Rating: 
Summary: Too long.
Review: A bit of a disappointment. I can appreciate the research, the science and the history but this book goes on and on and on and...Each event is predictable and ultimately boring. Also there are bad editing errors which detract from the action. How can a character be on a beam she thinks is too wide (six inches) on one page and cross to another "smaller" beam that is a foot wide 2 pages later? Did more than one person write this book? It's frustrating when an author writes the movie before he's even finished the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Good premise, lame delivery
Review: I was so excited by the premise of this novel that I had trouble waiting until Christmas had passed to buy it. Unfortunately, it read like a lump of coal. I have to agree with other reviewers who panned this one for lack of depth, mechanical story elements, weak characterization, and a sense of impending Hollywood. If you are looking for a good Crichton read, try Airframe or Sphere. Don't bother with this silly book.
Rating:
Summary: Made for TV; Tape narrators, lose the attitude
Review: Much of my positive criticism -- fun ideas -- and negative criticism -- predictable, made-for-TV movie quality; endless unnecessary action -- has already been said. So I'll focus on the narration style (from the audiotape version). Narrators, lose the attitude. When you're reading descriptive prose (little enough of it in Crichton's book), just read it. You don't have to give a snide ending to every sentence. Let us use what little of our imagination is left... your snideness distracts from the story.
Rating:
Summary: Formulaic Crichton
Review: For the first half of this book, I was wildly enthusiastic, couldn't put it down. Then the action got so heavy, the characters remained weakly drawn, and I found myself skipping over sections that were way too detailed but also boring. I hung in there to see what would happen, realizing that this book reads like a movie screenplay, and hungering to learn more about the PEOPLE. Too much action, and quick, unsatisfying ending. The suspense of finding out what Doniger was up to didn't live up to the discovery. Formula Crichton: mega-research, weak characters, quick ending. I used to LOVE Crichton: is it me or him?
Rating:
Summary: ...and I'm a big Crichton fan....
Review: "Timeline" reads, unfortunately, like a movie. It does a wonderful job of bringing history to life. It is confusing at times, and leaves several things unexplained. Action packed (too much), light, fluffy, politically correct. Weak ending. I fear Crichton has abandoned me, and slightly insulted me in the process (first Lost World and now this). He is an incredibly talented thinker and storyteller. So what happened? Please tell me why I should ever read another book by him.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Concept, Disappointing Plot
Review: This book had a great idea and then failed completely to follow through on it. There was so much more that Crichton could have explored! What really bother me was the totally mechanical structure to each chapter. Each one ended with a crisis for one or two of the characters which the others then had to rescue them from in the next chapter. This was repeated so many times it was laughable. The book seemed to be written on autopilot.
Rating:
Summary: Goodline
Review: This book is nonstop action but too nuch like JP to be great. The characters were pretty shallow and the dialogue was a bit lame but it was a really interesting story and a good sci-fi book, although all the science is revealed rather quickly. Some stuff, like why the people were reassambled in the past-history universe was unexplained(it was only quickly explained that they were actually reassembled from yet another universe, but that made no sense, also, why the old guy ended up in the middle of a desert, not the laboratory, was never revealed)
Rating:
Summary: Great screenplay, lousy novel
Review: This book is a testament to what happens when successful authors get big advances -- from movie studios. The entire novel is clearly a screenplay. There are lavish descriptions of the sets which will doubtless be featured in the future Hollywood blockbuster, but almost no character development. It's impossible to understand why people are doing what they are doing, but we can all cheer as the baddies get their arms lopped off and the heroine uses a "hasta lavista, baby" type line here and there. I have to contrast this with Thomas Harris's "Hannibal" (also a book which doubtless received a huge movie option fee) which may be unfilmable, since it deals so much with the internal life of the charaters, but which is a much better read. I admit I was swept up in the action, which is tremendous, but at the end I felt slightly ashamed of myself. This book will have you casting the movie however -- Brendan Frasier as the muscular wanna-be knight, etc? Overall, this is the most intellectually vacuous of Crichton's novels, which is saying something. I'm done with this guy.
Rating:
Summary: Cartoonish
Review: I was disappointed. Having read all of his other books, and being very interested in both physics & mediaeval history, I thought I'd love this book. The science parts are interesting, and the history seems well researched, but the plot lets it down. The whole story seemed to be one sword fight after another. The characterisations seemed a bit cartoonish and one dimensional too, with the evil and brusque corporation head, the wise college professor, the college students who are having the adventure (including the brainy kid, the girl, the leader, & the love-sick guy), and the nasty soldiers who are plotting evil plots. They Must Be Stopped! Before It's Too Late! Pass me a bucket... Mind you, with all the action going on, I did keep turning the pages. But once it was finished, I didn't feel like I'd read a great book. All in all, if this is turned into a movie, it will be rated G, play in the school holidays, and will sell many action figures.
Rating: 
Summary: "Medieval Park"
Review: Out with the raptors and bring on the jousters! In Jurassic Park Crichton brought the past to the present. In his latest offering, Timeline, he sends the present back to the past. Once again we have a meglomaniac billionaire using state-of-the-art technology to try and build a better theme park(Do these guys belong to a club or something?). Despite the plot similarities to Jurassic Park this is a very entertaining read. Crichton devises a new twist on time travel(think Fantastic Voyage meets Sliders) and the reader is transported to Medieval France. Once there Crichton keeps the pages turning with a thrill-a-minute yet educational narrative of life in the 14th century. Villianous lords, unscrupulous knights and ever-changing loyalties keep the time travelers(and the reader) from catching their breathe. Despite the fact that an action-packed movie is sure to be made from the book, it doesn't have the contrived feel of "Lost World"(Come on, we all know Malcolm was dead at the end of the book version of Jurassic Park). So if you want to enjoy a rollicking read and learn a little history at the same time, check out "Timeline"!
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