Timeline

Rating:
Summary: Blockbuster Crichton
Review: Timeline is an exciting, riveting tale that masterfully weaves technology and history together. Quantum physics provides an intriguing base for the storyline set in the present and 14th century.

I enjoyed the characters and the idea of traveling to the 14th century. Although the reader will develop ideas that were not presented in the book, (such as: why not send an armed Marine unit back for a rescue?) this enhances the novel by stimulating your own imagination.

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. A great gift idea for the holidays!

Rating:
Summary: Defective Premise?
Review: Sorry, but I was distracted throughout my read by a gaping hole in the plot relating to the timing of their arrival in relation to the first person's arrival. True, there would have been no book if they had been directed to a more appropriate time to save their fellow travler; however, one wonders how this escaped the editors. While the plot had lots of action it was screenplay action contrived to reinvent Raiders of the Lost Ark where there is a problem at every turn. I enjoyed Crichton's other books more.

Rating:
Summary: Buy it, read it, see the movie
Review: "Timeline" is not great literature. But, it is great entertainment and superior Science Fiction. Come to think of it tho, Isn't that what great literature ultimately is?

Its been suggested that "Timeline" was written with the flicks in mind. I have a strong suspicion that the movie script was completed at the same time as the book, and a buyer was camping at the front door.

This is a book that crys out for movie treatment, and it may be a bigger blockbuster than "Jurrasic Park."

Jerry

Rating:
Summary: Formula Writing From Crichton
Review: I was quite disppointed by this book. A long time Crichton Book, I found this book to be rushed and based on a formula. His intent with this book, as with many others, was to write a book that would be a blockbuster movie.

However, there was zero character development and his basic story had very serious holes in it. He wrote too many cop-outs and avoided the serious time travel issues. Furthermore, he often relies on illustrations to describe a scene, because he is unable or unwilling to describe it through words. Save your $20 on the book, and spend it to take a date to the movie.

Rating:
Summary: A historical Saturday morning cartoon
Review: Well I guess the author did his homework on 14th century France, no denying that, and I suppose he read lots of arcane books and articles in the learned scientific journals and/or consulted with some high-priced physicists on all the quantum mechanical terms and theories he splashes around in this book, but all that does not save us from a historical cartoon with fatal flaws, including, but not limited to, two dimensional characters that could have been imported from the 10 cent comic books I read as a kid, a telegraphed ending, and a significant faux pas having to do with water shielding (necessary to prevent people who are sent through "quantum foam" to another time from having reassembly errors) being required in the present, however, very interestingly not being necessary when the poor graduate students are sent back and reassembled in the 14th century (or was it? ). Maybe reassembly errors can somehow explain how these presumably wimpy academics suddenly turned into sword wielding superheros complete with the politically correct female protagonist.

Rating:
Summary: Starts out good, but falls apart
Review: This book starts out interestingly enough, but the plot quickly falls apart into a series of chases and near death escapes that are boring and completely unbelievable (for about 300 pages). The characters are flat and almost seem to be cartoons. I think the book's premise was a good idea, but Crighton did not pull it off. Will probably make a good mindless, bloody movie, though.

Rating:
Summary: Crichton's Least Original, Most Unscientific
Review: In premise and plotting, "Timeline" is astonishingly like an episode of the TV show "Sliders."

As a big Crichton fan, but an even bigger fan of time travel fiction, this book is not half as clever or original as Crichton seems to think, and pales in comparison to Finney's "Time and Again" or Koontz's "Lightning." Partly that is because Crichton refuses to take advantage of all of the opportunities afforded by time travel, copping out by saying that people aren't really time traveling but are jumping to nearly identical alternative universes (i.e. Sliders), but still allowing one of the characters to send a message through time to the original universe, thus undermining the whole premise.

Indeed, his explanation for how the sliders, oops, I mean time travelers can jump forward and then back is so torturously elliptical and contrived (requiring yet other nearly identical alternative universes to step in and make the journeys possible) that he would have been better off not bothering to try to ground this in current physics at all.

As a scientist, I see this as the first of Crichton's books to fail the test of internal scientific consistency, even within the framework of the book itself.

Still, bad Crichton is better than most. Four stars for entertainment, two stars for quality/originality.

Rating:
Summary: Amazed
Review: I am absolutely amazed that this book was written by the same author that wrote Congo, and Jurassic Park. It's great to read something that has a good plot, filled with interesting information and good characters. The message of the mathematician in Jurassic park was brilliant. My immediate impression of this book (still struggling to finish it) is that this was written to be a movie, and nothing else. Really disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Good, quick read - not his best work.
Review: Well if you are expecting Andromeda Strain or Jurrasic Park (or even Sphere) you will probably be dissapointed. The science in Timeline is weak at best, and you never really buy the "alternate universe to the past" bit (not to mention how they explain the way the team gets reconstituted on the other end). The history is a little better and the story is rather exciting from an action standpoint.

I kept thinking about "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis as a much better rendition of an amazingly similar theme and plot line (i.e. history researcher going back in time to the middle ages, having technical problems, having to use their history knowledge to survive, etc.). If you read Timeline, read Doomsday Book as well for a nice comparison.

Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: The book started out promising, with a realistic approach to "time-travel", but travels downhill from there. There is no character development in the time travel sequence--people come and go arbitrarily, the reader never is clear on who the characters are, or why they are after the time travelers. It seems Mr. Crichton wrote this book with Hollywood looking over his shoulder, just waiting to grab it out of his hands and turn it into a screen play