How would you like to have dinner with a multi-lingual swearing orangutan? How about tea and fruit with an algerbraic parrot? Next was a fun modern-day mystery and adventure story. Michael Crichton spun together the wonders and the perils of where the latest genetics technology may lead us. Humanity had phosphorescent mice before I graduated college in 2001 and it was cool to see that they showed up in this book.
Several moral questions were breached in this book: Should my 16-year old daughter be allowed to sell her eggs to infertile mothers-to-be without parental consent? If we raise the intelligence of a species (bird, dog, chimp, etc) by splicing in human genes, what obligation do we have? If I sign a consent form for my cells to be used in medical research, does that give the company the right to harvest my cells at any future point? Should governments be allowed to issue patents on the DNA of unmodified living organisms or on human genes?
If you got questions like these, then sit down and enjoy this novel. Bounty hunting took on a new twisted touch, the dinner table was set for some transgenic friends, and Chrichton thoroughly entertained me.
Dylan Baker was our audioartist for this novel and I am sure he must have had fun performing the talking animals. He pulled off both male and female voices believably.
