Rating: 
Summary: A fast-read, which is part of the problem
Review: This book moves a little fast. There's something missing, be it more scientific fact, or more history, I can't place it. In any event, this book combined two of my passions: medieval european history and genetics/time travel. Chrichton really does know his stuff, and has an immense bibliography which acts as a testament to how committed he was to giving his readers the truth, about both facets, the science and the history. My quibble lies in the impression I got after reading it: there's something he's not telling us. There's more to this. But, this is a very well-written book, and I would reccomend it to someone who likes science and history, and has trouble finding a book that satisfies both interests. But read this if you have time on your hands: it's HUGE.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Thee To An Editor...
Review: The problem with Donigen, the villain in Michael Crichton's latest, TIMELINE, is that he is surrounded by yes-men who refuse to question his considerable genius, even though they surely must realize he has strayed badly off-course. It would appear that Crichton has first-hand knowledge of how this must feel. Initially, TIMELINE is a fun read; a fast-paced, well-researched novel that seems to continue the Crichton tradition of blending scientific content with a rousing action-adventure story. As the story unfolds, however, the book strays far into the realm of nonsense and eventually degrades into a insipid mess of tired clichés, contradictory pseudo-science, ludicrous motivations, and overly-obvious plot twists. The truly disappointing thing is that among the rubble exists the basis of a very good book; with a little editing and a bit of literary restraint who knows how good it might have been? Let's start with the general premise of the book; a genius scientist develops a quantum teleportation machine which allows people to travel to parallel universes, in essence (but not precisely) going back in time. So far, so good. Crichton's meticulous research into quantum physics and multiverse theory allows him to create a believable scenario for this. Now that this scientist has developed the technology, however, what does he choose to do with it? Does he choose to go back in time and witness the birth of Christ? Does he choose to go back and speak with Leonardo DaVinci or Abraham Lincoln? Does he choose to find the lost gold of the Incas? Does he solve the great mysteries of history or have some evil plan for world domination? No, he wants to build historically accurate theme parks and corner the world vacation market! This would be analogous to Crick and Watson discovering the double-helix structure of DNA and deciding that the best application for their work would be to make up some "really cool" t-shirts featuring the design. As for "original" character development, we have the aforementioned evil genius science-geek with the Walt Disney complex, a spunky Lady who masquerades as a boy, a studly scholar who has completely immersed himself in the culture of 14th century France (gosh, I wonder what will happen to him at the end of the book?), an evil "terminator" from the future, a dopey side-kick, and a brave, intelligent female scientist who thinks she's Spiderwoman. All we need is a prostitute with a heart of gold and we'll have ourselves a junior college creative writing class. One gets the feeling reading TIMELINE, that Crichton desperately wanted to write a story about the middle ages; knights and castles and jousts and such. The rest of the book was merely tacked on for convenience; haphazardly and with little regard for continuity. Next time out, Michael, find yourself an editor who's not afraid to tell you that your Green Knight is a character from a Monty Python movie, that items hidden in a past parallel universe would not show up in our present universe, and that a device which could be worn in the ear and translates any language into English would be an infinitely more valuable invention than an historically accurate vacation destination. Seeing you waste your immense writing skills on such an unfocused mess, I have a vision of one of Donigen's theme parks; one where Picasso has been brought back to the future and sits in a little booth doing pen and ink drawings of the tourists for ten dollars. -Pike-
Rating:
Summary: Take Your Time(line), Michael!
Review: What a great idea for a book, but - unlike most of his other novels - what a poorly executed product. Crichton is the fiction novel's master of scientific research, and up to now has been superb, in my opinion, at translating cutting edge science for the layman via his usually entertaining narrative. (Case in point: his vivid explanations describing the redundancies of airplane technology in Airframe have put my air travel fears to bed forever - and I have flown internationally at least once a week for the past ten years). This problem with Timeline is just that the science is too abstract for the average person (okay, maybe just me), but even if you get past that the characters are preposterously dull and series of events predictable. I hate to say this, as I have so much respect for MC, but this novel does in fact seem to have been written with a film in mind (and even characters....Gwyneth Paltrow as Kate since she portayed a young boy in Shakespear In Love, etcetc). Michael, get back to your roots - forget Hollywood and write with the brilliance you showed us in The Great Train Robbery!
Rating:
Summary: A Crichton fan but disappointed
Review: A) I'm a fan of Crichton's books. B) I like historical fiction. C) I enjoy medieval history. D) I was disappointed by this book. The reason is because it was just too far-fetched. Traveling back in time through a time machine? Unfortunately this was just a spiffed up scientific version of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I guess that's not really fair since it is evident that he did a lot of good research. But throughout the book I just kept picturing Bill and Ted. You can compare this book with Jurrasic Park in that each of them are based on an impossible premise. I read Jurassic Park long before it became popular as a book or a movie. I loved that book because it almost seemed "believable". Timeline was just the opposite, and I felt it took away from an otherwise pretty good story. I think it almost would have been better if they would have just stumbled onto some way of time travel instead of giving us all of that implausible scientific jargon about why it works.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This was a very good book, plain and simple. It had action, adventure, and science. From Quantum Theory To Jousting, I highly recommend this work of art!
Rating:
Summary: Skip it
Review: Seemed to be quite predictable and totally unbelievable, not just the science stuff but the super getaways as well.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent quick read, good for history of technology buffs
Review: Though some may pick nits with Crichton for not beefing up the suspense, or thickening up the book in general, I found this to be a truely enjoyable and totally readable book. There was just enough of everything to keep me interested, but not too much in any one area to bore me. This is unique achievement for the 'best selling' author crowd, who are usually so full of themselves, and sales worthy, that they are no longer edited. Overall, this is an excellent read for the time travel sf fan, and better still for the medieval history buff (with a bit thrown in for those with interest in the possibilities of quantum mechanics ... though not fully based in substantiated evidence, here). In telling the story of a group of hapless current day time travelers, who have a bit of a mission gone awry in the mid 1300's in western France, Crichton introduces the reader to lots of nuances of medieval life. You get to find out a bit about English-French relations in the region, the hows and whys of tournaments, lots of bits on the technology of the time (particularly about the uses of water power, a bit about tanning, and quite an interesting bit about gunpowder and early cannons). There are also some interesting tacts on social interrelations between nobility and commoners (including why there actually were knights, why the commoners hated them, and why the knights hated the commoners right back); and there's some interesting little bits about why one should never underestimate the powers or motivations of a woman, regardless of her official position in the schema of things. And, for those of you with a streak of malice towards Bill Gates, or anyone who comes off a lot like him, the portrayal and ultimate fate of the Gatesian character, in the 'present' time line of the book, will leave you feeling quite satisfied. Crichton is an excellent weaver of story in this novel. I didn't see most twists coming until I was nearly on top of them. (And, I'm usually pretty good at spotting them.)
Rating: 
Summary: A typical Crichton fun-ride
Review: Let's face it... Michael Chrichton is never going to win the Nobel prize for literature. But for pure escapist reading, he's hard to top. And who but Chrichton could make scientific and technological subjects not only interesting, but even fun, for all us technophobes out there? TIMELINE (complete with a bibliography containing 80 references on the Middle Ages and ten on parallel worlds) tells a story of a group of scientists who step into a time machine and travel back to France in the 1300's to rescue a friend who preceded them and got stuck, in a world which proves to be a far more violent and frightening place than Geoffroy or Christine de Pizan ever wrote about. They have 37 hours to find their friend and get him and themselves safely back to the present. The ensuing day and a half turns out to be a typical Chrictonian roller-coaster ride and we know pretty much how it will turn out (and, yes, the villain gets his, and a good job, too), but if you take the book for what it is, it's fun and enjoyable. And some of his references are definitely worth pursuing (check out Michio Kaku's 'Hyperspace', for one). Say what you want about Chrichton's deficits as a writer, he gets you wanting to know more about what he writes about, and that, by itself, makes him a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Good start with a medicore middle and a poor ending
Review: I enjoyed the book very much, and Crichton once again shows off his technical know how and research abilities. The book is very interesting and the beginning is excellent, bringing you right into the book. Unfortunately, the middle gets very muddled, using too many characters and dragging out the actions of the main characters. Also, I felt like I was reading a Hardy Boys book because the main characters were constantly very close to being killed by the bad guys. The ending of the book is so boring it made the book almost not worth reading. After I finished the book I felt as if there were a few pages missing. I recommend this book for fans of Crichton, time travel enthusiasts, and fans of medeival history. Otherwise, save your money.
Rating: 
Summary: A waste of Time
Review: I bought Timeline because I enjoyed earlier (ok much earlier) books by Michael Crichton. Unfortunately the book is mindless drool from a once competent writer. As a science fiction story, the novel violates the basic rule of science fiction: One may posit any universe but the pleasure comes from watching the plot develop consistent with that universe. As a science fiction story, the novel makes much of quantum foam and how the characters are traveling to an alternate universe, not time traveling in our universe. The discovery of anachronistic artifacts, from travels to the past, in an archaeological dig violates this almost immediately. The later half of the book is then dominated by a countdown clock (as chapter titles) that ignores the fact that one of the advantages of time travel is not being bound by time. As a novel, one expects character development and interaction. After a desultory attempt to initially define characters, no such development occurs. Except for gender specific pronouns, the characters might as well be pokeman characters caught in a metronome sequence of peril and rescue. After a series of events that would have any normal two twenty-somethings of the opposite sex doing it like rabbits (or at least thinking of it), Crichton's characters scarcely interact. Overall this is a twelve martini read -- you'd better have crushed any semblance of consciousness to read this book.
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