Timeline

Rating:
Summary: Crichton Rocks!
Review: Timeline is a page turner! You don't need to understand anything about space travel to enjoy this ride through time. Crichton has well researched Middle Ages customs, practices, warfare, and other areas to make this journey fun. For those with an eye for detail, you will relish in the description of events. Especially noteworthy are the battles and scenerary. All of this puts you 'on location' in Timeline. Enjoy this read! Share it with a friend!

Rating:
Summary: Timeline-A Medeval Jurassic Park
Review: All of the elements of Jurassic Park are here in Timeline. Even the theme park idea. I enjoyed Timeline, however a few elements of the plot grew tiresome. The three characters involved were constantly being separated, when their union was essential. This is definitely a page turner, however. I admire the research that Crichton puts into his fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Fair as time travel. Good as historical fiction.
Review: This book is not much of a time travel novel. The characters get marooned in the past and try to survive to return to their present. 85% of the action takes place in the past. Nice if you're interested in the time period. Otherwise disappointing. It's basically an Indiana Jones Meets the Fourteenth Century type of story.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written
Review: Mr. Crichton should obtain a proficient editor and publisher; did he really write this? The writing is childish. There are numerous punctuation mistakes. Certainly is an interesting story - may make a great movie. But not a great book by any means.

Rating:
Summary: Stick with Movies
Review: I am so enamored of Crichton's books, I buy them hardback without glancing inside. This time I was surprised and disappointed. He obviously wrote this to make it a movie. While I also like movies, the mediums are different and always shall be. I expect my books to have heavy character development, which was totally lacking here. A week after I read it, I wasn't able to tell anyone about it except that it was some sort of time travel book. None of the characters were particularly appealing and I really didn't care if they got back in time or not. They didn't seem a "team" that even liked each other much. To the author: either write books as books and forget about movie making, or vice versa. Ya can't do both.

Rating:
Summary: It's not as bad as everyone says
Review: I just read this book in about 5 hrs over 2 days. It can't be that bad. I actually thought it was a very entertaining and fun read. While it sort of reads like a screenplay and may be a bit linear, you will definitely not want to stop. There were enough plot twists and surprises to keep it fresh. Lighten up people and have some fun........

Rating:
Summary: literary candy
Review: sometimes you need a light book to take you through a saturday - and timeline does just that. it's enjoyable enough that you will read it one sitting, and you won't feel bad afterwards - even though the ending is a little silly and rushed. although - after you finish you might say - did i just read a movie script or a novel?

Rating:
Summary: Major Disapointment
Review: This book stated off with such potential, and then just fell flat on its face. The posibilities with the quantum foam / multi-verse idea were amazing, the reality was a book written simply to become a movie. He has clearly recognized the fact that his name alone sells, and that is good enough to for him. I would say check this one out from the library, maybe if enough people hit him in his wallet then he would write the quality stuff that made him in the first place. I would not recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: King Arthur meets Indiana Jones
Review: I purchased this book because of the allure its premise held for me. After completing it, I felt that its premise and its promise were not fulfilled. Indeed, it makes for a better screenplay or movie than a novel, especially the last half of the novel where the three graduate students try to escape from Crichton's version of the temple of doom. Character development is virtually non-existent, with the possible exception of Marek. The medieval knights (the bad guys) also lack any real dimension. Professor Johnston started out interesting, but eventually became a prop for the various action scenes which went on ad-infinitum. The high points of the novel for me were the opening moments of the protagonists arrival at Castelgard in 1357, which included a lovely sense of medieval atmosphere. For example, the lack of ambient sound which we have become accustomed to in the 20th century, the scent of the air and the utter blackness of night. The lowest points of the novel for me were anything related to time machines. At the end of the novel, Crichton admonishes us against believing that we are superior to our medieval forbears. I agree with him but I do not believe that the likes of Sir Oliver and Sir Guy supports his case. One need only to visit the Cloisters museum in NY, with its beautiful Gregorian chant ever present in the background in NY, or the various castles of the period located in England & France to appreciate how wonderful this civilization truly was in many respects. I think it would be unfair of us to expect the novels of Crichton or most other contemporary novelists to approach the beauty and quality of a "Jude the Obscure" or a "Great Expectations", especially in this "dumbed down" society of sitcoms and MTV. However, a few of us still remain who expect better. PS: For a first hand account of life in the fourteenth century, purchase Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". Its is a better read.

Rating:
Summary: Has no one noticed Crichton isn't writing books anymore?
Review: The only thing missing from Crichton's last two books, and glaringly apparent in Timeline, are stage directions. He's not writing books, he's writing movie treatments. The first part of the book does get ones hopes up, but as soon as the mystery which opens the book is solved, it quickly disolves into chaotic chases, cardboard characters, and a tacked on ending. Why bother to continue to write run-of-mill stuff like this, Mr. Crichton should just stick to script writing.