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Summary: Timeline review by Bob
Review: Excellent book, couldn't put it down. Classic Crichton style writing with great facts and details entwined into a compeling story, with a not so classic ending for Crichton. A great story to take you away from the daily grind and into one of Crichton's worlds. Get and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but not spectacular
Review: Neither Crichton's best work nor an outstanding displaced-persons story, this is still a fun read. Don't start this book expecting a suspenseful tale or a superlative plot, you won't find either one. What you will find is a quick, entertaining story. Crichton's usual attention to detail, both historically and scientifically are the true selling points -- although I did notice one inconsistency that was never fully explained. The movie of this book (and there will be one, it was obviously written with that intent) will likely be better than the book itself.
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Summary: Fantasyland and Quantum Physics
Review: This book was interesting in picturing 14C France and its constant warfare; however the novel's constant explanations of quantum theory and the various scientific aspects of these theories were difficult for a layman to understand. The people in the book were cut-out figures and there was so much coinicidence that I laughed out loud. Sometimes it seemed to be written for the movies, especially the action scenes. I found the story line fantastical and the historical picture of 14C life intriguing but I wish that Michael Crichton had spent more time developing character and motivation. For instance, Professor Johnston, the most intelligent person in the book, as referred to by the other characters, was constantly described as expressionless and stoical, not the best characteristics for the man whose rescue is the reason behind the time travel in the first place. The action heroes and heroines barely related to one another and the final chapter seemed to come out of nowhere.
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Summary: TIMELINE REVIEW
Review: Based on the Jacket review I expected this to be an entertaining story. What a disapointment! There has to be some logic and rational to the sequence of events in a good story. This story ignors these elementary requirements. The story was confused and bewildering. I did finish the book hoping that there was somthing worth while to be discovered. Nothing came of my effort. I stongly suggest that the author and publisher of this travesty do not rely on past performanmce to justify inflicting the public with such trash.
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Summary: Great research , terrible story.
Review: Timeline is my first foray into the literary world of Mr. Crichton and I came out feeling both mildly impressed and completely disgusted. I was impressed at the obvious effort that Mr. Crichton has put into researching several Quantum Mechanics theories as well as his attempt at presenting Medieval France in a historically accurate manner. I even felt he did a good job of minimizing the amount of poetic license taken in the building of the Timeline framework. Unfortunately the excellent effort put into the background was completely undermined due to the fact that the plot and the characters are both weak and predictable. In the first half of the novel, I was able to overlook the superficial nature of the characters (caricatures would be more accurate). However, by the middle of the novel, the characters become so stereotypical that I found it harder and harder to continue reading the book. Marek (the hero), is so good, and so perfect, that he can do no wrong. He is the typical "Flash Gordon" type who goes swashbuckling through merry ol' France, saves the fairy princess, and triumphs over evil. Even more pathetic, however, was Chris (The buffoon) who always manages to make it through despite his stupidity and clumsiness. By the third time he had fallen, hit his head, or dropped his weapon in a time of need, I got to the point where i was cheering on the villain hoping he would put this character out of my misery. The rest of the characters are just as superficial and inane. The plot was equally disappointing and was obviously written as a movie-script rather than a novel. From the very moment they land back in Medieval France they are involved in a neverending series of chase scenes from which they narrowly escape (of course) despite their bumbling idiocy or due to bold machismo. It was so poorly written and so predictable I was skipping ten to fifteen pages at a time until the latest narrow escape was over and ostensibly the plot would pickup for a page or two before the next chase scene began. I would not recommend this book to anyone other than an avid Crichton fan. In fact, if someone wants my copy they can have it for free. I would hate for Mr. Critchton to make money on this dog because it might encourage him to write another like it.
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Summary: really enjoyable
Review: Though this book was not amazing compared to his previous works, it is still a pretty amazing novel. I have to give Crichton credit for making subjects as difficult as quantum physics understandable. It also gives readers a chance to learn about medieval life without using boring textbooks. I think this book is definitely worth reading.
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Summary: Crichton Blows It, Big Time!
Review: I was enjoying this as a light holiday weekend entertaining read until when I came to page 209. Sir Daniel shows Chris that in the distance, Arnaut de Cervole's company is encamped "no more than fifteen miles distant". Miles? MILES? Since when was "miles" in the occitan vocabulary? Now I'm wondering if I should even bother finishing it. Sorry, but this slip just looses it for me. Who edits this stuff anyway?
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Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was very disappointed (would like my money back!). MC took a guaranteed winner of a story and managed to bore me to death with his shallow characters and predictable plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Hugely Entertaining
Review: Part of the thrill in reading Michael Crichton's books, is the ease by which he explains high concepts, such as quantum foam and medieval France in this instance. I found myself involved with the characters -- more so than in his previous books. I can't wait to see the movie, which is the highest praise one can give to a book of this genre.
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Summary: Michael Crichton probes quantum physics and the multiverse
Review: Michael Crichton has been one of the masters of the science thriller. TIMELINE is fun, but it lacks what has made Crichton's work mesmerizing in the past: explanations that make sense. This is not to say that the science that underlies TIMELINE is inexplicable. Michael Moorcock and Douglas Adams have both explained quantum physics and the concept of the multiverse very clearly and to great advantage in their works of fantasy and humor, respectively. Does Crichton assume that we've read these? I doubt it; he shouldn't. Readers of Crichton and readers of Moorcock and Adams, et al., are a breed apart under normal circumstances. It's just that travelling through time back into an alternate middle ages may appeal as a topic to those who normally don't read Crichton. And one does not immediately think of Crichton's works in the same genre as ARMY OF DARKNESS which explores the same basic subject matter with bravado. Once Crichton gets to the middle ages, TIMELINE is a lot of fun. The intrigue of the conflict between England and France and the lack of "media" as we know it today is truly entertaining. Especially intriguing is a tale that could stand apart from the novel as a short story relative to a knight who has gone insane and guards "the green chapel." But Crichton's narrative breaks down because he hasn't gone to his usual fastidious detail to explain how people travel from one universe to another, yet can still excavate artifacts that were left behind in another universe in this one. For those who are looking for Crichton at his best in a science based thriller, the novel (not the film version!) SPHERE shows his capabilities admirably as does JURASSIC PARK. But TIMELINE is no more than a pleasant diversion, not what it could have been had Crichton taken the time to explain how we got there. The best example of Crichton's flaw here is a scene where the "corporation" which has developed quantum teleportation for realistic recreation fields questions from anthropologists who ask about going back to the past and changing the present. The answer? "You just can't, that's all." Try Moorcock's series of novels about the "Eternal Champion" - especially the CHRONICLES OF CORUM, or Adams' DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY for truly satisfying science interwoven with fiction if Crichton leaves you wanting.
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