Rating: 
Summary: Another Great Crichton Novel
Review: As usual, Crichton writes a great book that is enjoyable to read and is factually true. He has never failed to leave out technical details that make sense to all. His quantum mechanics is sound, simply stretched a bit to allow the novel to take place. His immersion of the audience in a medieval world is wonderfully done. If you enjoyed Congo or Jurassic Park, then I think you'll enjoy this one as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Ever since I happened upon "Congo" several years back I have been a Michael Crichton fan. I plow through every novel he churns out. Like just about everything else he has written, "Timeline" makes for easy plowing. Crichton manages to make even stress tests on an airplane fuselage ("Airframe") compelling. But he's lost something in "Timeline." This latest book tires to be "Jurassic Park" set in the middle ages, with modern folk using a new science to travel there instead of using new science to resurrect the past. Its not the triteness of the book that doesn't work - Crichton has been using the same plot devices since "The Andromeda Strain" - it's just that he's lost a little steam. This is hinted at by the tired title and even the bland cover (maybe you can judge a book this way...) Crichton usually works a new science into his every plot. The science usually allows something to happen that couldn't happen otherwise. In "Timeline," quantum physics is used to travel through time (sort of). But the modern characters only travel into a story that could have happened without them. The modern stuff is almost superfluous. That the modern characters have an impact on the outcome is also superfluous - medieval characters could have had a similar impact. Minus the gee-whiz science, the fantasy story is well researched but not terribly imaginative. When I finished reading "Jurassic Park," "Sphere" and others, I felt like I had read something special. "Timeline" doesn't leave that sense. It's all too ordinary, if fast paced. I'm left wanting more. But I guess that will have to wait...unless we can speed up time to the release of his next book.
Rating:
Summary: cinemagery
Review: Another Crichton - another megaseller that reads more like a film script than a novel. I will never understand the ritual behind Mr. Crichtons writing page turners which become a success as books only when they are turned into films. Is script-writing such a badly-paid job in Hollywood? "Timeline" is another such example of a novel that has been published in a state somewhere between text and movie. The characters: Hollywood. The scenes, the setting: Hollywood. Tension, yes - if you read the book like a movie. Michael Crichton is an expert in adapting his status and knowledge as a scientist to the pseudo-scientific expectations and fears of the public. The degree to which he fulfills these expectations is the degree to which "Timeline" can be called a success, yes. What Mr. Crichton lacks, however, is the sense of the past a novelist like, for example, Sir Walter Scott had. But of course: writing historic novels today means something different than in an age when the past was not a playground for the media but something to be reconquered in order to understand the society people lived in. Michael Crichton may write about Europe in the Middle Ages and the only criterion that really counts for him is what people know about the Middle Ages from the movies or the scenery that has clustered around the verdict of the Dark Ages. In this he is very successful, indeed. And he is a very skillful author. But haven't we had all this before. Isn't it just another book that can prove the life hidden in its texture only by transforming this life into action?
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, Imaginative
Review: Not Crichton's best, but plenty of entertainment in this book. I found Timeline to be an exciting, imaginative story, and as usual for Chichton, a fast read. The story line requires an open mind, and no knowledge of quantum physics. Once you get past the plausibility factor, it's a wild ride through the middle ages of Chichton's imagination. I would definitely recommend this one!
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best...But Thoroughly Entertaining
Review: In typical Crichton fashion, you are not only entertained with a concise and decscriptive writing style that manages to make even mundane scientific facts entertaining, you actually learn a thing or two in the process. Coming up short of the believability found in the majority of his other science-based fiction, this one stretches a bit TOO far in the technical time travel area. It was certainly an original idea, however, to have the characters travel back to Medieval France. One would think the hollywood temptation would be to visit the Dinosaurs .... oh wait...he's aleady done that one. Overall, it was a very easy and enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: informative, interesting, but not his best work
Review: It wasn't a suprise that this book was very informative. Michael Crichton continuously proves his knowledge and hard work at researching in each book he writes. I have never taken a physics course in my life and certainly don't understand these quantum physics theories. I do, however, enjoy learning about Medieval times. Not only has Crichton showed knowledge on these subjects, but he also managed to make a good book on them. The book was good, but not great. The story seamed to repeat itself. The characters would continuously get in trouble, get out, get in trouble, and get out. They were all interesting problems and made you want to read to find their solution, but it started to get trite. The book was very interesting, but it would be better if Crichton cut out a few of the less important trials of the group.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense keeps the mind inside the book
Review: Imagine stepping out of a time machine into the year 1357. You're in France during a civil war. You have only thirty-seven hours to remain, if you don't make it back to your time machine by then you will be stuck in history forever. Everyone is out to cut you to pieces and your future is in your own hands. Outwitting your opponents is the key to your survival, but don't be late for you travel home. Michael Crichton uses suspense to hook the reader into Timeline. The plot contains many dramatic sequences with action packed drama at the turn of every page. The author uses a period of history to create background information on his novel. His characters have so much depth to them; they seem to jump off the page into real life in from of your eyes. Michael's characters face real problems in their adventures so it forces them to become almost lifelike in the reader's mind. Going from modern day to the 14th century, Michael utilizes detail to create depth in characters; the clothes they wore, their language and speech and how they goverend themselves. Using images that paint pictures in reader's minds, he creates a relationship between the reader and the novel
Rating:
Summary: Narrow Escape Literature
Review: The Hardy Boys team with Nancy Drew and battle Midaevil men with halitosis. The first part of the book is modestly entertaining, explaining the physics of time travel. The second is full of nothing so much as Hollywood cliche. Crichton doesn't really write the second half--he experiments with narrow escapes (we're SO surprised---Frank and Joe emerge aLIVE!) to see which one Spielberg might favor in the inevitable movie. The villains and good guys are so predictably drawn that you almost hear the Bernard Hermann music strike up when one of them menacingly scratches his chin. It's just all too silly and it's all been done before--just ask Franklin W. Dixon. Wait for the movie, then wait for the video.
Rating: 
Summary: Not spectacular fare from a write who can do better
Review: If you liked Jurassic Park and Sphere, that is no guarantee you will like Timeline. The scientific jargon ends early on, and a good 3/4 of the book is simply the main characters running around 14th century France, luckily jumping from one adventure to the next. A bit contrived, if you ask me. The dialogue is not convincing, and neither are the characters or plot. The setting, however, is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Entertainment
Review: Entertainment. That's what I read books for. I'm not looking to learn indepth scientific theory or discuss the literary merits of the novel as though it were a literary classic akin to that of Victor Hugo, Thomas Hardy or Jane Austen. That's what college was for. If these are the things you are looking for in this book, then you are probably going to be disappointed. If you are looking for an entertaining read, then you probably won't.
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