Timeline- Unabridged

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: - Evil corporation invents a time machine to be used for no good. - Sends professor back in time to the middle ages. - History students go back to save him. - Hoorah!

Rating:
Summary: Good, but . . .
Review: Although I'm not a huge fan, the book's jacket was interesting enough to catch my attention so I purchased it expecting something like Jurassic Park. It wasn't even close; however, it was an easy read, very little depth of characterization, predictable and clearly written with a screenplay in mind (it might just make a decent movie, but I don't know who they would get to play Andre). This could have been so much more . . . I was disappointed that it wasn't!

Rating:
Summary: Completely Enthralling!
Review: In Timeline, you are wisked away to a world where there is not limit on blood and gore, where time machines are the latest in cutting technology, and where three Yale graduate students go back to the middle ages to save their professer. This book entertained me while teaching me a lot of interesting facts about Science and history. This book was written beautifully. Anyone who gets bored with this book obviously does not have a cultured taste.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Crichton
Review: As usual, you can tell that Crichton put a lot of research into this book. The level of detail that he describes of daily living, from the food eaten to the clothes worn, is really fantastic. Coupled with a clever storyline, it was a quick and interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: Quantum? What's that?
Review: I don't know if anybody has understood the ten page explanation about quantum physics. I guess it's time travelling (again) and that`s all. The problem with the book is that just when it should become thrilling (arrival at 1357), it develops into a nothing-more-than-an-adventure-novel. Just in case nobody has claimed: Crichton writes thinking of the movie: any candidate for Chris and Kate characters? Ah! Don't get lost in multiverse, he, he

Rating:
Summary: WOULD DEFINITELY MAKE A GOOD MOVIE
Review: Not much of a history-buff myself, I did not appreciate (YET) the description of the Castelguard/La Roque ruins at the start of the story. Then I found the quantum explanation highly "technical" when Gordon/Kramer discussed this to the students; but I guess that was necessary to give non-physics readers the a clear description of the story's main foundation --- "QUANTUM LEAP". From there, it took on a much faster pace where our protagonists were adversely faced with their 14th century opponents --- full of action & heartstopping events. Overall, it's an enjoyable read for adventure seekers. True, it's like Jurrassic Park, with a historical theme park background, but I say the readers will not feel bored basically because of this characteristic. This story will certainly be a high-budgetted, entertaining movie to watch for in the future.

Rating:
Summary: This book helped my research on time travel...
Review: I picked up this book thinking it was going to take a long time to read, but I couldn't put it down. The beginning was kind of slow. I found myself wondering when they were actually going to time travel, but the wait was well worth it. An interesting and realistic theory on time travel and now I actually know a little bit about quantum physics! Once the characters in this book step into 14th century France, this book is action-packed and provides information about that age. It has a cool ending, but it seemed Crichton rushed the last few chapters up to the Epilogue. The ending is even open to a sequel which I am hoping for...

Rating:
Summary: Good start average finish
Review: The book started out as an excellent read, but 3/4 of the way though it really dropped off. Still worth reading but not a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to par
Review: Michael Crichton has written better books. In TIMELINE, he just tries too hard to write a fast-moving, suspenseful novel and because of that, the plot-mechanics become too visible. There are chapter-headlines which resemble a countdown and many, in fact too many action scenes and the feeling, like many other readers pointed out already, that this book was too much written with a movie in mind. Yes, the book starts quite well, but quickly turns into a series of action set-pieces which become more and more boring. There are some fascinating descriptions about the middle-ages. Dear Mr. Crichton, why haven't you focused on them? Yes, I know, you need to sell a lot of copies, but believe me, the book would have been much more thrilling. In Crichton's body of work this book most closely resembles "The Lost World" (another bore with a lot of action) and is miles away from his better works like the recent, much more thrilling "Airframe", which nearly had no action but much more page-turning suspense.

Rating:
Summary: One of His Best
Review: This book was great. It had action, drama, suspense, and a little bit of history. I for one thought that "Timeline" was one of Crichton's best (it's as good as "Jurrasic Park") If you love action and blood then you'll love this book. It takes it about 100 pages to get interesting, but once you get to a certain point, you can't put it down. The only downside to this book was that the ending was rushed.