Rating: 
Summary: Michael Chricton's Best!!!
Review: If you are a Michael Chricton fan, you will love this book! It is his most suspenseful ever (except maybe Sphere). I couldn't put it down. Although some of the technological jargon is somewhat confusing, this is one of the best fiction books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: More quantum foam please
Review: I am going to have to disagree with the majority of the reviewers and rate this book 5 stars. I loved it! I have enjoyed most of Crichton's novels and they are all similar in some way. I love his writing style and this book is a great example of when Crichton writes well. I am kind of a geek and I liked all the quantum foam, time machine jargon. Read it and enjoy it because it your classic time machine story with a new twist.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great One from the Master
Review: I think this is one of the best books written by Crichton, along with Airframe, Andromeda Strain and The Sphere. With every book he writes, I learn new things. It is as though I am getting an education on the subject. The subject of the book may seem very ordinary at the very beginning: time-travel. But the plot is very delicately designed and keeps you alert and actually time-travels you between the two worlds. Great action, superb scientific knowledge.
Rating: 
Summary: non-stop action and little else
Review: This book succeeds at what it tries to do. It keeps us turning pages and implicitly critiques Connie Willis's poorly executed THE DOOMSDAY BOOK. For my money, it ought to have tried to do at least a little more, though. Even the incessant action-adventure eventually becomes wearying. This is the first novel I've read that comes with a bibliography. I would have given it an extra star for this circumstance--it charmed and amused me--except that on this bibliography's recommendation I read the book from which TIMELINE took its (pseudo-scientific) explanation of time travel, THE FABRIC OF REALITY. Let's just say it ought to have occurred to me that a book that calls itself "The Fabric of Reality" is likely to be only loosely connected to it.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Entertaining, Historical Thriller
Review: I'm an avid reader but I somehow missed out on the Michael Crichton phenomenon until I picked up a paperback copy of "Jurassic Park" in an airport one day (this was pre-movie, so I had no idea). I was hooked by the fast pace and unusual subject matter and quickly started reading more of Crichton's work. I've now read all of his novels and have to say that "Timeline" is by far my favorite. A history buff, the time travel to the middle ages theme drew me in and the action and suspense kept me up all night reading. This is an entertaining, highly-engrossing and well-written novel that just happens to also be a whole lot of fun. I'm sure "Timeline" will soon be made into a "major motion picture" but don't wait for the Hollywood hype, read it now.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting, well-plotted ... but is that all there is?
Review: There were many things I enjoyed about the book. First of all, it's a page-turner. Second, the research really shows. I thought the piece on quantum mechanics was wonderful, and I hope to show it to some friends of mine who know more about the subject in order to ask their opinion. Crichton also has a good idea about the layout of the place, and his details regarding the lifestyle at that point in the time were convincing. I also really enjoyed the puzzles and all the clues. But, in the end, I had the feeling I was watching an action-adventure movie rather than experiencing with a novel. The goal for our characters was to get back, and they had to fight their way to do it. It was practically like any other action-adventure movie, where the characters are fighting for survival. Yet it could have been so much more! What did these characters learn by going back in time? How did their personalities change? Chris became a "better guy" through hardship -- but that was hardship that could have been learned through any other difficult situation. Why was it Andre's time? What made the bad guy so bad -- other than the fact that he went nuts? The scenes are beautifully painted, there's plenty of excitement, but there wasn't as much depth as I could have hoped.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book Ever
Review: I am a big fan of John Gisham's and James Patterson's work and I was told to read Michael Crichton's Timeline. His book absolutely amazed me. His exquisite details are fascinating. I read a few of his earlier books (The Great Train Robbery and Rising Sun), and this one by far soars above the rest. I can't say enough about his plot, and I hope there is a movie about this book. A sure reader for anyone, and a non-stop page turner once you begin.
Rating:
Summary: Good Attempt but not the best
Review: I found Timeline, although an interesting read, a little disappointing. Unusually for Michael Chricton novels it takes a while to get started, partly because he has to desribe the whole new concept of timetravel through parallel universes and the Medieval setting in which the main characters are transported back to. The opening chapters I found were promising but once the young scientists, Marek, Chris and Kate are informed about what is going on and are tranported back the story becomes a little muddled. Not enough suspense is built up before the initial, inevitable, fatalities. Proffesser Johnston has a wooden character and Andre Marek is instantly unlikable. Obsessive about the Middle Ages, acting out his fantasies and a pedantic, he has none of the appealing nature of, say, an Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park, The Lost World).
The story line becomes muddled and confusing (you soon forget why they have to find the secret passage to La Roque) and there are several chapters which I found uneccessary, with little relevance to the story. I found the part where the main characters kept being captured particularly pointless and repetitive. The knight at the Green Chapel seems a rather 'convenient' sideshow. It seemed well researched if a un-original in places. ITC is like Ingen, Doniger like Hammond from Jurassic Park. The end of Doniger seems far too cold blooded and out of character with the guilty parties.
I especially liked, however, the language barrier problems, finding out who was already there and about 'Transcription errors'.
Overall, I liked the book but it is not one of Chrichton's best or in the same league as, say, The Lost World. However, I still recommend it, particularly for Chricton fans.
Rating: 
Summary: What a wonderfully, delightful premise. . .
Review: . . .and how well that premise was carried through! I'll admit, certain aspects of the ending were predictable. But then again, the same can be said, not only for Crichton's other novels but for other authors in similar genres -- and for me, at least, that is not a feature worth panning the book for. The premise and development of the novel is what impressed me -- the ideas surrounding the concept of a quantum computer, parallel universes, the concept of the multiverse (borrowed from Heinlein?)etc., and set in a medieval world -- a world which our own time finds quite fascinating. I also found the characters believable. They were real people with real problems and flaws -- and were able to overcome those flaws in a satisfactory manner. One reviewer complained about the violence and brutality in the depictions of medieval society. Unfortunately, however, as any historian can attest, such depictions were all too accurate -- and not necessarily reflective of medieval society, but rather of human nature. I heartily recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: It's good, but...
Review: This book has a very interesting premise. Time travel is possible via parallel universes. Crichton explains this very well. He even gives us a dozen interesting characters to play with in this rescue tale. Then he drops it. The end is a bit predictable in my mind, and Crichton throws just enough mind candy out there to keep you hooked and interested. This is a great book, and as far as bringing interesting questions to my mind, he did a great job. His plot line and characters need to be better developed. He could have done better in my mind.
| 
