Timeline by Michael Crichton Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Timeline
Book Review: A Fast Read
Summary: 3 Stars
This was a pretty good book. I took it on vacation. I read it in four days. The story is easy to follow... The idea of how time travel is executed in this book is very interesting if a little implausible. I don't know very much about the year 1350 or there abouts, but the book did seem to be authentic. The scenes that were protrayed were close enough for me.If you're looking for something with not too much depth, this is a good book.
Book Review: A Formula that Works, mostly
Summary: 4 Stars
A lot of Michael Crichton's books follow a recognisable formula: Take a real cutting edge technology and stretch just enough so that it becomes fictional without losing plausibility. Add an obsessive corporate head who values profits and progress over people. Mix in a handful of academic professionals of varying specialitites. Place in a dangerous situation, garnish with detail, and serve.In _Timeline_ the formula results in a book that is fast-paced and very readable, offering a blend of science, history and action that is visually stimulating and intellectually interesting. Hard science fiction buffs will like the detailed explanation of the theory and technology behind time "travel," while those geared more towards historical fiction will find a wealth of detail about the 14th century.
My main criticism of _Timeline_ is that the characters are somewhat two-dimensional. The bad guys are strictly that, without any redeeming or sympathetic qualities, whereas the good guys seem to be characterised mainly by their abilities. This makes the action fairly predictable, e.g., the rock-climbing architect invariably spends a lot of time scaling castle walls and the expert in medieval armament gets in a lot of sword fights, etc. There is also not a whole lot of subtlety or intrigue; action is the name of the game. Sometimes I did not exactly find this plausible. Granted the 14th century was a dangerous time, but I often wondered at the readiness of the natives, as it were, to strike first and leave questions out of it entirely.
A few plot elements were left hanging and a few characters who you think will play major parts simply disappear, never to be heard from again. Still and all, this is an entertaining book that is hard to put down once you've started.
Book Review: A Fun Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, a compelling, exciting book from Crichton--it's been too long since he wrote such a thrilling adventure. Proof that he can be a good writer--that is, when he's writing a book and NOT writing a Book-to-be-turned-into-a-movie. Lost World? Don't waste your time. Read this one instead. It's his best since Jurassic Park.Book Review: A Great Airplane Read
Summary: 4 Stars
In "Timeline" Michael Crichton warns us of what havoc might break loose if greedy entrepeneurs find a way to make time travel possible. His protagonists -- a collection of charmingly offbeat archaeologists and other academics -- get sent back to fourteenth century France, finding themselves right in the middle of the dangerous time they have been studying in an archaeological dig from the safe distance of six hundred years.
Chrichton gives us a picture of a Medeival world not quite the same as what we all expect -- intelligent, forward looking scholars, powerful and dangerous women, and dangerous knights who are way too big and tough to fit in those diminuitive suits of armour we see in modern museums. "Timeline" is a page turning adventure set in a fascinating world. Having middling knowledge of the Middle Ages, I can tell that Crichton is not just an iconoclast in altering the traditional picture of the Middle Ages, but has actually done his homework here. However, as with most of his fiction, there will certainly be important inaccuracies. But, what the heck. It's a fun read.
Crichton's portrayal of the Middle Ages is actually much more compelling than his discussions of the mechanics of time travel, which aren't convincing even to someone like me who is more than willing to suspend belief for the sake of one of Crichton's novels. We get way more hand waving from him on this than we would expect form the author of "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain." It looks like he has finally found a topic that has strained even his imaginary and narrative powers.
There are other weaknesses to the story. The characters are a bit two-dimensional and the dialog is not exactly Shakespearean. (But, let's face it, we read Crichton for the thrills in his plots, after all.) The plan that the evil entrepeneurs have for the time travel machine, when finally revealed, comes off as a bit silly. And the behavior of the good guys toward the story's end is vindictive enough to be chilling.
But, like the title of this review indicates, I picked this up in an airport bookstore and it kept me perfectly entertained through two very long flights. Not great literature, but not a bad read either.
Book Review: A Great Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a really cool book about the concept of time travel but giving it a whole new twist with the whole idea of paradoxes as opposed to just the usual time travel that most movies or shows portray. In this book, the teacher of a quantum technology class is transported back to the year 1357 during a war in medievel France because of a malfunction in the time machine and several of his students are taken with him.
Now they have to fight their way through medievel wars, shining armor, and clashing swords to get back home to their proper timeline but it's nowhere near as easy as it is hoped.
This is a fascinating book that deserves a good hard read. It's a pity that they wasted their chance of making a great movie out of this with the awful big screen adaptation which was a big dissapointment for me.