Timeline

Customer Reviews

• Couldn't put it down, but...  Nov 29, 1999 (43 of 44 found this helpful)

  Like many of the other readers who have ventured to write a review of this book, I found it to be a fascinating read, one in which I literally could not put down the book until I realized it was well past my usual bed time. The subject of time travel, backed-up with just enough (if not too much) scientific reasoning to support the belief in its eventual or imagined possibility, is a thrilling concept. Add to this, the chance to visit an era in which knights roamed western Europe and people lived in and around castles, all described vividly by Crichton as if he had been there, himself.

  That said, once the cast of main characters arrives in the High Middle Ages of France, their interactions with the medieval citizens and the non-stop action provides for quick page-turning; however, this is also the point where it begins to get a bit too much to swallow (having swallowed so much already to get to this point). This cast of characters is like a team of superheroes, each one with individual talents, strengths and fatal flaws. One is an expert rock climber, another is nearly fluent in several medieval languages, dialects and weaponry usage, and the last one is a scholar of medieval technologies. As can be easily predicted during the introductions and characterizations of this cast, all of these strengths will certainly come into play later on in the book, and they do. Again and again and again. Sometimes, you wonder when one of them will suddenly sprout wings and say, "Hang on, I learned this cool flying trick while I was an aviation major back at Yale...before I switched to history."

  Still, despite the tremendous leaps in superhuman skill and a never-ending supply of luck that Crichton liberally grants his characters, I truly enjoyed the fantasy that oozes from the book and found the imaginative departure from our modern world to be refreshing. I would definitely recommend this book to friends.

• Fun Read But Not Great Literature  Dec 14, 1999 (46 of 50 found this helpful)

  I haven't read a Crichton book in a while but had seen many of the movies made from his previous novels. And reading this book I felt like I was reading a future screenplay for "Timeline" the movie. The book had incredible (actually impossible) feats of strength and daring by 20th century characters in 14th Century France. Many times I felt that if this were true to form the people would most certainly be dead...but miraculously they survive...again and again and again and again. On a more positive note, the book moves along at a good clip and the science behind the technology involved in transporting the characters back to 14th century France was intriguing. All in all I would say that this is a fun book to read but not a mind boggling novel that keeps you thinking after your done. It is pretty much mindless fun with unusual science.

• A typical Crichton fun-ride  Dec 27, 1999 (23 of 24 found this helpful)

  Let's face it... Michael Chrichton is never going to win the Nobel prize for literature. But for pure escapist reading, he's hard to top. And who but Chrichton could make scientific and technological subjects not only interesting, but even fun, for all us technophobes out there? TIMELINE (complete with a bibliography containing 80 references on the Middle Ages and ten on parallel worlds) tells a story of a group of scientists who step into a time machine and travel back to France in the 1300's to rescue a friend who preceded them and got stuck, in a world which proves to be a far more violent and frightening place than Geoffroy or Christine de Pizan ever wrote about. They have 37 hours to find their friend and get him and themselves safely back to the present. The ensuing day and a half turns out to be a typical Chrictonian roller-coaster ride and we know pretty much how it will turn out (and, yes, the villain gets his, and a good job, too), but if you take the book for what it is, it's fun and enjoyable. And some of his references are definitely worth pursuing (check out Michio Kaku's 'Hyperspace', for one). Say what you want about Chrichton's deficits as a writer, he gets you wanting to know more about what he writes about, and that, by itself, makes him a good read.

• reading it was an emotional and educational experience  Nov 26, 1999 (22 of 24 found this helpful)

  The application of the Quantum Physics theories was fascinating with its contrasts of "then" and "now".The time of knighthood sounded about as raw as it probably was! The characters were larger than life but also believably vulnerable and imperfect.(I wondered who his models were?)I couldn't stop reading and when I finished I felt like I had been through a Raiders of the Lost Ark experience!

• One of Crichton's Best  Nov 23, 1999 (27 of 31 found this helpful)

  Crichton is such a master of blending science, history, and fantasy into such a rich tapestry, that it's hard to distinguish what is real and what is fancy. I found some of the science hard to follow, especially since the scientists in the book refer to the tramsmission to another universe as akin to sending a fax. I thought that was a bad analogy given that when a fax is sent, the original document remains at the point of origin, and is not sent over the wires. But don't let a bad analogy keep you from this book. The book brings fourteenth century Europe to life so exquisitely, that you, indeed, are transplanted to Medieval France. Critchon describes the people living, working, fighting and, dying with great detail and color. From the cold sore on the sleeping soldier's lip to the lice crawling about the mad knight's beard to the stench of the market square, Crichton descriptions are telling without making one's eyes glaze over. The story itself is novel and the ending very powerful and sweet. It's amazing how a good author can stir one's mind into seeing and feeling all that the characters see and feel. I probably will never get to visit modern day France, but after reading this book, I feel as if I have lived in fourteenth century France and witnessed all its beauty, brutality, and wonder.