Rating: 
Summary: Met my very high expectations! (Audio book)
Review: Crichton is, without question, my favorite author. And I was definitely NOT disappointed in the latest addition. My wife and I bought TimeLine on CD, just before a long, 10 hour car ride, and Timeline kept us entertained for the majority of the ride. The story line was exciting, and Crichton once again was able to paint a very vivid picture of the environment which is totally foreign to the world we all live in. I know of no other author who can combine both past and future (or futuristic technology) so superbly. A great job by the reader also. Bottom line, if you like Crichton, you will love Timeline.
Rating: 
Summary: sir victor
Review: I'm not a huge Crichton fan, but that said I really enjoyed this book. I was really taken by the time period and found myself transported along with the rest of the characters into the middle of knights and damsels in distress. I enjoyed the movie-like descriptions of the places.I appreciated the historical details. They were accuratly and artistically described. I'm sure the movie, when it's finally made will be a disappointment. The version in my head would cost way too much to produce.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid, but not outstanding
Review: I really give it 2 and a half stars, but there is no option for that.After the first 100 pages, I was very excited about this novel, but it simply did not live up to the promise. All of the classic Crichton elements are there - including the amazing research and the moral questions about developing technology for entertainment and profit. But somehow, the book fails to deliver in the end. One big problem is that some of the major developments are just too predictable. Another is that Crichton sluffs off a bit in describing places and situations. This is usually a place where he is master; setting a scene and describing the situation during action sequences while the tension builds. The descriptions are too brief, and he often simply gives up and just draws a picture. This is unaccpetable in my opinion. He also abandons character development (which I guess has never been his strength). I found myself at the end of the book wondering about some of the characters that I was introduced to, but never were fleshed out. I also thought that resolutions with respect to several of the main characters -- most of all the arch-villian -- were not really warranted given the development. (All that said, the richest character in the novel, Marek, is very well developed.) In short, this is a great airplane book. If you enjoy this book, I recommend another book that you probably will enjoy: The Flanders Panel. It is a bit more cerebral and a little less action driven, but there are some similarities.
Rating:
Summary: Up to Crichton's standards, but not an outstanding book.
Review: This book is good - Crichton is a good author, and this book stands up to his standards. with that in mind, I think this is not one of Crichton's best books, and for several reasons : 1. The plot looks like it was made for film - a large part of it is about the main characters escaping death, repeated seperations and reunions, etc. I'm sure it would be impressive on the silver screen, but it makes for a long reading. 2. The characters have little depth, and develope little with the plot. This is typical of Crichton's books (at least those I've read), but it's especially strong in this book. 3. Though Crichton has done research for the book (e.g. the time at which the plot occurs, the physics behind, etc), there are little surprises in it - the plot is made from the standard materials in today's books and movies. -- This includes the greedy genius capitalists with his evil plan, the professor that gets to use his arcane knowledge, the vengeful vilain, the hero and heroine, the clock running down with the characters saved at the last minute, etc. So though the book shows Crichton's work and talent, and doesnt rise beyond the average level, hence the three star rating.
Rating:
Summary: TIMELINE flies like a bird
Review: Is Crichton running out of ideas to have to write on time-travel? That 800 number has been disconnected? (old joke, he once replied that "he called a 800 number" to "how he got his ideas"). Not really. Rather, he disappointingly sidesteps the "what if I killed my grandfather?" paradox the Austin Powers way, don't worry about, relax and have fun. However, with an entertaining attempt to completely revamp our common idea of the dark ages, he makes "history of science" look fun. Also, with extensive pop quantum physics included, it's quite entertaining science fiction when probabilistic events and causes occur in the story. The story-line is Robin Hood-ish, with castles and knights and the lot. But, when you put history graduate students in there, the story-line is more than your average run-of-the-mill. I know this is just whining, but why would you market time teleportation and history entertainment when you've invented quantum-computers and space teleportation along the way?
Rating: 
Summary: This isn't a novel. It's a thinly disguised screenplay.
Review: I enjoyed the first part of "Timeline" quite a bit. I love the "What in the world is going on here? This is a fascinating mystery." feeling that some books inspire. Unfortunately, after everything is explained, the book takes a turn for the worse and reads more like an action movie screenplay than a novel. This wouldn't have been a problem except that the action scenes and near brushes with death are so cliched and familiar. For instance, one of the characters is locked in a cage and slowly lowered into a pit of oily black water. A fight ensues as his friends battle for their lives and for control of the winch that is lowering him to his death. This whole scene was so reminiscent of the second "Indiana Jones" movie (but without the humor or the charming rogue of a hero) that it actually left me feeling disgusted over the lack of originality. A further problem was that the characters simply weren't interesting enough for me to care what happened to them. We're only given a very sketchy description of each one before they are sent into danger, and once they begin their journey, they don't do much except run, hide, and fight for their lives. There is very little meaningful dialogue or emotion. Two of the characters are killed almost immediately, but the others never mention it or show any concern. One of the protagonists, Andre Marek, has an ultimate fate that is so glaringly obvious that the ending is no surprise. We know what will happen to him from the moment he is introduced. The plot involves a rescue attempt by a group of history students who must find their professor, who is trapped in the past and unable to return to the present. They are sent back in time, to a date when they know the professor is in trouble. According to the book, there can be no paradoxes in time travel, so I didn't understand why the students entered the past on that particular date. Logically, they should have gone back to the point at which the professor first entered the past, before he got into trouble. Furthermore, since there can be no paradoxes, why weren't the two characters who were killed rescued as well? It would have been simple enough to, again, send someone back to a point in time a minute before they arrived and warn them. There was, however, one paragraph in the book that I found to be profound. From chapter 01:13:52: "In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused." -page 443 Very true, Mr. Crichton, and I thank you for the insight.
Rating:
Summary: One of his best
Review: As an avid Michael Crichton fan I must say that this book is problably his best work since Jurassic Park. In classic Michael Crichton fashion the beginning of the book grabs the reader while the rest of the book takes them on a wild ride. As to be expected the topic of the quantum therory as well as midevel France is well researched and thouroughly explained. He takes a difficult topic such as quantum theory and makes a great story using its vast possibilities and any holes in the theorey(which there are many) are filled in by Crichton's vivid imagination and immense genius to the point where you start believing it could be possible(remember when cloning seemed like a fairy tale and cloning dinosaurs even more far fetched). His description of life during midevel France is the work of shear brillance. What the charicters go through is a bit much and when you think they've had enough here it comes again, but hey its a story and it keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes you feel like your there with them. One critisim I have heard is that he develops charicters and then has them die off, or disappear altogether. This is not a completly correct crisisim however. While this may occur, Critchton has these charicters for a purpose and they serve there purpose as intended. Once they are no longer needed he decides to remove them to avoid cluttering the story, plus the plot line depends on these charicters. Crichton is known for is clever endings and this one does not disappoint. Forget the critisim, this book is excellent, the story is brilliant, and once you begin it you will not want to put it down until its finished.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreadful, amateurish
Review: This book is intended to be a bad made-for-TV movie, since anyone who enjoys reading will be appalled at the contrived plot. After about the 20th time one of our heroes is about to be killed, but instead is rescued at the last second by an incredibly-improbable event, I started rooting for the cartoonish bad guys.
Rating:
Summary: I cant wait for the movie!
Review: The aspect I like about Michael Crichton is he thoroughly researches his material and gives the impression he is an expert in the topic he chooses to write about, as is the case in "Timeline". I wont deny it, this book was definitely a page turner and I looked forward to coming home everyday from work and staying up to the wee-hours of the night finishing the book. I especially liked the first half of Timeline, in which Crichton does an excellent job in building up the plot, piecing it together page by page. However, I must equally admit, though the remaining half of the book was fun and far from being boring, it somehow veered off into "fantasy-land" and was fairly predictable and unfortunately, "Hollywooded Out". There are a couple of loopholes in Crichton's character development...I feel he built up the roles of the Indian Cop and Doctor in the beginning and suddenly they disappear from the book altogether. This goes for the old, lucid engineer they find in the desert...By the end of the book, the reader still will not learn how he ended up in a New Mexican desert with no car to begin with...well, I dont want to ruin it for the new reader so I will leave it at that... All and all though, Crichton's book is enjoyable, and as always, you get the feeling you are living among the characters in the book; Dodging arrows, raiding a castle, jousting a knight...I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Midievil history. Timeline will make for an excellent movie (Hopefully it wont turn out like "Sphere", where the book was awesome and the movie was so terrible it would make poor Gene Siskel role in his grave!), and I anticipate its release one day...
Rating:
Summary: A raucous medieval adventure
Review: Timeline is a styrofoam story about a visionary sociopath who is secretly (well only a few hundred people who work for him really know what going on but for all intents and purposes its secret) developing historical theme parks based on time travel. But as with all sociopathic (not really a word but then this isn't really a novel) visionaries the big plan starts to unravel. To save his mad dream he uses, who else? but his ingenuous intellectuals who are working on a pivotal archeological dig. A little heel clicking, sputtering, plunging, and spurring (horses that is) later and our trio have fixed the problem, two have fallen in love and a third stays behind in a world he feels more suited to. And the sociopathic, visionary who wants to entertain the world? He cleverly meets his fate in time, proving once and for all after being duped most innocents turn into demented, vengeful, sadomasochistic, maladjusted boneheads. Crichton and his elves have in Timeline retreaded Jurassic Park. Why? It's what machines do. And this is also what machines do. "Compulsive Reading...Brilliantly imagined" - Los Angeles Times. "Exciting...Classic Adventure..." - USA Today. "More screams per page...than Jurassic Park and the Lost World combined" - San Diego Union-Tribune. And my personal favourite - "One of his best..." Philadelphia Inquirer. Timeline... a raucous adventure... a timeless tale of deception and love... none better... Really, who can resist?
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