Timeline

Shinji

Michael Crichtons latest; picked it up to entertain me on the ridiculously long train journey from London to Guildford on Sunday (bloody railtrack) and was delighted to find that he's back on form with a veangeance - this is significantly better, to my mind, than most of his previous work, including The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park...

As usual his research is impeccable, and it shows; he messes around a little with quantum theory to make the premise of the novel work, but it's still entirely believable for the most part. Physics aside (and the physics in the book IS interesting) he also creates a really exellent portrait of France during the Hundred Years War - again his research and knowledge of the subject shines through, and it all feels very authentic.

To top it all off, he even introduces some genuinely likeable characters, and the ending, although slightly unsatisfactory, is certainly touching. Top stuff. The Timeline game he's working on looks a bit alright too

whitetrash

giz the gist of the plot and i might get it. its not too sci-fi is it?

and isnt that game suppossed to be edutainment (ie not very good)

ps i know i cant spell

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I Live

Paladin

I think Ill get this book before christmas, completely based on your review shinji, so if its crud im comin after u!

Shinji

lol Paladin

Whitetrash - it's not very sci-fi at all really, since the vast majority of the action happens in fifteenth century France! The only really sci-fi bit is the whole time-travel thing, and I was quite impressed with the way that Crichton explained the mechanisms involved in time-travel in the book, as it's all actually plausible given our current understanding of quantum physics. That said, he doesn't dwell on it for too long either.

The basic idea is that a company has developed a system that allows time travel; they send back a professor who is heading up an archeological dig to the place where he is digging as it was 600 years ago, but something goes wrong - he leaves the machine and ventures off. His students at the site, being the leading experts in the history of the area, follow him in with some marines in an attempt to get him out. Then it all goes pear-shaped... It's a fair bit more complex than that, but thats the basic idea - well worth a read, as I said.

As to the game - Crichton calls it edutainment, and it is, but then again so is the book. I learned a lot about quantum physics while reading it (mainly from looking stuff up online to verify if he was telling the truth or not, but also from his simple and accurate explanations) and a hell of a lot more about medieval life and history. Crichtons books are like that - well researched and entertaining, so you pick up knowledge without even knowing you're doing so. That's what he's doing with the game too, and it looks pretty excellent so far...

Ja,
Rob

whitetrash

i wouldn't mind learning more about quantum physics but i read (in Edge i think) that the game is educational in strictly the historical sense.
ie all the buildings are historically accurate, but i don't see how they could construct an accurate time-travel mechanisim. the best they could do would simply be to rehash everything in the book, embelishing and distorting already slightly fictional (according to shinji) theories.

i'd rather read the book. i hate the past and everyone who lives there.(yes even my past self, the stupid fu<k)

ps. "Edge" always gets a capital

[This message has been edited by whitetrash (edited 08-11-2000).]

LoLth

Well, I bought this one yesterday solely on the review posted here. To be honest, I'm not a Crichton fan but I have to admit that I like this book! (I'm about 50 pages from the end ). Yep, well researched and I like the time-span (pardon the pun) the story covers.

Story wise, it's not hugely original (similar stuff appeared in a novel called "deathship" - I think that was the name - and you could liken it to Lightning by Koontz i suppose). But the writing style, the atmosphere and the science-in-lay-man's-terms-that-still-feels-really-hitech-and-sciency really stand out.

Well worth the read (and I suspect I'll be re-reading it in the near future, quondam phone permitting ).

By the way, 5.99 in Chapters on middle Abbey Street if you're looking for it on hte cheap.

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Chubby

The game idea looks interesting but does this mean hollywood won't be buying the rights to it and turning it into a movie soon? Think I'll pick up a copy if it's out in paperback. Saw this ages ago in hardback and I was so terribly disappointed with Airframe that I didn't really look up reviews for Timeline. Glad someone posted a quick review here as I always liked Crichton's books.

Shinji

Hollywood do indeed have movie rights and are casting for it now. So far it looks like Sean Connery or Patrick Stewart to play the professor, and Chris O'Donnell (blegh) to play Chris. Chris is my favourite character in the book dammit, I'll PUKE if they have that ass O'Donnell playing him

Manach

Just finished reading it. This is my second Crichton book (1st was the "Eaters of the Dead", recommend it). I was slightly disappointed in this one. It does keep the reader entertained in an Indiana-Jones style but the characters never engaged my imagination. The plot seemed to consist of the hapless heroes leaping from frying pan to fire situations, with the ending being telegraphed from a 1/3 way to the end. Better read on the same theme would be Connie Willis's Doomsday Book

Paladin

Alright your safe shinji. I enjoyed that book a lot