Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful blend of history and sci fi - great reading
Review: A tense, taut and highly engrossing drama. OK, not Shakespeare, but a thrilling page turner that builds to a terrific climax. Reads like a screeenplay (not a concidence, surely) and is easily digested in 3-4 hours. Would recommend it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite easy to put down, actually
Review: I read about three quarters of the book and became so thoroughly fed up with it (no need to list the reasons yet again - book is like a film script - book is an amalgamation of action sequences - characters are stereotypcial etc.) that I did in fact put it down and turned to something else, but what a sorry state of affairs: the author can not manage to kindle enough interest in story or characters to keep the reader until the end: I just didn't care anymore. Maybe I was misled by the promising introduction and the first, say, twenty pages of the book, but the expectancy created therein is just not meet anywhere in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Lighten Up! It's NOT Dostoyevski
Review: I hope I spelled that right. Anyway, my point is.... this is a highly entertaining novel, and I thought it was extremely fun and I couldn't put it down. So it reads like a screenplay. So what! Sometimes you want a good old cliff-hanger, and this one does not fail to deliver. The whole concept of time-travel was very well explained, and I think Crichton's material on fourteenth century France was very detailed and well researched. I thought this was a great book; by that I mean it kept my attention and I wasn't too distracted by the "cinema-ready" pace of the prose. If I want to broaden my horizons intellectually, I will go back to the same Joseph Conrad book I've been plowing through for the past year. Meanwhile, though, a diversion like "Timeline" was entirely welcome!
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre!
Review: I never developed any feel for the characters..couldn't (or didn't care) to even visualize any of them. And why did they need these historians to go get the Professor? I never could figure out the point.
Rating:
Summary: Timeline - it's not Jurassic Park
Review: Crichton's latest attmept at mixing the present, high-tech world with the old, low-tech one is good, in fact, it's very good. But it just doesn't measure up to his previous projects. Perhaps this is the price for creating so many good works. The story, like most of his story lines, requires an enormous leap of faith to accept a technology that is just a bit beyond what we already have imagined. That's the easy part. The hard part is to keep us is suspense on what turns out to be trips a alternate universes and past times. I ddidn;t even try, and yet I was able to pick out the villian some 100 pages before it was revealed. But I sound disappinted. Acutally, it is a good read, I recommend it for everyone, and Cricton followers will once again relish at this new work from their favorite author and wonder who will play each of the parts in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Tons O' Fun
Review: This book is one of the fastest reads you will ever come across. Jousting, sword fighting, fudal battles, and a quantum mechanics lesson wraped all in one. On of the most fun books I have ever read. I give it a year and a half before its in the movie theaters.
Rating:
Summary: Amatuer Writing
Review: This book, which has a very interesting story line, is among the worst written books I have ever read. It is repetitious and takes forever to get to the end that everyone knows will occur.
Rating:
Summary: This book was so much fun!
Review: I bought this book for an escape from football over the holiday weekend and I wasn't disappointed! It was exciting and I couldn't put it down. Michael Crichton obviously put a lot of time and research into this book. Good science fiction always starts with the science of today, and then adds a dream for tomorrow. If you are looking for a good plot, and pure entertainment you will enjoy Timeline. And yes, it will make a great action movie. Thanks, Michael - for writing a great story! I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Maybe I'm a sucker for time travel books but I couldn't put this one down. Sure, Crichton telegraphs every move and the characters continue to escape from seemingly hopeless situations but for pleasure reading...I wish it were twice as long. I didn't buy the book to learn about quantum physics but rather to get my mind off work and into a more creative frame. Crighton did a good job at this with his description of life in the late middle ages. He also set the tone so we didn't obsess over the "smashed butterfly changing the future we live in" scenario. Not the best, but darn entertaining!
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: It begins well but develops into a dumbed-down Jurassic Park loaded with inconsistencies and every action/adventure cliche possible. Did Crichton really write this? This book, after its promising opening, reveals no more original thought than the worst B-movie you've ever seen. The only redeeming quality is the (I imagine) accurate description of medieval villages and castles. Most of Crichton's characters, if you can call them that, are barely one-dimensional, especially the medieval folk, who are all ugly, stinking, bloodthirsty knights, with the exception of one enigmatic and indecisive lady who suffers from multiple personality disoder. It's a quick read, but quicker if you skip it. Or whatever.
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