Rating: 
Summary: I liked it.
Review: This book was pretty cool. I guess you could say I liked it. It was about quantum theory and time travel. The characters were pretty good. I think this book would make a cool movie. There is a plethora of research put into this book. I read this book fast. There were lots of exciting parts in the book. The knights were very brave. I thought one part was funny, too. I think it was Chris. He was on the horse and he was running toward the other guy, and he couldn't see.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I hoped it would be.
Review: The book is ok, it just didn't lead up to something amazing. The book had a LOT of downsides.1)It has too much dialogue. Some of the chapters have a lot of blathering. 2)Not enough violence. I wanted to learn more about the Hundred Years War. 3)Sometimes it's TOO long. It has the average length of a Frank Herbert novel. It seems that Michael Crichton didn't take too much time on this book. I think he wrote it for money. However, the ending of the book was very nice. I only reccomend this book for historians and scientists. Rating:Mature. End.
Rating:
Summary: Cliche City
Review: Fairly entertaining, but I got the distinct impression that Crichton gathered every science fiction, action/adventure, and medieval cliche he could find and crammed them into this book. Main characters are shallow, intriguing characters (the Gallup cop, for one) are dropped. After awhile, I greeted every new twist with "Oh, please -- like we haven't seen that one a few hundred times." For someone who purports to want to set the record straight about the middle ages, Crichton seems to me to pretty much follow the images established by old Hollywood. And his explanations about time and inter-universe travel conflict each other all over the place. You know, I really liked "Coma".
Rating: 
Summary: Criticism valid -- so what?
Review: Read all the critiques you want about this book: It's formulaic (you can almost hear Crichton "plugging in" his characters into the Jurassic Park templates: the dubious scientist, the nasty obnoxious mastermind, etc.), it reads more like a screenplay than a novel, character continuity is completely thrown out the window... all of it's true, and none of it really matters... "Timeline" is a fun, fast read, with Crichton's trademarked meticulous research, both into the quantum theories going into his time travel apparati (note the bizzarre statements, typical of trying to explain quantum phenomena in everyday terms), and the details of "Dark Age" life (the phrase getting a well-deserved debunking by Chrichton at the end of the novel). Sit back for an evening or two, and go back to when chivalry wasn't dead (although you might be, if you're not careful), castles were deadly serious places, and plotting, fighting, backstabbing, and intrigue were all part of a day's work.
Rating: 
Summary: Commercial erosion of good idea
Review: Being a Michael Crichton fan I grab this book first moment it has arrived in the bookshop, went home and at once forget about the world around me. But this lasted only for first hundred or so pages. Most of Crichton books encapsulated me at once, I'm vivdly surrounded by the world ot hi-tech, adventure and suspense. In this manner has started Timeline. A person is found out in the desert in the middle of nowhere without trace of any vehicle around. Soon the investiogation point to a enterprise with more then just a simple rule of establishing it's highest profit. Much more. But as any of those greedy firms this as well has no mercy for sideaffects of time-travel that is producing and people are getting lost in the line of time. After that 100+ pages book becoming really dull, too much of pointless distention of story with way to detailed desciptions of some events. But, as always best part is Crichton insighfull analyzing of the era in the middle of 14th century story is taken and hi-tech equpiment which will in forthcoming future become a usual arsenal in our lives. Good to try, but don't expect that will bring you where his prevoius novels has.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: I really dont know what to say about this book. It took me months to finally buy it when a friend of mine said too. I bought it on a sunday night, and finished it by Tuesday afternoon. I slept for a total of five hours in that span and used the rest of time to read this book. I am speechless still, and I now have a hankering for more. Buy this book, you will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Timeline raises an ethcial question
Review: Some felt Crichton's takeoff was great but he crashed and burned after a 100 pages. I disagree. His book was not written to be a scientific journal on quantum mechanics/physics nor an anthology on 14th century France. Crichton's goal is to raise the same question he raised in Jurassic Park. It is not a matter of "could" we do this but "should" we attempt this. Some have criticized Crichton's statement that since multiuniverses exist it would be impossible to alter the future. In the book the characters do alter the future but that is precisely his point. It is a critique on such arrogance. If we could travel back in time, who could resist the temptation to stay a neutral observer? The desire to know more and experience more from that time would inevitably lead one to alter events. I learned a lot about that era as well as the science he addresses. In some way Crichton demonstrates that humanity has not really matured through time. We have simply developed better technology to feed and express our arrogant and narcisstic egos. The scientists in the book argue they can "control" the forces they are utilizing but Crichton shows they cannot. His book demonstrates that when given power, regardless if it's in the 14th century or the 20th century, there are very few who will be responsible with it. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, it was not enough just to see the fruit, they had to taste it--thus altering their future as well as ours.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but....
Review: Initially after reading this book, I thought to myself "what a great fun story to read", but now the more I think about it, it disappointed me. I liked the premise of an adventure through time travel. Reading a Crichton novel means you will get some understanding of certain subjects like quantum engineering or paleontology or underwater sea exploration and a great story that uses this knowledge to enhance the adventure. So same thing here, right? Well, after a while, you're reading simply an adventure of a few people in the medieval times. It got tiresome and it was missing some real tension. Another problem is the characters who went back in time - they're like superheroes. Leaping from beam to beam and jousting with knights and fighting in hand to hand combat with knights - come on! There were some cool aspects to the adventure such as the countdown and a twist here and there, but it was too implausible overall. Would not recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to Crichton Standards!!!
Review: I am a huge Michael Crichton fan, and this was not up to his standards. This book was written to be a movie, plain and simple. I bought this book at an airport on my way to California. It is good plane reading when you can just throw it out the window and read something else. The people in the book are plastic, and story has far too many twists. The fist 100 pages are great, as are the last 10. It is the middle 350 that I have a problem with.
Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately Fizzled
Review: Timeline begins with the classic Crichton themes: intriguing scientific theory, likeable protagonists, unexpected plot twists, smart antagonists and realistic settings. But at the end, it fails to deliver the punch of his past books like Disclosure, Jurassic Park and Airframe. One reason for the disappointment may be that the interesting characters at the beginning never evolved. Instead, they leap from one action scene to the next without new discoveries or elaboration. I was extremely disappointed to see the complexity of Chris never played out. The other reason may be that the intricacies of medieval settings, architecture and customs, although interesting, got in the way of telling a compelling story. I can see how that in addition to quantum mechanics and variety of other details left no room for the actual story telling. All in all, I enjoyed while it lasted. After all, you dont expect to find the meaning of life in his books. Maybe Timeline will turn out to be a good TV series. You never know.
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