Rating: 
Summary: In a land far, far away...
Review: For fellow faire geeks, this is one for you. When you miss the enchantment of long ago, this book will take you back. Michael Crichton's language is vivid and draws you in. Potential movie? Maybe. I can't wait for the game. Is there a more wonderful way to fall asleep than with visions of France and knights and damsels floating before your eyes.
Rating: 
Summary: So-so
Review: In a nutshell: even though this novel is entertaining and will help you survive a boring trans-atlantic flight, it will not keep you awake until the early hours of dawn, which is my most important criterion for an excellent book.Let's start with the positive side. The author has obviously done his homework; especially the descriptions of life in medieval times appear very accurate (even though I am not an expert in this area). For the time-travel part, it is based on concepts of quantum mechanics, and they are not entirely misrepresented - more than can be expected in this complicated topic. Furthermore, Crichton has not wasted too many words on boring fill-paragraphs, so that the story stays moderately interesting throughout. In contrast, Timeline suffers from a big limitation of time-travel stories: there simply is not way to explain away the paradoxa and impossibilities of the concept. Whenever details of the time-travel technology were explained in any detail, I stopped and said to myself: 'Nah, that just can't be!' These are also the places where the concepts of quantum mechanics are often misapplied, and used to make up for inconsistencies with technical punch terms. So, if you are picky about details like I am, this may not be for you. The characters of the story are somewhat shallow. You know those kind of novels where one of the main characters is carefully developed, becomes almost dear to the reader, and then is suddenly killed, leaving you stunned and thinking: 'No, wait a minute, that just can't happen!' - well, this is not that kind of story. I didn't really care about any of the people in the book, and their skills matched all the requirements of what happened too 'magically', making the story less believable. As did the 'action': The heroes too often got themselves in dangerous situations, out of which they always escaped through events that were just a little too convenient. Enough rambling, if you like Crichton, read it, but don't expect wonders.
Rating: 
Summary: Formulaic Crichton Doesn't Deliver
Review: It appears that Michael Crichton has figured out that every book he pens is destined to become a movie. It's a shame, really; because what started out as a promising novel ended up leaving me extremely disappointed. For the first couple of hundred pages, Timeline is a page-turner that takes you through a somewhat believable story that has Crichton's usual assortment of facts and plot twists. (I do give him credit for being able to make a story 'realistic' without turning it into a science or history lesson.) And-- like other Crichton books-- everything moves in a predictable way with no real surprises. But that doesn't bother you since it is, after all, interesting reading. But unlike his previous work from what seems like now the distant past, Crichton writes the final half of the book more like a screenplay than a novel-- complete with corny heroes, oversimplified situations and overdone theatrics. I could see him saying as he wrote the book: "what would a typical Mel Gibson character do in this situation?" As an avid reader, I find this offensive and not too short of insulting. Please... don't cast the movie until the book's finished! Think, if you will, of a painter... creating a beautiful background with his brushes, only to glue pictures of people out of a magazine in the forefront.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment...
Review: I anxiously await each Michael Crichton book. With the exception of Congo, I have enjoyed his books tremendously and was expecting a great read in Timeline. Rather, I found a story line that never approached even the remotest possibility of being plausible. Then when the unfortunate four characters are transported into the past, they encounter an incredible number of life threatening skirmishes. The first battle was interesting enough I suppose. Same with the third and maybe even the fifth or sixth. But when you got to the twelfth or fifteen life threatening skirmish, you begin to think that maybe this was more a script for a computer game than a novel. In a little over 37 hours, they are stabbed, shot with arrows, sliced with swords and encounter every imagine obstacle. These people are either supper human or incredibly lucky.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it as an e-book, and I just couldn't put it away
Review: Timeline is one of my favority Chrichton books. He really captures the mind of his reader with this book. I read it through my PDA - actually as the very first e-book I have ever come across. Timeline has been released free of charge in e-book format by the way :-) Before commencing to read the book in the relatively small format the screen of a PDA provides, I was indeen sceptical, and really just wanted to try out this new book media form. I found the book so fascinating that I didn't even notice the small book format, and that I eventually read through more than 2000 "Microsoft Reader" screen pages. I would most definitly recommend that you read this book in any form available to you :-) Best regards Michael
Rating:
Summary: Timeline
Review: Michael Crichton scores again with Timeline! Just a couple technicalities glazed over that were covered more thoroughly in Jurassaic Park. Strict entertainment, of course. But Michael, "Jesus Christ" is not the only profanity in the world. And as much as I like reading your novels, it really does insult my personal saviour. Please search for another one for your next novel. I will probably buy it - Sooth! (For sooth, and notwithstanding.)
Rating:
Summary: Tastes like non-fiction!
Review: This book was my first Michael Crichton novel and it was mind-blowing. A fantastic book. It was filled with incredible detail to the last point making it seem all the more realistic. Being intrested in Physics myself, I was farmiliar with "Many Worlds" theory and was surprised he included it in a Mass Market novel with such effect. It really makes you think.......
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Concept
Review: I found the story concept very interesting BUT I can not say this is the best Crichton has done. His character development was somewhat weak. Nevertheless I think it will make a great movie.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: In "Timeline" Michael Crichton takes an idea, "Quantem physics" and develops recent discoveries to their logical, although unlikely, results. In particular, Mr. Crichton talks about, in detail, how recent discoveries in "quantem mechanics" would allow a type of time time traval. First one charactor, unknown to the others, goes back into time to the site of a modern dig. When he appears to send a message through time to them, a rescue mission is sent back. Of course this mission has all kinds of troubles, which is the basis of the story. Sort of. The problem with this story is at least twofold. At least a third of the story is focused on quantem mechanics and how time travel may be possible. It is almost if Mr. Crichton wanted to write a time travel story, but was embarrassed to do it unless he could justify it scientifically. His basis for time travel is no more valid, in my eyes, then any of the other theories for time travel put forward in standard pulp fiction. But, as opposed to writers who know they are writing ficton, Mr. Crichton takes too much time to explain how this could be possible. Secondly, why did he make this a time travel book anyway? If people from our time, or the future, went back into the past, you can expect certain conflicts. Modern ethics v. Medieval Ethics or Modern Technology v. Medieval Technologies. Often times you can see the same problems as when a person travels to a foreign culture or place. People, without fault, will make embarassing errors or mistakes. None of those themes are found in this book. The only reason why, it seems, we have time travellers, is so the author can explain in more details the times and customs of France in the past. As such, the action and conflict in the story takes too long to develop. Once it appears, there is alot of action and fighting, chases and conflicts and general adventure. But even these scenes are weakened by some of the wide swings in the charactors whose attitudes and actions change dramatically as the story continues. The book may have mass appeal based on the number of reviews, but it had little to offer me. It wasn't a total loss, but it was close. I have just come to expect more from this author.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This was one of the best books I've read. The story is so fascinating. I couldn't put the book down. Michael Crichton's words are so vivid and descriptive--I felt I was in medieval France all along. A must-have for anybody's collection.
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