Next: A Novel

In his brilliant new blockbuster, the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain" journeys into the realm of genetics: fast, furious and out of control. Provocative yet playful, dark and disturbing, "Next" is Crichton as he has never been seen before.

Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction--is it worse than the disease?

We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and to test our spouses for genetic maladies.

We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes . . .

Devilishly clever, "Next" blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn.

Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and the bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, "Next" shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect.

The future is closer than you think.