Rating: 
Summary: Save your time and money
Review: Timeline is awful, the usual blend of cardboard characters and page eating paragraph and short chapter techniques.The attempts at creating tension are laughable. If Crichton ever does something unpredictable he might achieve a little tension. But since he does not, you know what's going to happen before it happens. I bit on this one after reading a review in the New York Times Book Review. Having read Timeline and compared my impression with the reviewer's I can only conclude the fix is in -- somewhere there's money changing hands. Timeline is tired and stiff, and deserves one behind the ear. I confess I tried it to see if Crichton had improved since Airframe. He has not, and now joins Robin Cook on my list of writers still dining out on their first book. Readers of the world, rise up! Cast off your chains and demand a good story and characters you care about, not this swill written by a band of monkeys.
Rating: 
Summary: Well short of the usual Crichton novel
Review: Michael Crichton begins with a solid foundation for yet another thrilling novel, but unfortunately trips himself up along the way. The idea of time travel, while interesting and key to this story, isn't made strong enough to believe or even explained enough to completely comprehend. The reader is left with too many questions regarding its validity, even for a fiction book, which therefore takes away from the rest of the tale. And the rest of the tale grows thin as well. The surprisingly lacking character development never creates a well-rounded cast and allows for predictable outcomes. Certain sequences seem extremely unlikely dispite the fantasy aspect of the story. Crichton seemed to force the drama in some passages, creating the cheesy scenes Hollywood is most likely to scoop up. The reader soon begins to pray for a quick conclusion to the book instead of hope for more. Though well written, Crichton's latest novel is far from the norm.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT!
Review: This was a phenomenal book - could NOT put it down! It took me 14 straight hours to complete & it was worth every minute. Looking forward to the next Michael Crichton book..........
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Summary: Crichton's best to date!
Review: Timeline was a tremedous ride, and a rush from beginning to end. He's amazing at combining two seemingly unrelated things (Quantum Physics & 14th Century France) into an adventure that I won't soon forget, I highly recommened this to everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Torn between fun and aggravation
Review: Before going any further, I gave Timeline four stars for approximately the last third of the book. Michael Crichton seems to always tick me off everytime I read one his novels, mainly because I start off thinking I'm going to hate it and then I have to admit at the end that I enjoyed it. You have to give the guy a lot of credit. He certainly knows a good deal about his material. It's aggravating because he takes so damn long to get going, but when he does you can't put it down. One of the things that I find so appealing about Michael Crichton is that he takes very specific and current events in the scientific world and blends them with, in this case, very specific historical events that are clearly researched and throroughly presented. Regardless of what you may have thought of Jurassic Park, the same formula applied there too. Where Jurassic Park was about genetics, Timeline is about quantum physics. However, by the time all the requisite scientific set-up and explanation is out of the way, you're itching for the actual plot to start moving. Fortunately, that's always when it does. The thrust of the story is very well done and the combination of modern technology and medieval warfare works great. As with most of his books, the action and sequence of events are where Michael Crichton shines the most. I would be shocked beyond belief if this book did not become a film. I think it is too his credit that most of Crichton's books become films because he writes in such a descriptive and visual way. The main problems with Timeline are not inconsiderable. Characters are introduced in the first few chapters who are purely for exposition and never appear again, yet we learn a great deal about them which leads me to suspect they are a set-up for a possible sequel. Other characters who are critical to the plot are not really developed, although one could make an argument that all Michael Crichton characters are secondary to the plot. Lastly, there are major plot developments which are crucial to the overall suspense of the story, and yet they are so blatantly foreshadowed that the attentive reader can see them coming from several dozen pages before. I have the good fortune to share a mutual acquaintance with Michael Crichton and I met him several years ago when Disclosure was first released. He's an incredibly nice guy and perhaps one of the most intelligent writers working today. I just wish that he would be a little more careful and come to the realization that not all of us are hardcore scientists. I will say that I read Timeline in 2 days and, once I got past a certain point, could not put it down until I was finished. Judge for yourself.
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Summary: Perhaps a wee bit too similiar to....
Review: Orson Scott Card's "PastWatch" in my opinion but a very good read nonetheless. Definitely written with a movie in mind - lots of set-piece scenes, movie-style opening chapter etc... A good book, but I like others find the story a little contradictory. The story asserts that the characters are not travelling through time per se; rather they are moving through the multiverse to other parallel universes. This being the case, how is it that the Professor can leave documents for his students to find in the 'future' - very odd. Well worth reading though - very entertaining. I still rate Card's book as being a better story though...
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Summary: Crichton's best since Jurassic Park. Good Si-Fi
Review: I still don't understand why Michael Crichton is not considered a Science Fiction author (and he is one of the best in the genre). This is one of his best SF, together with The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. Again, he plays with the consequences and the dangers of new technology. The introduction to the novel is very interesting for those interested in hard SF. The way he plays around with quantum mechanics is also very interesting, and how human beings are faxed through quantum foam wormholes is very clever. Another plus is the Medieval scenario, which Crichton describes in very rich detail. No doubt he did his homework. For a hard science fiction novel, however, the action and mishappenings that take place to the time travelers in the XIV century are quite unbelivable, to the point it seems a kid's tale (or better yet, the script for an action PG movie). So, you have to be patient to see how the story ends. Nevertheless, this is one of the best time travel novels I ever read, as good as Gregory Benford's Timescape (1980 Nebula Award winner). Both novels have in common that they don't use a magical device, but play with and extrapole on hard science concepts to explain how time travel is possible. If you enjoy Jurassic Park or Timescape, or if your are a fan of hard SF, this book is for you. I strongly recommend it. Parents, one warning: the XIV century scenario is too bloddy for young kidser. You better wait for the movie(you bet there is going to be one). Let's hope the movie is not too childish, as they did with Jurassic Park or the Lost World.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best
Review: One of Michael Crichton's strong points is taking a seemingly ridiculous idea (i.e., bringing dinosaurs back to life) yet making you believe that that idea is somehow feasible. Crichton fails to do that in this book. In Timeline, I looked forward to a good explanation of how time travel might be possible. Instead, Crichton gives us a mess of incredibly confusing scientific jargon; which, I expect, he assumed readers would quickly read through in order to get to the action. This would ordinarily not be such a bad thing-- if the action was riveting.
Rating:
Summary: Timeline by Michael Crichton
Review: This book is well written. The book keeps the reader riveted to the page, and provides some facts about history and how scientist and historians discover what happened in the early centuries. The book provides an excellent exposition of the main characters so that the reader knows them intimately before the story propels the reader and these characters into a time in the ancient past. As the reader turns the page which ticks off each hour, minute, and second that the main characters are back in time who are constantly thwarted in their attempts to regroup and return to the present, the reader contemplates how the characters will make it back to the present in time, before they are confined to the past forever.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but still better than most.
Review: I am a Crichton addict, I admit. Since being forced to read The Andromeda Strain in high school, I've been hooked. Once again Dr. Crichton takes us where most folks don't believe we can go. Three years after "Jurrasic Park", we get Dolly the sheep. One year after "Airframe", a plane suffers extreme turbulance due to a problem with the slats, and it's videotaped by a passenger. How far are we from teleportation? As usual for Chriton, the science of the book is well researched, believable, and not too far off. The author's characters are so real, just ever so slightly imperfect, and usually so blind to their surroundings that they remind me more of my neighbors than of figments of someone's imagination. The story starts very fast with interesting characters that, unfortunatly, disappear too quickly. The book's villian, (in our timeline) is too cliche and at times cartoonish. The protagonists of this novel are its stong point. Usually the villain makes the story but in this book I empathized so much with the kids that I easily imagined myself there with them in 14th century France. There is a subtle and disturbing moment just after the first action sequence when one of our heros, the only one that seems to know what to do and the kid's only hope for survival, witnesses a tournament practice and realizes how in over their heads they really are. I could see, smell, and hear what the author wanted me to. The action sequences (and there were some good ones) were well explained and not overdone. The first two acts of the book are very interesting but tend to read just a little bit like a history text. There seems to be just enough action to keep the reader interested in the characters if not the story. However, by the third act the tension builds almost subliminally until you find yourself on the edge of your seat. Overall I liked "Timeline" very much, which is to say I didn't love it as much as some of his other books. Had it not been for the cartoon villian and some untied loose ends at the very beginning, I would rate the book a solid five stars. As it stands "Timeline" is still a good, fast paced read. If you haven't read Crichton before, just browse the author in Amazon and pick a book, any book. I guarantee you will love it. I would recommend to other loyal Crichton readers to wait for the paperback version of this one.
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