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accomu's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
bryce_ndavis's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
darth_vader's review against another edition
4.0
Great historical read. Crichton invested so much research in this novel and I really enjoyed it.
baconbre's review against another edition
3.0
I have seen the film before I watched the movie. I would recommend reading the book first. So that the novel can stand on its own legs. A lot of the film is exactly as the book. I did like the extra info about the other workers at the company. However at the beginning the man who pops up in the desert. They said he was depressed, but it doesn’t explain why he was at the wrong location. The machines are funky is all we really get. I like how the guy who was left behind was give background info as well. Unlike the film this guy purposely wanted to go to the past to stay so he can avoid going to prison for a bar fight. It was a fun which guy is it. The part where he finds them in the wall because of their earpieces is a dead giveaway. I liked how you didn’t know if you could trust the lady Claire. She was very game of thrones with poisoning her last husband. The man who stays behind I like how he does it because he just wants to live in the present and he can’t do that in his own timeline. He ends up with Claire but that wasn’t the main reason like the movie makes it out to be. Also I liked how all the women were written as strong individuals, and Kate’s wall climbing isn’t a one off. Her skills repeatedly come in handy. Also the greek fire bit was funny because he’s like welll what even is greek fire me lord here how about fire that spreads by water. I wish it showed more of a reason why the knight wanted to go back to our present other than well this place sucks. Final thought I thought the ending with the CEO was a little bit excessive. Maybe if it wasn’t so short of a segment. Wasn’t as satisfying as the John Hammond ending.
kierstanryan's review against another edition
4.0
Fun! I love a good action and adventure and this is exactly what it was! The added addition of time travel, science, and history made it even cooler. Could a company out there in the world be doing this right now???
ms_morri1's review against another edition
4.0
Simply put, don’t watch the movie, read the book! The book makes more sense, the history is more on point, and the characters are more compelling.
katiescho741's review against another edition
2.0
Timeline is a good book, but not as compelling as I thought it was going to be and I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. I ended up reading for the sake of finishing instead of reading because I wanted to.
Timeline is a combination of science fiction, history and thriller. There's a lot of history and archaeology near the start and so it's worth a read if you're a history nerd like me. If you're not a history nerd it will probably seem very slow going. It does remind us how little we know about the Middle Ages, and shows us how wrong some of our misconceptions are. the language barrier was very interesting.
The rest of the book was okay, but I felt the thriller/chase sequences were formulaic...while reading them I kept thinking there was nothing special about them and you could put them in any other context and they'd be the same, just change "knights" to "gangsters" or "hired goons".
I also found the time travel methods in the book confusing. I have read other time travel stories and the science has always made sense to me, but in Timeline the time travel is mixed with quantum physics and ideas about the multiverse, and it made me think the story was going somewhere it wasn't.
I found the Medieval characters to be a bit flat and I struggled to tell them all apart.
Timeline is a combination of science fiction, history and thriller. There's a lot of history and archaeology near the start and so it's worth a read if you're a history nerd like me. If you're not a history nerd it will probably seem very slow going. It does remind us how little we know about the Middle Ages, and shows us how wrong some of our misconceptions are. the language barrier was very interesting.
The rest of the book was okay, but I felt the thriller/chase sequences were formulaic...while reading them I kept thinking there was nothing special about them and you could put them in any other context and they'd be the same, just change "knights" to "gangsters" or "hired goons".
I also found the time travel methods in the book confusing. I have read other time travel stories and the science has always made sense to me, but in Timeline the time travel is mixed with quantum physics and ideas about the multiverse, and it made me think the story was going somewhere it wasn't.
I found the Medieval characters to be a bit flat and I struggled to tell them all apart.
svdk's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
jurassicreads's review against another edition
4.0
'Timeline' is about the use and debatably the abuse of time travel. This book follows a group of archeological specialists from their journey to a mysterious underground facility specializing in MRI technology, alllllll the way back to 1357 France. Honestly, it's not as big of a jump as it seems when you're talking about time travel. When Professor Johnston sends a distress message to his colleagues in present day France that can be carbon dated to the 14th century, his team scrambles to piece the meaning together.
Surprisingly, this book did not contain as much espionage and sabotage as I was anticipating. Usually when Crichton introduces a mysterious company such as ITC, I try to dig out all the lies they are feeding the public. I feel like this book was really honest in its portrayal of a modern person going back to another time. I know very little about this time in history so I cannot speak to its accuracy, but considering the lengths that Crichton usually went to in order to bring fact into his fiction, I do not doubt that it is an educated portrayal.
Probably the only reason this book did not get a 5-star rating from me is because it's slightly less science-y than other Crichton books. Despite the overall scifi concept, it's mostly set in 1357 France with only 1/10 of the book set in the present day (aka 1999). I'm not really a sucker for historical fiction so it wasn't ENTIRELY what I was here for, but leave it to Crichton to make me fall in love with one of my least favorite genres.
Surprisingly, this book did not contain as much espionage and sabotage as I was anticipating. Usually when Crichton introduces a mysterious company such as ITC, I try to dig out all the lies they are feeding the public. I feel like this book was really honest in its portrayal of a modern person going back to another time. I know very little about this time in history so I cannot speak to its accuracy, but considering the lengths that Crichton usually went to in order to bring fact into his fiction, I do not doubt that it is an educated portrayal.
Probably the only reason this book did not get a 5-star rating from me is because it's slightly less science-y than other Crichton books. Despite the overall scifi concept, it's mostly set in 1357 France with only 1/10 of the book set in the present day (aka 1999). I'm not really a sucker for historical fiction so it wasn't ENTIRELY what I was here for, but leave it to Crichton to make me fall in love with one of my least favorite genres.
belwood303's review against another edition
4.0
I am revisiting some of the books I loved when I was a teenager. I've read all of Michael Crichton's books and I think Timeline was one of my favorite. Maybe not as good as the first time I read it but still gripping and a nice way to spend the evenings.