Rating: 
Summary: hard to sell out when you never had artistic integrity anywa
Review: Michael Crichton has finally hit the wall. Timeline is nothing except a tired rehash of his previous, better, books. From the mysteriously injured and disoriented man in the desert (yoink, Andromeda Strain) to the precocious 11-year-old baseball player delivering graduate-level lectures on quantum mechanics (yoink, Jurassic Park) to the entirely preposterous "evil company with mysterious aims and high tech stuff" (yoink, Jurassic Park) Crichton has plagarized his earlier work without so much as an ounce of regret. It's painful to read Timeline because it compares so poorly with a truly entertaining read like Jurassic Park, or even mediocre works like Terminal Man, Andromeda Strain, Sphere, or Congo. If you want to see a plot that's as obvious as a train in a tunnel, plot 'twists' that are depressingly foreshadowed (team physicist actually a big wiz! wow!,a really agressive misinterpretation of science, and serious coherency issues, feel free to buy this book. If you are actually interested in reading a cogent thriller, I'd suggest Crichton's earlier work. Timeline, in a nutshell, is a poorly-done hackjob, an artistic ripoff, and a major-league disapointment.
Rating: 
Summary: The Future of the Past (yeah, I borrowed it from the book)
Review: I was a little skeptical when I first picked up this book. Having never read anything by Crichton before, I was wary of what would be inside. I had only decided to read the book because it dealt with the Middle Ages, a period I find fascinating. Well, I was absolutely stunned by this book! The research was impeccable and the ideas discussed kept your brain working, as opposed to many books where you can fall asleep reading them and still get the gist. The plot is likeable, the characters enjoyable (despite lack of complexity), and all in all, this book will keep you talking about it long after you set it down.
Rating:
Summary: What happened to Crichton?
Review: I've read all of his books and have seen most of his movies. I'm a big fan. But -- he invested into "13th Warrior," has completely sold out all his dinosaurs, then excretes two mediocre novels better left unread. What has happened to a once great author of science fact-ion? "Airframe" was a messy disappointment, and "Timeline" fares no better. I know he isn't great at writing characters, but at least "Sphere" had reasons for motivations, and "Rising Sun" was driven almost entirely by thoughts and feelings. No one can tell me Crichton can't write characters - he most assuredly can - but all these time-traveling historians are about as two-dimensional as the pages in his book. At least it started out exciting, as these flat stock protagonists entered a new world. I kept waiting for surprises as scenes of rehashed action played by the numbers, but nothing, really. Perhaps I expected too much, but the big surprise was *someone's still in the past and he's insane.* And the guy doesn't even do much. Let's pull another one out of the bag of cliches -- a timer!! And how convenient is it that everyone assumes the team will press their quantum foam thingie right before the timer ends? Tsk tsk, that's not even the biggest contrivance. The ending was laughable, predictable, horrible. There was no reason for any of these people to do any of the stuff they did. Doniger was not so bad, Marek wouldn't have stayed, and who would invest into such a boring business of "historical authenticity?" Didn't buy it, none of it. Well, considering this is Crichton, the novel wasn't oh-so-outright-bad, and I liked the moments with Stern and Gordon as they bantered about time and raced against it. Every time the plot switched back to the present, I eased off and thought -- this is pure Crichton here, just using these guys as mouthpieces for his pseudo-sci-theories. Great stuff, but then back to the boring Medieval garbage, and back to boredom. Oh well, if the movie ever comes out, I'll probably go watch it anyways.
Rating:
Summary: Adventerous and informative
Review: This book begins slow but rapidly builds tension as the novel proceeds. I love the way Mr. Crichton tells a story interwoven with scientific data.This is my second book i read from Mr. Crichton and i love it!!!
Rating:
Summary: His best since "Jurassic Park"
Review: And that's no small statement! As in "Jurassic Park" Crichton has taken something unbelievable, made it the core of his story, and the makes the reader believe it could really happen. In fact, I usually hate time travel novels, they always seem contrived and utterly fake. With "Timeline" though, not only did I accept time travel for the purposes of the novel, I genuinely wanted to believe that it was a real possibility. That's what Crichton does so well time and again; he injects enough genuine science into his books that he doesn't insult the reader's intelligence. As a result, they are willing to suspend their disbelief and accept the novel at its face value. Then Crichton really shines because his writing is excellent, and I found it to be particularly so in "Timeline". The characters were perhaps the most diverse and deep he has ever created, and his narrative is as well paced and descriptive as ever. In particular, he did an excellent job of juxtaposing and archeological site with the location in its heyday. "Timeline" isn't great literature, but it is a great novel. Crichton is one of the most creative storytellers alive today, and his writing is more than capable of conveying his gift. He has proven once again that he can write about almost anything and back it up with solid research, great characters and breathtaking plots. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: Michael Crichton's TIMELINE, is a beutifully written combination of the mid 14th century, in feudal France, and our present day and age, in France as well as New Mexico. In the story, Four modern day hisorians, all between the ages of 20 and 30, prepare to go back in time trying to rescue a friend who is trapped there. They have 37 short hours to get him and return to their own time, or they too will be trapped, forever. While they race against the clock in the past, their friends try frantically to find other ways to get them back in the present. With everything from gripping brushes with death, to the history of quantum technology, to the very origin of tennis, this novel is everything any reader could ask for. Mr. Chrichton has definitely outdone himself this time, because TIMELINE is a must-read!!!
Rating:
Summary: A pox on those who don't like this book!
Review: When will somebody read a book just for fun, don't look for anything serious, just have fun. Timeline is great, just like everything else of Crichton's. Pure, escapist lit thats fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: This was my first Crichton and I was totally impressed. I was really exciting and it kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved how Crichton included the quantum theory of traveling through the multiverse in this book and how a group of historians could go to another universe to rescue a fellow historian from another time. This is an excellent book!
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Blend of Fact and Fiction
Review: I'll admit--I was skeptical before I read this book. I had heard of Michael Crichton's writing prowess but movies like Jurassic Park and the Lost World dissuaded me from EVER reading those two. However, a friend insisted that I read Timeline, and I'm glad I did. The book is a work of genius, a masterpiece. Crichton artfully blends fact seen in the theories behind quantam physics and the actual historical events of the Middle Ages with a compelling fiction of parallel universes and the possibility to believe in time travel. Added is a little spice of romance, all that is necessary to entirely tie the book together. The characters are not meant to be entirely deep, emotional people, but their internal turmoil and courage under fire characterizes them more deeply than long-winded paragraphs of emotion. I don't know how anyone thinks of combining Medieval history with quantam physics, but somehow Crichton did, and the story seems all the more real with the knowledge that it's entirely original. This book will be enjoyed in some aspect by anyone who has dreamed to go beyond the constraints of time and really experience the past, anyone that believes in chivalry, anyone to whom quantam physics is not a theory but a reality, and anyone who loves a good story.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best writer of our time.
Review: Michale Crichton on any book means that you are in good hands when you purchase any book by him. He is truly a great author. Timeline is a great book. I really liked it a lot! I could see this going to to be a movie!
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