Michael Crichton

Timeline

An old man wearing a brown robe is found wandering disoriented in the Arizona desert. He is miles from any human habitation and has no memory of how he got to be there, or who he is. The only clue to his identity is the plan of a medieval monastery in his pocket. So begins the mystery of Timeline, a story that will catapult a group of young scientists back to the Middle Ages and into the heart of the Hundred Years' War. Timeline cements Michael Crichton's place as the king of the high-concept thriller, and a master storyteller to boot.

Sarah Sammis

Here's the book that turned me off Michael Crichton.

I loved this book when I was ~13, but it didn't  stand the test of time for me. I loved the sci-fi adventure aspect of it when I was younger. But an older—more curmudgeonly—me just can't get past our heroes constantly just making the dumbest decisions over and over again.

Chris Wilcox

Colleen

3.5 Stars

I've seen the movie Timeline but never read the book. I have read other books by Crichton though and enjoyed them, so when I was looking for something different I picked up Timeline. It's hard to say anything about the story description without giving anything away. The short version is that it is about time travel and medieval history which combines into an interesting combination of Sci-Fi and Historical Fiction. 

If there is one thing that readers dislike about Timeline, I would guess it would be the large amount of information particularly at the beginning of the story. Between explaining the science behind the time travel and the background into the medieval time period, there was a ton of information given in rapid succession. I can see how it would be viewed as an infodump. But, ever the nerd, I found the minutia interesting. Crichton did thorough research, and even the Sci-Fi elements had enough knowledge around them to sound credible. The historical research was particularly meticulous. 

The first third of the book was setup and went at a slower pace. Even having seen the movie, it was hard to tell at first how all of the people and information fit together. But it easily kept my interest the whole time. And once the action kicked in, it was pretty much nonstop. Almost to the point of over-saturation at times. Although entertaining, fast-paced continuous action leaves little room for character development. Still, the characters work perfectly for what they are. So while they could have used more complexity, they were also easy to root for. I would recommend Timeline to anyone who like detail oriented yet fast-paced novels.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Stefanie Viens

The beginning of the book really piqued my interest, but once the characters get into time-travel they start to fall into super cliché, trope-y roles and I was frankly just rolling my eyes by the (very predictable) end <spoiler>We have the self-sacrificing hero whose convenient lifelong obsession with Medieval fighting makes him a natural at jousting and fighting off all the knights that are after him and his companions. Hero guy ends up with the secondary recurring female character in the past timeline, whose main trait is seducing people into doing her bidding. Then there's the whiny guy who keeps getting the group in trouble but also keeps saving the main female character and finally, said main female character who continuously escapes things by climbing because she's a climber, and of course ends up married to now-mature whiny guy and pregnant with his child at the end.</spoiler>

G. Jason Head

Sian Wadey

Timeline by Michael Crichton

My Crichton obsession began because of the films that have been adapted from his works, this being one of them. However, I wasn't as impressed as I wanted to be. The constant chopping back and forth between different times was a little confusing. On the whole, it was an alright book, but certainly not Crichton's best.

One of my all time favorite books it’s so interesting and fun to read if you like science fiction

Kindal Comeaux

Sarah Escorsa

An entertaining enough read but not up to Crichton's usual standards.

Ella (taylor’s version)

I don’t usually read books of this writing style, but I really loved this book. Very cool sci-fi concept, excellent execution 

Timeline

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