Rating: Summary: Excellent Book! Review: This book was an excellent book. It was brilliantly written and was historically accurate. I would recommend this book for anybody who likes suspense, drama, and history
Rating: Summary: lame story, lame characters Review: As a former Yale graduate student, at least I had something in common with the (overly numerous) characters, but they still didn't hold my attention. The story was pretty pointless, and by the end I didn't care what happened. Skip it unless you're desperate for shallow entertainment. He does get extra points for ridiculing Yale's imitation gothic architecture.
Rating: Summary: A poorly done rewrite of Willis' "Doomsday Book" Review: Interested in a book in which historians go back in time to the middle ages?Skip this one, and read the real thing: Connie Willis's "Doomsday Book." I can't rave about that one too much. Read the Amazon reviews if you think that I'm exaggerating. "Timeline," otoh, just reads like a pale imitation, dumbed-down for the mass market. It's a shame that because Crichton has the big name that he'll sell many more copies than will the real thing. I had just read the first few chapters when I was able to guess the ending and every plot turn in "Timeline." If you want your books predictable and tame, read this one. If you want ideas, character development, science fiction, AND emotions, check out "Doomsday Book" instead.
Rating: Summary: DON'T ASK FOR TOO MUCH! Review: You know the story: with a Crichton book you get a problem, you get a team together, and away you go... into adventure! It's always the same. He keeps to this formula and tells his yarn: if you don't like the approach, change author. If you stick to him, however, you know beforehand that you're gonna have fun - the ideas are there, the action follows a good pace, and he delivers a tasty "minestrone". Naturally, he's not Robert Louis Stevenson, i.e. his literary style is simple, devoid of in-depth character analysis, at times discontinuous. But it's like sitting in a cinema (wasn't he also a movie director?), you follow the images and have fun: Chrichton is good at that. And the book has pictures, too!
Rating: Summary: French reader very enthousiastic Review: Congratulations for an american novelist even so wellknown as Michael Crichton to try doing new in the style of making techno-thriller. Modernity and history of medieval France are very interesting for a french reader, who have red all the books of Crichton, but also books of Clancy, Ludlum, Cussler, Forsyth and so on... The trip to the past and specially during the "Guerre de cent ans" one hundred war, that Barbara Tuchmann considered as the calamitous 14th century, is very couragesous for an american writer. The american readers are not specially competent in medieval history of Europe! The site of Dordogne that I know very well, is also original, and I consider that Crichton in doing this effort to work on that topic, and in France at this period, confirms his quality of very great nevelist, and not specially in thriller. In this book, the details and the relation of some points of the war against the english are correct. The site is correctly describded, and if this book is transformed into movie, I hope Crichton will come in Dordogne to take some images.
Rating: Summary: combination of past and future Review: this book is the brilliant combination of the life of 16th centuary and the 21st centuary.the book display perfect mixture of scince fiction and a history.one of the best quality of the book is the it got a superb end ,which is rare for Cricton
Rating: Summary: Typical Crichton, but ok Review: I enjoyed reading Timeline, although I thought it was typical Crichton. It seemed to fall a little flat after Jurasic Park. However, some of that feeling could be that I read it on audio cassette, and an abridged copy at that. It was exciting enough to keep me to the end, and I do recommend it to Crichton fans and to those who like adventure, fantasy or time-travel novels.
Rating: Summary: One for the Road Review: The CD version of Timeline is a great piece of entertainment to listen to while you are driving somewhere. It has lots of action and an interesting plot. It is full of imagery. It reads almost like a screenplay, and it's hard to imagine that the author didn't expect it to appear as a movie. I give it four stars for entertainment on the road, or entertainment anytime. It almost reminds me of a Tom Swift novel, but I mean that in a good way--old-fashioned mystery, action, and fun. Nothing heavy here. Just fun.
Rating: Summary: Good book, Not enough tech stuff Review: The storyline of this book was great- the idea that using quantum physics a person could move through time in ways never imagined is an excited direction to take. The only thing that this book lacked was substance on the technology side of things. At the beginning of the book, I was pleased by the alternating focus from tech to story to tech. But as the book progressed, there was less tech and more story; I felt that the middle of the book, if anywhere, needed more focus on the tech. side of things. But, I still enjoyed the story. There just seemed to be room (although maybe not much) for more extensive use of technology.
Rating: Summary: Timeline Review: Michael Crichton's "Timeline" was an extremely entertaining book. It is a book for anyone, wheter you like historical books, archeology, technology, or just like Crichton's style. This book is for you. TImeline is most definitely his best book since Jurrasic Park.
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