its characters are THAT weak and paper thin…hard to identify with and harder to care about.
Its not good enough. Not from the guy who wrote Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain. And this is perhaps the root of the problem. The “Stephen King” syndrome. Chrichton is SO big, and SO well known, that his books are always going to sell millions, so his publishers and editors are letting him get away with writing any old rubbish without reigning him in. Some tough editor really needed to thrown NExt in a bin and say “Mike, I dont care if you researched all this stuff…you can write better than this”.
They really should.
Probably should just wait for the directors cut, they might add the plot back in… or does it not work that way with books.
serves you right for reading Michael Chrichton imo. There are many far better writers to spend your time on, trust me. I’ll loan you a copy of this for starters, right up your street I reckon and not written by some two bit hack who’s only getting published because people recognise his name.
I’ve been disappointed in Dr. C for some time. Try this technothriller: http://RadDecision.blogspot.com . Free online and also now in paperback.
First up, I went in and upgraded your blog - not that you would notice, but just in case
If it does anything wierd, poke me, though gently, Im kinda fragile 
Second, having read the first chapter, Im really not impressed. Good call on the crapness, thanks for the headsup
You posted! I read! The worlds ending! For god’s sake I’m even updating my blog, it must be a sign of the end times!
I’ll avoid that book then.
On a blog note (more to kai than you) you might want to change the font colour for comments its pale grey on white. It’s almost unreadable on some screens.
As soon as I hack the css, it’ll be fixed.
Don’t worry about it Keith, I’ve got it covered, and its altering a file I need to fix cause of the code update.
Fixed and looking much easier to read. My eye’s thank you.