Rating: 
Summary: Action-packed throughout!
Review: Michael Crichton's latest novel "Timeline" falls somewhere in between the amazing Jurassic Park, or Sphere, and the disappointing Airframe. I would lean more towards the JP side, because of the nicely done plot and character descriptions. The action however, is the best part. Timeline is a great page turner, and if you're a Crichton fan, don't miss it.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm glad I was given this book as a gift...
Review: ...because I'd be embarrassed to have paid for it. "Timeline" will make a wonderfully entertaining and forgettable movie. As historical fiction I found it intriguing - except... if you read carefully you find that critical elements (the furnishings of the castles, the size & strength of the knights) are *speculation* i.e. fictional not historical. As science fiction, it's pathetic - does anybody remember "Time Tunnel" the TV show? This is at that same level of sophistication: Super-duper computer, cavernous rooms with drifting vapor, showers of sparks, paper-thin characters molded to fit the story. The science is Hollywood science - it enables the story, but only if you don't think about it for more than a few milliseconds. If you stop reading and *think* for a few seconds, it falls apart like wet carboard.
Rating: 
Summary: Liked it, but...
Review: ...it reminded me of Jurassic Park (or a bid for a screenplay). I would view this as a "diet" fiction. With the exception of the science it isn't complex. The characters are able to bumble there way to the end. It has the requisite violence, the damsels in distress and even a clumsy professor. What more could you ask for?
Rating:
Summary: Great but a little too violent
Review: This book was very good and kept me interested the whole time i was reading it. I am not a big fan of reading so when i like a book it must be good. The imagination behind the story was fun along with the actual historic facts. I can't wait to start another one of his books! The only drawback was the endless fighting. It got a little boring but quickly picked up again!
Rating: 
Summary: Timeless
Review: This book is in fact some sort of a timeline. If you start with reading it, its so thrilling that you won't be able to stop reading until you've read the whole book. I have read a lot of books of Michael Crichton and all of them are very very good. But I would really say that the Timeline beats them all and could be descripted as the best book of Michael Crichton. If you haven't already read it, you'll be going to read it!
Rating:
Summary: ok but not his best
Review: This book is ok as far as entertainment is concerned. There are a few inconsistencies tho that neither the author nor the characters satisfactorily explained. It's supposed to be another universe but how come events that happened there came to be history here too. Then too the time that elapsed, one day there can be an instant or a century here, right? It's the dilemma of every time travel novel that needs to be explained before it can ever be accepted even in theory. Still pretty good reading considering although the ending is anti-climactic and totally predictable.
Rating:
Summary: A bridge of the past and present
Review: I've never read any of Crichton's other works. As a matter of fact, I read this novel soley based on my love of history. I certainly wasn't disapointed. The concept is facinating; fax yourself to the past and the "sliders" multiple universe theory. While Crichton went a little far in depth with the technical aspect for some, to me it made the plot believeable and understandable. I rely heavily on logic and not understanding the concept of how it worked would have made me lose all interest in the associated plot. The charachters were amicable but were moreso a vehicle for the plot to continue. You didn't necessarily worry that you're favorite charachter's head was going to get lopped off by the big green monster; but you were more worried how that would affect the others and whether they would get back safely or on time. It was all about what was going to happen at the end. This is a suspense novel with everyone in all different places and all sorts of things going wrong. You can't not turn the page, after one thing works itself out another goes wrong, pretty soon it's 12 AM and you're on page 300 and just not able to stop. This is why Timeline is a fantastic display of literature. Despite the fact I read very quickly, this was a novel where I just couldn't read fast enough. A few things, I couldn't help but bring up, I thought about after reading. If you haven't read the book, despite that I try my hardest not to reveal anything, you may just want to stop reading here. If the ear pieces were manufactured to disintegrate after a few weeks, why was it still functioning after so long? Also, how could they have found what they did in the end if supposedly they had gone to another universe? Wouldn't it exist on another universe and not that one? Other than those two errors, one somewhat explainable, the other entirely confusing, I loved the novel and greatly recommend it to others.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely thrilling - I loved this book.
Review: My sister shared the unabridged version of the audio tape with my husband and me, for a road trip from New Jersey to Virginia. We did not speak a word to one another the whole trip, and did not want to leave the car once we reached the hotel. The only noises we made were gasps, sighs, groans, cheers and laughing in response to the adventure. This was a wonderful and amazing story. Right from the beginning you are drawn into the excitement and the adventure. You feel as if you are right there with the characters, trying to figure out what to do next. It is a great blend of futuristic technology and historical medievial times. It would be a great movie (if done well with the right actors). I believe I would have still enjoyed it in book form, but I loved the audio tape.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy Story For Crichton
Review: I have been a fan of Crichton's for a while, but I liked this book a lot more than some of his other new ones. He returns to a thriller-type novel, which he departed from after Jurassic Park in favor of books like Rising Sun, Disclosure, and Airframe, which were all pretty good, but I missed the type of electrifying adventure that made JP and Congo such great stories. This is truly an exciting book, the adventure fast and nonstop, and the brains behind it should satisfy a tech geek. The story goes a little something like this: A high-tech company called ITC has developed a technology that can transport you to another quantum universe, which will be out of sync of our own, but will eventually collide with this one, effectively traveling through time. A professor uses the technology and promptly gets caught in France of the Middle Ages. A team is immediately dispatched to rescue him, but they fall into many troubles, such as treacherous knights, two opposing powers, led by two very different men, both of which have their agendas, and another threat, a demented former ITC worker who has come back in time and wants to kill the team. I simply couldn't put this book down, and the pages were turning like a fan. If you liked Jurassic Park, Congo, or any of Crichton's other older works, you will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: As always, an entertaining read
Review: Although you may not always agree with his ideas - in fact, in Lost World he seems to skewer some of the ideas presented in Jurassic Park as "trendy" - you'll always have a blast reading the book. He's never afraid to throw at us new ideas, concepts, and information, challenging our notions of what we thought we knew. Contrary to popular opinion, he shows us a vibrant, scary, energetic, intelligent Middle Ages - where people were just as smart, devious, screwed up, and dangerous, and often were stronger, healthier, and faster (much as Neanderthal Man had a bigger brain and incredibly strong musculature compared to "modern" man), and combat was fast and furious, not plodding knights slowly swinging unwieldy swords (See HACA for more on this). His time travel method, though (as he admits) is squarely in the realm of fantasy, nevertheless captivates our imagination. And although you may not much care for his characters (at least, the ones from our era - the medieval ones, especially minor characters, grow on you), you'll certainly be caught up in their predicaments.
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