Rating: 
Summary: Horrible, Horrible
Review: People are getting confused here:The main premise is a great idea (time travel based on quantum mechanics) and begins with an interestingly plot device -- on an archaeological dig they find items created in modern times. Fine, interesting. Those facts just don't make up for the rest of the crap you have to deal with here, such as: A. Just for starters, main characters keeping getting separated because one of them inexplicably slips down hill into dark crevass or some damn thing. Think that's bad? Well how you gonna like it when it happens AT LEAST TEN TIMES. B. Crichton can't even postulate some theory for how time travel happens. So, instead, we're left with the scientists' explanation of: "We relied on someone from one of the other 20,000 parallel universes to figure it out for us. We don't know how it worked, we just know that they figured it out." (Think that doesn't make sense? Too bad, that's what you're left with). C. Of course, going back in time renders a normal person...crazy>!>@#$. (That's my way of making the word crazy seem, itself, crazy). In other words, some henchmen from the past is really a former armed guard from our time who wants to take over the fifteenth century. Seems pretty easy to do considering you could take a gun along right? D. WRONG. Somebody brings one -- ONE, mind you -- but before they can use it a soldier from the time rides up and hacks it in two. Don't read this book. Really. Don't. Please?
Rating: 
Summary: A terrific read.
Review: In the American Southwest, an elderly man lies dying beside a deserted road when two tourists pick him up and take him to a small town hospital. Once there, the emergency room physician does an MRI. She finds something even stranger than the way the old man's clothing appears cut apart and mismatched back together: his insides look that way, too. Soon he's dead, but not before babbling words and phrases that make local law enforcement mightily curious. "Quantum foam. Makes me roam." Meanwhile, far away in France, scholars dig in the ruins of a "Dark Ages" fortress and town discreetly bought up by the U.S. corporation for which the dead old man (a noted physicist) worked. The professor supervising both dig and graduate assistant staff disappears. As they puzzle over his absence, his students discover a note in his handwriting. "Help me," it says. A note on parchment, and in ink, from the time whose artifacts they're uncovering. Meticulous in both its historical detail and its scientific speculation, this pulse-pounding, plot-twisting thriller held my interest from first word to last. My only criticism (as always seems to be the case for me with this author) is that for all the time I spent with his characters, I didn't get to know them very well. Which won't stop me from buying another Crichton novel soon. A terrific read!
Rating: 
Summary: Its NOT Science Fiction
Review: First of all let me explain the title part. Its not science fiction - only first 2 chapters have anything to do with time travel, rest is all very predictable. The whole book reads like a Nancy Drew and Hardy boys novel. Nothing can harm the heroes. They will fight 10 knights (!!!) without a scratch. Within first 2-3 chapters you know what will happen by the end. Upshot
BORING..
Rating: 
Summary: Michael Crichton's TIMELINE ...
Review: ... belongs on the timeline of the best books ever written. It is a phenomenal, thrilling, suspenseful and absorbing piece of historical fiction. It's disgusting how horridly underrated this novel is. It has everything: comedy, romance, action, adventure, science fiction - what more do you want? Once again, master suspense novelist Crichton uses his power for keeping you 100% intrigued; he explains the technology so flawlessly, it's as if he were there. TIMELINE is historical adventure fiction at it's absolute best, and is undoubtedly Michael Crichton's finest piece of work yet. Highly recommended - fans of the author won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Very exciting
Review: This book was extremely exciting. It had a good plot, and was easy to understand. One of my favorite books of all time. Michael Crichton is a great author.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not really all that good
Review: I enjoyed the book for awhile, then it started to get rather boring. I got rather tired of one (or more) of the characters suddenly getting into trouble, only to have another character suddenly appear out of nowhere to come to the rescue, especially when the trouble spot didn't have any bearing on the story, but rather added a page or two to the book. There are many examples of this, but I will not show one as I don't wish to give something away to future readers. Michael Crichton was a new author for me to read. Based on reputation, I was looking forward to it. I'm not really sure I will read another of his books or not.
Rating:
Summary: Fun reading
Review: One of the best sci-fi books I've read, I couldn't put it down. Of course there are some flaws with the time travel, but I haven't read one book concerning that subject in particular that doesn't, so... I highly recommend it if you want to have a fun time reading and maybe learn some medieval facts.
Rating:
Summary: Airplane Pulp Entertainment
Review: I have never read another Crichton novel, and I was disappointed after reading Timeline, as I had expected more from his reputation. This felt like a Saturday Afternoon Special for adults. When we finally arrive at the evil plot that precipitated this huge adventure, it's anti-climatic at best and innane at worst. I think I see where he was going, a big-bucks-made-under-your-nose sort of thing. But I felt that it fell flat.
Rating:
Summary: What happened??
Review: There's something wrong about this book - it starts out pretty good, with developing characters, their backgrounds, and weaving together a potentially interesting story. Somewhere along the line it all gets lost - wooden characters with no personality or background take over, the action is repetitive and boring, the writing becomes amateurish and rushed. Events from the beginning that clearly were meant to foreshadow later events never really pan out (So how did the old man end up in the desert after all and not back at the lab? Why did he introduce the cop and the doctor, give them backgrounds and make them nosy, and then never mention them again?) Its almost like he got halfway through and was forced the finish the book as fast as possible. I've enjoyed almost all his other books, but this one is strangely not well written in comparison.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Chrichton book I've ever read
Review: I read this book years ago when it was first published so I don't remember too much about it. All I remember is my complete lack of interest in the characters and the story. I picked up this book with a lot of anticipation after having read Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Airframe, Sphere and The Andromeda Strain all of which I highly enjoyed. There is something about timeline that is just dead, absolutely no depth whatsoever, just a boring adventure and completely uninteresting characters. I have found the author's other books to be highly engaging due to the scientific details that he injects into his books and are a huge part of the plot. I guess I learned a thing or two from this book about quantum theory but the time travel served as little more than a plot device to put the characters in the middle ages. Even if you try to just accept and enjoy the book as a simple adventure you will be bored to tears. If you have never read a novel by Chrichton before DO NOT make Timeline your first, read Jurassic Park instead.
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