Rating: 
Summary: Timeline = False Suspense
Review: Crichton has sunk to the level of B-Grade movies. It seems to plague many highly successful writers. They invent a ridiculous, unbelievable situation to put their protagonists in a dangerous situation. In Timeline, for example, he has two highly intelligent people floating down a dark underground river in a boat while holding a lit torch. Can you believe that neither person was watching their route ahead? Neither can I, but Crichton has some stalagtites appear that knock the person holding the torch into the river! This is only one of many examples in the book of how not to write suspense into fiction. It was a 23-hour day of traveling, so I did suffer through to a reasonably good ending.
Rating: 
Summary: World Class Narration
Review: The unabridged audio tapes have the best narration of a full-length novel that I have ever heard. The range of characterization is compelling, entertaining and convincing. You can't beat this cassette edition for commuting to work-- it will make you look forward to the drive!
Rating:
Summary: "Awesome Time Travel Adventure"
Review: I love time travel stories to begin with, and "Timeline" did not disappoint. Three history students are sent back to the Middle Ages by a genius billionaire to save their stranded professor. As soon as they land, they're in trouble. Every 5 pages a new danger awaits. Jousting tournaments, swordfights, puruits by knights, even a medeival seige. The drama and adventure do not let up.Pretty good characters. None overly heroic, though Andre comes the closest, since he is very into the Middle Ages, to the point of learning how to swordfight. Kate isn't afraid to take risks and can take care of himself. Chris was the most interesting. Sort of the Gilligan of the group, always getting into trouble. Loved his development throughout the story. Crichton did an excellent job depicting the Middle Ages as acurately as you can get. No proper, Shakesperean English or gallant, honorable knights. Kept it real, gritty and even showed how the English language then was nothing like it is today. Also liked his explanation for how they travel to the past. A non-techie like me was able to grasp most of it. Well researched and well plotted. Another winner from Mr. Crichton.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I wish it could have been longer, I wish there was a little more detail in the midsection. I wish the ending were not quite so quick.... but I enjoyed it so much, I might still be wishing for these things if the book were twice as thick. I reallly loved the setup between the high tech and the mediaeval. I wish Crichton would write about the continuing adventures of Merik(sp?).
Rating: 
Summary: I'm with Haschka
Review: Joe Haschka's review hit the nail on the head. Disjointed and pompous, and the characters are utter cyphers. Blathering dreck with an incredibly disappointing ending. What happens to Andre? We'll never know. And "the Professor"? The one on Gilligan's island had more personality. Dreadful.
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Summary: Can I go back in time - before I wasted it on reading this?
Review: "Timeline" is nothing more than a rewrite of "Jurrasic Park," all the way down to the motives of the evil industrialist. Formula through and through - don't waste your time.
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Summary: When are they going to film this one
Review: I am eager to see this fiction being adapted to silver screen. It has a wonderful mix of modern physics, suspense, early middle age adventure, some romance ( a little). I'd wish that there is a sequel to this one (just to know more what happen to Andre Marek).
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: While I usually love reading Michael Crichton's books, this one was a disappointment for me. I did not find it up to the author's usual high standards. The story was not as captivating, and the background information Crichton usually includes, enabling readers to be further educated as well as entertained, was in limited supply. I felt like the author was more interested in writing a preliminary screenplay than a good publication. This is one Crichton book I would NOT recommend.
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Summary: Gee, I've written a book and a film in only one day!
Review: Heralded (by that great literary arbiter the Financial Times) as 'his best since Jurassic Park', Timeline had to be good to live up to the expectations it raised, and, true to the trend he began with 'The Lost World', Michael Crichton again demonstrates that no matter how good a film outline is, it doesn't make it a good book. He still displays above average inventiveness, he still fills his pages with action and verve, but being Hollywood's favourite author and top of the bestseller list time and again has made him lazy. Timeline is the bare bones of an idea, packaged by a factory worker, not a creative author. Plot, character, pacing, realism, rationalism, and historical authenticity seem to have fallen by the wayside in place of the regular movie message - cut it down to easily identifiable stereotypes, fill it with dare-devil antics and lots of skin's-teeth escapes, and it'll be a blockbuster. Too bad. As I said, Timeline is a lazy book, and reads more as one of those lousy fantasy books that place spectacle before every other of the writer's arts. In Jurassic Park, we had believable characters placed in a believable setting and subjected to a scientifically believable situation, and thus there was tension as to the outcome. In Timeline, he introduces Marek as 'tall, and very strong; muscles rippled beneath his T-shirt', which makes you go: 'hmm, is Marek going to be just another invincible 80's Arnold Schwarzenegger subhuman superhero?' And of course, the answer is yes. So instantly, you don't believe in the characters. Then, the setting: I don't know much about the Middle Ages, but I know enough to notice a clear division between the reality (grimy, dirty, dangerous) and the pretty-coloured Errol Flynn version propagated by this book. So maybe the situation can save the book - time travel is impossible, but travelling between different dimensions can be done. Okay, I can accept that, as Crichton backs it up with enough scientific explanations to keep any physics teacher happy. However, it then goes: 'so we can travel back into the 14th century, next question?' and you go: 'Woah, hold on, you just said time travel is impossible, crossing into another dimension is not the same as going back in time' but it moves on and fails to clear up that little enigma. Oh well. In conclusion, Timeline is quite a lot of fun, provided you don't pay attention to the pseudo-science, can stomach the Hollywood myth of how knights-in-shining-armour really looked and acted, and don't mind being denied any real characterisation. And where did this trend of marrying off characters at the end of books begin? Out of the blue, wham, both male characters get married, which has been set up by a line earlier on which reads something like: 'she suddenly realised that she actually found him quite attractive'. But hey, it would make a great movie, so what's the point of resisting? The book as an alternative to film is dying: if you need more proof, buy Timeline, and I promise you, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Very good and exciting
Review: The thing I like best about Michael Chrichton is his research he does for his books. Because of that, he knows what he writes about. Take "Jurassic Park" for example. You know that it is impossible to bring dinosaurs back to life, but in the way Michael Chrichton explaned it, you almost belive in it (as a little kid, when I first saw "Jurassic Park", I did actualy). Now he does the same with "TimeLine". In the past, everytime when someone is going to travel through time, nobody gives a good explanation how they do it. They just can. But in "TimeLine", Michael gives an explanation where you almost believe in. And when they are in the past (the middle ages, in this book), the main characters are presented with a lot of problems they have to deal with, which are logic. Things we now consider as normal, was in that time something you had to die for. Take short hair for woman for example. If you had that as a girl in the middle ages, you had to die because you were acting like a boy, and that was strictly forbidden. So the story that takes place in the past is very exciting, but the ones left behind in the present have to deal with a lot of problems too, because otherwise, they can't come back. And there are a lot of other problems, which you have to read for yourself. And, I loved the ending.
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