4 sterren - Nederlandse paperback

De schrijver heeft een rijke fantasie als het gaat over toepassingen van nieuwe technologieën of wetenschappelijke ontwikkelingen.
Eerder bewees hij dat o.a. al met zijn wereldberoemde boek Jurassic Park waarin prehistorische dieren opnieuw tot leven werden gewekt uit oud DNA. Het mooie is dat hij van die vaak ingewikkelde materie steevast een spannend en boeiend verhaal  weet te maken.
Deze keer begeeft gaat het over de kwantummechanica en ook daar weet hij weer enkele verrassende mogelijkheden voor te bedenken.

In Frankrijk is een groep archeologen onder leiding van professor Edward Johnston bezig een oude nederzetting in de Dordogne in kaart te brengen met als het doel alles weer in de originele staat te herbouwen.
In Amerika werkt een stel wetenschappers in het researchcomplex van ITC in het diepste geheim aan een nieuwe toepassing van de kwantum mechanica.

Beide disciplines komen samen in een wonderlijk avontuur met enkele verrassende wendingen.

Dit boek is een futuristische historische roman. Dat klinkt als een tegenstelling maar in dit geval is die benaming terecht. Het verhaal speelt zich namelijk deels af in het heden en voor een groot part in de Middeleeuwen. Het zijn twee aparte verhaallijnen maar het ene staat niet los van het andere en is prachtig met elkaar verweven.

This book. This is THE book for me.

It’s brain candy, fun to read but not very intellectually satisfying.

Also, a character explaining away the grandfather paradox by just saying “nuh-uh” is ludicrously poor writing.

Bello bello bello bello!

*3.5

Been meaning to read Chrichton's books for a while now. Timeline was a good starting point. A great mix of science fiction and historical fantasy. The ticking-time bomb nature of the plot made this a suspenseful read even though I was able to predict a lot of the beats along the way. The weakest link for me would have to be the protagonist Chris who I found to be quite obnoxious, however the rest of the characters did a good job at picking up the slack. Stephen Lang did an amazing job narrarating the audiobook. Looking forward to more of Chrichton's stuff as his other books seem to have more interesting stories to tell.

A disappointing weak effort!

What a shame! Compared with Crichton's past stellar work and exciting accomplishments like JURASSIC PARK and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, TIMELINE is a derivative, pedestrian work riddled with inconsistencies and cardboard characters that falls completely flat!

ITC, a typical power driven, megalomaniacal firm built on cutting edge technology advances has developed the ability to travel in time. Crichton's clever and extremely well-imagined description of the hard science underlying the technology is the bright spot in an otherwise weak novel - complete destruction of the time traveler in our universe and a facsimile transmission of all the data necessary through a quantum foam wormhole to allow a re-construction of the time traveler in a parallel universe similar to but definitely different than our own. ITC's plan, an astonishingly venal and entirely unimpressive idea to use the past as a vast "realistic" tourist destination (as opposed to engineered, re-created theme parks) results in four historians being trapped in 14th century medieval France. (Haven't I read that somewhere before? I re-checked the cover to make sure I hadn't picked up my copy of Connie Willis's DOOMSDAY BOOK in error)

At that point, the story devolves from a decent sci-fi based techno-thriller into a half-baked adventure in which the author would have us believe (to select only one outrageous example) that a modern day geek who dabbles in medieval weaponry would be able to withstand the onslaught of, not just one, but multiple knights in jousting contests and hand to hand swordplay. If a reader is willing to lay aside virtually all credibility issues, the adventure could be said to be diverting and passably exciting but, for me, it just seemed too far over the top.

Perhaps the largest disappointment for me was that the plot rested in large part on a glaring inconsistency - allowing notes and artifacts left behind by our erstwhile time "travelers", presumably in a parallel but DIFFERENT universe than our own, to somehow magically appear in OUR universe to be found by ITC's present day archeologists and technicians. Tut, tut, Mr Chrichton ... it's not nice to try to fool Mother Nature that way!

Recommended only for diehard Crichton fans who would like to ensure a complete collection.

Paul Weiss

Dieser Roman ist eine Mischung aus Zeireise, korrupten, gewissenlosen Wissenschaftlern, Rittern, einem historischen Roman und einem Thriller.
Leider unterhalten mich historische Romane nicht und Ritter finde ich recht langweilig. Wer dieses Setting mag, wird Gefallen an der Geschichte finden. Obwohl sie gut geschrieben ist, liegt sie mir auch beim 2. Versuch nicht.

Professor Johnston often said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree.
…
The purpose of history is to explain the present—to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power—profound power. The power to define a whole society.
…
Marek wondered what it must be like to live your entire life in this world. To live and love, constantly on the edge, with disease and starvation and death and killing. To be alive in this world.

Remember InGen? The blandly named and not entirely above board corporation that secretly cloned dinosaurs in  Jurassic Park? Well, get ready for ITC, the blandly named and not entirely above board corporation that secretly built the world’s first quantum computer. Their CEO Robert Donager may be a world-class jerk, but at least he funds archeological digs around the world, including a dig in France at the site of a medieval battle. But when the students working the dig find a message from their missing professor—a message written over 600 years earlier—the students finally learn ITC’s secret: ITC has used their quantum computer to build a time machine. And now the students will have to put all of their knowledge of medieval France to the ultimate test as they travel back in time to April 7, 1357, to try to rescue the professor.

Timeline has a great blend of science and history. You’ll learn a fair amount about quantum physics and the theory of the multiverse (though that’s become much more widely discussed in popular culture over the last 25 years since this book was written). And you’ll learn a good bit about life in medieval France. The book regularly calls out common misconceptions, the differences between life for the rich and the poor, and seems to paint an accurate, detailed picture of how different—and more casually violent—daily life was then. And once the characters go back to medieval France, the story is almost non-stop action. The students are dropped into a valley on the brink of battle. They are constantly being separated and brought back together in different combinations as they swept into the events. There are castles and monasteries, damsels in distress and in disguise, tournaments and secret passages, sword fights and, you know, time machines. It is, above all, a really fun book. Highly recommended.

Dull. Characters were nonexistent. Worse than Congo.

I found this book to be all right. The historical research seemed to be well-done, but then I read this back in high school so I don't remember all the details. I do remember wishing there had been more sci fi in here, more looking into the time travel and all that. It was an all right read.

Wow what a surprise in a time travel fiction !!!

This was the first Crichton novel I read, which is probably to his advantage. I knew it was fiction, so I was able to pick it up and cruise right through it. Had I started on The Andromeda Strain, or Airframe, I might have thought he was a non-fiction writer and not given him a proper chance. As it turns out, I was instantly hooked, and began to furiously and ferociously collect everything I could get my hands on by Michael Crichton. Now I've read most of his novels, and have met him in person. (see photos) Big fan, doodz.

Anyway, this is a time-travel story, which automatically bumps it up a point in the storyline rating for me. But it's not your average time-travel tale. It's very detail-oriented, and you learn quickly that some of the characters have an agenda deeper than just wanting to go back and visit the medieval times. The characters are rock solid and believable, and the story is a great rendition of a many-times-told favorite. Who doesn't want to go back in time to the 1500s and check out some castles? Some knights doing battle? I know I do.

I know this was made into a movie a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen it. I've heard it didn't do anywhere close to as well as the book did, and did it no justice either. I'll probably rent it someday just because I'm sentimental and I like seeing my favorite characters come to life. I'd recommend this for all you time-travel junkies out there. It has some elements that are surprisingly powerful for being so overtly subtle. It's a very attractive read, and well worth your time.