Book details of 'Timeline'

Title	Timeline
Author(s)	Michael Crichton
ISBN	0679444815
Language	English
Published	November 1999
Publisher	Random House

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Amazon.com info for Timeline

Score:

virtualbookcase.com score: 4.9   Vote for this book

The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Timeline':

Reviewer Mike wrote:
I dont know how M.C. does it. He makes all these great books, his head is just full of these great stories. Timeline was the first M.C. book i read, i thought it was the greatest book i've ever read. It's about this team of people who are trying to rebuild this castle. something dosnt seem right so the lead arcialogist go to the ITC (people who are sponsoring them) building in nevada to see what's up. They find out that ITC found a way into the past by passing through universes... I would go on and tell you more but you got to read it for yourself, if i gave away any more info i would probley spoil the book for you. The last thing i'm sayin is it was a great book... one of the best i've ever read
Reviewer Koos van den Hout wrote:
In his usual style, Michael Crichton dives into the possibility of time travel. The opening reads as a bit of very strange fiction but slowly a story develops of time travel. First denied as a possibility but later accepted and used in the story. Present day and location are interwoven with the historic time and location. As usual, Crichton has done his research very thoroughly (both on the physics of possible time travel and on the historic facts). The characters in the book do not really develop much given the large changes in environment and timeframe which they are subjected to. The ending of the book is a bit abrupt for me, no real 'closure' in what happens to the people and what happens to the results of the research.
Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
When you step into a time machine, fax yourself through a "quantum foam wormhole," and step out in feudal France circa 1357, be very, very afraid. If you aren't strapped back in precisely 37 hours after your visit begins, you'll miss the quantum bus back to 1999 and be stranded in a civil war, caught between crafty abbots, mad lords, and peasant bandits all eager to cut your throat. You'll also have to dodge catapults that hurl sizzling pitch over castle battlements. On the social front, you should avoid provoking "the butcher of Crecy" or Sir Oliver may lop your head off with a swoosh of his broadsword or cage and immerse you in "Milady's Bath," a brackish dungeon pit into which live rats are tossed now and then for prisoners to eat. This is the plight of the heroes of Timeline, Michael Crichton's thriller. They're historians in 1999 employed by a tech billionaire-genius with more than a few of Bill Gates's most unlovable quirks. Like the entrepreneur in Crichton's Jurassic Park, Doniger plans a theme park featuring artifacts from a lost world revived via cutting-edge science. When the project's chief historian sends a distress call to 1999 from 1357, the boss man doesn't tell the younger historians the risks they'll face trying to save him. At first, the interplay between eras is clever, but Timeline swiftly becomes a swashbuckling old-fashioned adventure, with just a dash of science and time paradox in the mix. Most of the cool facts are about the Middle Ages, and Crichton marvelously brings the past to life without ever letting the pulse-pounding action slow down. At one point, a time-tripper tries to enter the Chapel of Green Death. Unfortunately, its custodian, a crazed giant with terrible teeth and a bad case of lice, soon has her head on a block. "She saw a shadow move across the grass as he raised his ax into the air." I dare you not to turn the page! Through the narrative can be glimpsed the glowing bones of the movie that may be made from Timeline and the cutting-edge computer game that should hit the market in 2000. Expect many clashing swords and chase scenes through secret castle passages. But the book stands alone, tall and scary as a knight in armor shining with blood.
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