This is Crichton's latest. It is on the subject of genetic engineering and set in the current time. It is basically a series of chapters about different characters who may or may not end up in the climax. A lot of characters. Very few whom you can care about. Mostly it is a fictional setting for Crichton's views about the state of genetic research today. He may be right but that hasn't translated into a good story.

If you like books with a lot of characters (I can't keep them straight) then this might be worth a loan from a library.

I'm starting Heinlein's _For Us, the Living_ which was written in 1939.

And I have _Nymphos of Rocky Flats_ by Acevedo. He is a Colorado author and Rocky Flats is an old military base in/near Denver.