The tone is frequently lewd, inclining toward the erotic. Also abhorrent is Crichton’s attempt to vilify, or ridicule, those who have ethical problems with certain avenues of proposed biogenetic research: there is explicit criticism of the Christian fundamentalist lobby: since no funding will come from there, real science will wither on the wine. Moreover, one of the characters is a Christian fundamentalist, and his approval of genetic experiments is based on Protestant Biblical arguments only, and he is shown to be scheming and dishonest in appropriating other people’s results. There are some positive points to this book: Crichton cites works by Chesterton and is quite positive towards him and his prophetic warnings about eugenics.
S.H. (2009)