Rating: 
Summary: Jurassic Park goes Medievel
Review: I'll say I did enjoy the read - especially the first half. There were some surprises and a sense of anticipation. The last half was interesting - especially if you're into the medievel time period - but predictable. I was very disappointed in the ultimate purpose for the time travel technology - not very original for an author of Crighton's caliber.
Rating: 
Summary: Could not put it down.
Review: Like usual Michael kept me interested. Timeline is action packed,suspensefull,informative,educational, just about what you expect from Michael Crichton. Even from the begining, questions start to pop up, I was constantly trying to anticipate what might happen but I never could. I highly recommend it .
Rating: 
Summary: Great read, but Crichton needed an editor
Review: Don't get me wrong--Timeline's a great read. Heck, I read it in just a couple days. Didn't want to put it down. Great idea, set in an interesting time period. Yes, it does read like a screenplay--you basically move from action scene to action scene with little character development. If you like that sort of thing, you'll love Timeline. Some of the action scenes are completely engrossing. What bugged me, however, was how fraught the book was with inconsistencies, dropped story elements, and even blatant errors. Where was Crichton's editor? On vacation? And, what really got me riled up was his lack of research when it came to the female characters. He spends pages discussing men's clothing in fourteenth century France, but makes no mention of what the women were wearing, other than they were in "period clothes". (This may seem like a little point, but clothing is an important part of the plot, and how Crichton chooses to dress the female lead character is historically inaccurate.) It seems like Crichton is getting sloppy...but if you can ignore the inconsistencies, it's a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Just a fun book
Review: This is simply a fun book that will keep you turning the pages. Is it predictable? Yep. I am a better person for reading it? Nope. However, I can't remember just sitting back and enjoying a book like this in a long time. The plot is quick. The period detail is interesting. A very enjoyable book.
Rating: 
Summary: Jurassic Park Rehash
Review: This book was simply Jurassic Park except instead of bringing creatures from the past to the present it puts creatures from the present into the past. If you read the book, it is obvious to see the similarities, though I don't reccomend reading the book. The only thing I got out of it was the interesting historical information, but the crazy, and extremely annoying thing about the historical info was that he would have a few historical paragraphs, then have that information interrupted by plot action, and he would enver finish saying what he started. There is no suspense in the lack of a setting, I dont know what he was trying for there. The science is somewhat fictionalized, but there is a very slight chance of it being possible, as in jurassic park. Overall, this book was a disappointment, and I do not reccomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal and Cheesy
Review: Chricton's a good author, so Timeline is still a great "fun" book to read. However, it has two very large faults.Firstly it is brutal. This may be the result of a Medieval setting, but the neverending killing gets tiring. How many "He sliced his sword through his innards" does he need? Secondly, it is cheesy. A geeky 10 year old solves the mystery of the mad scientist. The friend of the "lost" timetravelers figures out how to get them back by thinking about auto reasoning. Every 5 pages end with a cliffhanger (many of which are "She knew that So-and-so is now dead.") Sure enough So-and-so shows up three pages later. Good grief! If you like Chrichton, read "Eaters of the Dead," "Great Train Robbery," or "The Terminal Man," instead.
Rating:
Summary: a good, but predictable yarn
Review: The book was a good yarn. Unfortunately, it read a lot like a movie. This is good for frenetics, but it hinders character developement. There were places where it was hard to put the book down, but there were also stretches where I could guess the outcome of every page. The introduction was classic and very alluring. Unfortunately, it also created an expectation that wasn't met. The book wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. It was a decent, no-brainer action oriented read. It could've used some more physics and hard science. Finally, unless your a Crichton collector, get it at the library or buy the paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Should we just call it a 'screenplay'?
Review: I did enjoy the book (I'm glad others had a bit of difficulty with the physics also) but I almost could see it being written to be easily transformed into a movie. The characters did not have a lot of depth to them and you can figure out what the outcome will be. The historical information was wonderful and has gotten me to look for other books set in this time.
Rating:
Summary: Addendum
Review: After writing my original review, I went back and read more of the other reviews. I would like to apologize- there were in fact many other Americans who thought this book was one big cliche. Maybe American culture isn't in such a bad place after all! And to all you 5-star reviewers who tell us dissenters to lighten up- Crichton has written much better books and I'm sorry if I expect more from him now. No, I'm not looking to him for literature, but for at least something original. I think I'll start a club for all the others who hated this book- you seem like my kind of people.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Pardon the abbreviated grammar, but 1,000 words not enough... disappointing, considering previous works like JP, Congo, Rising Sun. This one is formula-driven, overwrought, melodramatic. Tries to derive suspense from too many cliff-hangar moments (literally) instead of any real imagination. Doesn't establish enough reason for the characters to be risking their lives for the uncharasmatic Professor. Felt like Chichton wanted to skip the re-write and made this directly into a movie script (which you know it will be.) I thought it ironic that the only other negative review I read came from a German- all the 5-star reviews must have come from Americans who either haven't read many other Chrichton works, or are the type of people who made cheesy movies like Armageddon into block-busters (what does that say about the state of American culture.) On the plus side: educational, as his books always are. Explained quantum physics in a way I could actually grasp. That's it for plus side, back to criticism... the plot was basically rehashed from JP- academics get thrust into the world that they study by a rich eccentric, get chased around by bad-guys, etc. This book could have been so much better if he had put as much attention into the story-telling as he did researching medieval times. The only attempted plot twist was fore-shadowed by the characters, so that there were no real surprises; I could predict the ending by half-way. Overall, a big let-down. Hmm... I still have space left... well, I've wasted enough time on this book already. Incidentally- kudos to Amazon for having this review site (although now I'll be more wary of the reviews considering all the 5-stars this book got.)
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