Customer Reviews

Timeline

5 star:		(582)
4 star:		(400)
3 star:		(292)
2 star:		(241)
1 star:		(166)

 

 

I was especially eager to read Timeline because I had just returned from the Perigord, the region in France where most of the action in Crichton's time-travel book takes place. I had toured the grim castles and fortified towns he describes, and canoed down the exact stretch of the Dordogne that's at the heart of the book. I found that Chrichton was able to bring the medieval period vividly to life, far better than I'd been able to do as I toured the area. As usual, Crichton provides enough of a believable scientific basis for his story to allow an easy suspension of disbelief. I was even more impressed by the amount of research he did to be able to paint such a clear and convincing picture of the area in the mid 14th century. OK, his characters do get into one scrape after another, and help manages to arrive just in the nick of time. But the book still kept me turning the pages late into the night. Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation; and Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome.

This book was an enjoyable read for me. The story follows a group of archaeologist trying to bring back back their boss from the pass. They find themselves in the middle of the 100 year war between France and England. The book is a light read perfect for times you want to read something but are able to put it down and pick up where you left off.

This was a very easy read for me, after reading Great Expectations and Les Miserbles I needed something easy and extremely entertaining, this fit the bill perfectly. There is no thinking involved in this novel and like other reviewers have said it seems there was never any suspence you always felt like the charecters were always going to get out in the nick of time, Overall a fun read

Don't see the movie, but read the book- not a big crichton fan either, but liked this one.

Time travel is one of the most compelling sci-fi topics in Hollywood. Michael Crichton, a highly successful writer, took a more modern look at time travel. The premise of the story is based on the research done by theoretical physicists who speculate that there may be an infinite number of universes containing every alternative event that can exist across all time frames. By accessing these universes one could literally step into a past event. In the story a mythical company, ITC, is doing experimentation in three dimensional teletransportation. When they tried to send an object to a distant location it turned out that it wound up in the past-to be precise: 1357 in a place called Castlegard.

Robert Doniger, the CEO of ITC, saw an opportunity to make a ton of money. He wasn't really interested in the past but in the present. By knowing everything about Castelgard and the battle about to be fought there he could bring this knowledge to the present to create a life-like replica of the castle and village. He brought in archeologists and historians to rebuild the site without letting them know what was really up. When they began asking too many questions they were used as guinea pigs and were hurled back in time-or to another universe to be specific and suddenly were confronted with an alien culture that they were ill-equipped to handle.

The book is outstanding, keeping the reader constantly on edge as our heroes get themselves into and out of one jam after another, while trying to rescue the professor who wanted to know too much for his own good. Meanwhile, Doniger had little concern for his historians, considering them quite expendable so long as the press doesn't ask too many questions. He was such a despicable character one can almost guess he'll get his in the end.

If you saw the movie you don't truly know the story. The movie changed many important details to make it more entertaining for movie-goers, but I found the movie pretty silly and not terribly exciting. The book, however, is terrific!

In an Arizona desert a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within 24 hours he is dead, his body quickly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to the headquarters of a secretive multinational corpartion that has developed an astounding technology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study history but to enter it. With history opened to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men & women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival-SIX HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Wow, What a book. If you read this you'll never once think its cornie or redickulas, but brilliantly imagined and a heart-pounding adventure book. You wont be able to put the book down, and if your a fast reader you'll finish it in a couple of days. Its not very hard reading and is geared to young adults. When the book talks of the futuristic quantum technology you will never feal lost or overwhelmed and the story line is easy to fallow and never gets dull or boreing. This is truly one of the best novels of our time.

I've read all of Michael Crichton's fiction, and this is my very favorite. I appreciate the historical research that must have been involved. Like most of his novels, there is a little twist at the end.

I think the book is 100 times better than the movie. I think the vision and suspense in the book could not be carried onto the movie. Mr. Chrichton ususally talks about technologies that are about to come true or will become practical in the forseable future. If time travel did become a reality, then I guess, there will a whole new history for all of us to learn all over ;-)

I recommend this book over the movie and expect all Michael Crichton fans to read it first to get the real fun out of it. The movie could be left for some boring sunday afternoon ...

The title of this review pretty much sums it up. It doesn't matter if you're a history buff. It's fiction!!! You're supposed to lose yourself in the book and use your imagination. YES!! There are some of us left that have an imagination. I liked the book just as I like almost all of Crichton's books.

A great novel/history lesson, Crichton makes another edge-of-your-seat adventure.
Three young arcaeologists travel back in time to Medieval France to save their history professor from the cuthroat rebels of the era. It's full of surprises that will just jump on you. It's a book your bound to read in one shot!