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Summary and Reviews of Timeline by Michael Crichton

Timeline by Michael Crichton

Timeline

by Michael Crichton
  • Critics' Consensus:
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  • First Published:
  • Nov 1, 1999, 449 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Oct 2000, 512 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Combines a science of the future -- the emerging field of quantum technology -- with the complex realities of the medieval past. In a heart-stopping narrative.

Michael Crichton's new novel opens on the threshold of the twenty-first century. It is a world of exploding advances on the frontiers of technology. Information moves instantly between two points, without wires or networks. Computers are built from single molecules. Any moment of the past can be actualized -- and a group of historians can enter, literally, life in fourteenth-century feudal France.

Imagine the risks of such a journey.

Not since Jurassic Park has Michael Crichton given us such a magnificent adventure. Here, he combines a science of the future -- the emerging field of quantum technology -- with the complex realities of the medieval past. In a heart-stopping narrative, Timeline carries us into a realm of unexpected suspense and danger, overturning our most basic ideas of what is possible.

Excerpt
Timeline

They had arranged to have dinner in the old town square of Domme, a village on top of a cliff a few miles from their site. By nightfall, Chris, grumpy all day, had recovered from his bad mood and was looking forward to dinner. He wondered if Marek had heard from the Professor, and if not, what they were going to do about it. He had a sense of expectancy.

His good mood vanished when he arrived to find the stockbroker couples again, sitting at their table. Apparently they'd been invited for a second night. Chris was about to turn around and leave, but Kate got up and quickly put her arm around his waist, and steered him toward the table.

"I'd rather not," he said in a low voice. "I can't stand these people." But then she gave him a little hug, and eased him into a chair. He saw that the stockbrokers must be buying the wine tonight -- Château Lafite-Rothschild '95, easily two thousand francs a bottle.

And he thought, What the hell.

"Well, this is a ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

USA Today
A classic adventure...The author has an uncanny knack for coupling suspense with scientific concepts that captivate the public's imagination.

Author Blurb Publishers Weekly
From the startling opening [of the novel] there's not a dull moment...it engages as no Crichton tale has done since Jurassic Park, as it brings the past back to vigorous, entertaining life.

Reader Reviews

Susan

Did he get permission to release this information?
Wow! This is probably the best book I have ever read! I believe he is telling us what the government already knows while keeping it in a fictional setting. He uses real scientific theory and hypotheses, and applies it to real events in our history. ...   Read More
tony seok

this book is excellent! fantastic story!
Michelle

Like all of Crichton's novels, Timeline was full of random information and had fully developed and well-thought out plot. I never cease to be impressed with Crichton's vast stores of knowledge. Doing research for fiction has definitely paid off to ...   Read More
brittany

really good book. as said on cover "more screams per page... than Jurassic Park and The Lost World combined." i'd recommend it to anyone.

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Read-Alikes

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