Rating: 
Summary: GREAT!
Review: This book has great plot, ending, and so much on the Middle Ages! So packed and flowed so good, I had no hard time stopping myself from destroying this book.It has a good reason for time travel and an emotional ending. Yes, like all good books, the bad guy gets the bad treatment.
Just Perfect! and some good humor is included.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive writting and knowledge packing into this book
Review: Crichton has magnificently interweaved all aspcets of fiction, world history, and science into this brilliant book. I was very impressed by the way that he fit everything together and actually had all of it make sense. Even though it is partly science fiction, it was easily accepted as a possible reality. He amazingly explained complex ideas in simple ways.
I am definitely recommending this book to others, because its just incredible.
Rating:
Summary: Timeline
Review: This is one of the best books I've read. It's fast paced and vastly entertaining. I couldn't put this book down until I finished it and then I wanted to read it again!
Rating:
Summary: Timeline
Review: Timeline is a heart pounding novel and is really good. We read it for school and once i got through the boring pages of every novel (up to 150) I couldn't put the novel down. That ranks among one of my favorite books of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Timeline.
Review: Bravo. Fast-paced book with LOTS of action. Couldn't put the book down for a second. I learned so much from Crichton's books it is astonishing. But, I learned the most about Mid-evil times, nights, abbots, and SCIENCE as I recall.
Like most of Crichton's books it is slow at the start. Bunch of "interesting" science facts in the beginning as well. If I remember correctly(I read this book a couple of years ago) it bursts out of control with action at around page 200. As I recall it starts out, with a man in a desert, pretty much dead. They find that his blood vessels, veins and such, are not connected in his fingertips. This is where all the science comes in with all the time machine facts and such. But anyway later on in the book the "gang" goes back in time and immediately finds out how hard it is going to be to survive, and yet even make it back home with the conditions they are under. Yet, I cannot tell you anymore, for you have to read for yourself! [five] stars. And I'm not easily impressed either. haha.
Rating:
Summary: A Crichton book that I truely loved
Review: I run hot and cold on Michael Crichton. Many of his novels spend so much time with the technology of the story that I feel I'd be better off reading a college text. But this one does not fall in that category. It could be in part that I'm a big historical novel fan and the time travel to France in the middle ages just really caught my attention. He has spent as much time and attention explaining what life was like as he often does explaining some arcane theory. Now I don't know if his depiction is accurate and quite honestly, I don't care because it sounds believable and is a great read. For those of you who read his novels for the technology, it's still there. Although I don't pretend to understand the technology behind this theory of time travel, it adds that aura of science that Crichton has become famous for.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as it could have been
Review: I write this at the risk of it being lost in the noise, but it's worth it. I'll keep it short: yes, it's a light "beach read" kind of book, but it's not so bad. There are a couple of interesting ideas and a little action to keep you awake on the plane. I also happened to read this book right after Connie Willis' terrific "The Doomsday Book", which has a similar setup, but is much better. Read it if "Timeline" wasn't all you were hoping for.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and fun book - but no more
Review: Timeline was a very enjoyable read (took me 4 days to finish it and I was in Rio - 50 steps from the beach!). The author cleverly explains the mechanics and theories behind time travel and I really, really liked the way the book went back and forth from historical times to modern era. There are some inconsitancies regarding the actual theory, but very minor - they in no way interfere with the story. The last two chapters were strong, bt were unfitting - the characters behave in ways that are not like them at all. I think the author just wanted to make an ending that would surprise a movie adience and didn't quite know what to do.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad, bad, oh so bad.
Review: This book is painful, breaking-your-own-nose-by-slamming-your-head-into-the-corner-of-a-wall painful. Yes, it hurts that much. The real problem with this book is that you could basically write it yourself for all of its predictability. Oh, who could have EVER guessed that the dude really into midevil stuff would stay in the past?? And the plot devices...so lame! Grendades conveniently getting people stuck in the past, etc. If you have ever stuck your hand directly into a fire and held it there for over 30 seconds, you probably have the endurance and willpower to make it through this book. Otherwise...
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing but good for the plane
Review: I was quite drawn in by Crichton's description of some of the issues of quantum mechanics and possible other universes, differing from ours in only small ways. And, the concept of not transporting a person but rather transmitting compressed, encoded information describing them so they can be reconstituded at the othe end, analogous to fax transmission. Here though the other end is some other place/time. I was wondering all along how accurate his descriptions of quantum mechanics were and how fanciful his notion of transmitting humans. As is typical in Crichton's novels that I've read, the inventors or advocates of new hot-shot technologies are overly in love with the technologies and themselves for being so smart for having invented/understood them that they are blinded particularly with respect to their safety and reliability and misuse (from what they intended) by others, and to the consequent often unexpected and undesirable if not disastrous consequences. In the book four graduate students doing historical archeology and restoration in France are 'faxed' back to 14th century France by the high tech company that sponsors their apparently unrelated research to recover their professor who fax himself back unauthorized when brought to headquaters, and now he's trapped. It's their job to find and rescue him. Many of the scenes and vignettes of France in the 14th century that they encounter give that "that's what it was like back them" sense with the emotional impact you get from identification with the characters. However, to move the novel along the characters are almost always just managing one improbable escape after another. I got quite bored after a while. Yet, even bored, I still kept on turning the pages until I finished. So, three stars, and a good book for the plane. But, Crichton's _Sphere_ was better, imo.
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