Timeline

by Michael Crichton

In an Arizona desert a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly 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 corporation that has developed an astounding technology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study the past but to enter it. And with history opened to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival--six hundred years ago. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.

• ISBN10: 0345469917
• ISBN13: 9780345469915
• Publish Date: 4 November 2003 (first published 1 January 1999)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Ballantine Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 361
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Call me crazy, but I loved this book. I also loved the horrible film version with Gerard Butler and Paul Walker which I see now, having read the book, really consists of some pieces of information that were snatched from the book and shuffled like a deck of cards and then the science was dumbed down and more people died and such. Nonetheless! I find them both thought-provoking and entertaining.

Michael Crichton's books draw me in. There are five pages of references in tiny print at the end of the book - this man does his homework. This one is definitely a favorite just because of the subject matter. There is a warm place in my heart for history, and the idea of time travel (alright, multi-universe jumping) is just so intriguing to me. The Middle Ages are an area of particular interest for me, and so, this book was definitely a favorite.

Oddly enough, I think I benefited from having seen the film before, because as many others have criticized, the characters are so flat. That is a thing with Crichton - he worries about telling the story more than if you relate to the characters. Although the film adaptation was poorly done when comparing it to the source, the characters have more depth and variety and even though some of them were grossly displaced (Chris! They took his name and put it on another character altogether!) having that in the back of my mind made them more likable, and helped submerge me better into the book.

The science in this book was also a little difficult for me to follow. But I don't know if that is a general concern, or based on my personal lack of comprehension.

There was a speech near the end that Doniger was practicing, about modern America and its primary concern being entertainment. It was almost completely irrelevant to the book, but I loved it.

For me, even already knowing the ending, this was a very hard book to put down. I've gotten so jaded by poor or cliched writing lately, complete engrossment in a book has been a rare pleasure.

[mrs_mander_reads]

This was my first Michael Crichton book, and I loved it. I thought that the story was compelling and believable, and I loved the amount of history and science involved in the story. Definitely recommend it as a must-read for anyone into science fiction/fantasy, and I'll be reading more of him as well.

[remo]

Siempre he dicho que lo mejor de Crichton son los planteamientos, las ideas germinales de las novelas. La de este libro, concretamente, es la de unos historiadores “experimentales”, que viajan al año 1357 para contemplar in situ (hablando en términos espaciotemporales, entiéndase) los monasterios medievales en cuya restauración trabajan en 1999. Nada más comenzar los viajes comienzan los problemas. Además, Crichton se ha especializado últimamente en empresas hi-tech y sus peripecias, así como en diseñar sus novelas parea su posterior adaptación al cine. Crichton escribe guiones novelados, todo en uno, y así se lleva el sueldo de los tres: el escritor, el guionista y el adaptador. No es mal negocio. De todos modos, no es de las mejores. La acción se detiene constantemente, a pesar de que el ritmo de los acontecimientos narrados es, supuestamente, vertiginoso. Hay escritores que han nacido con un número determinado de novelas en potencia. No deben superarlo.