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Timeline
by Michael Crichton
by Michael Crichton
** spoiler alert **
Another one-star book for the "so bad it pissed me off" category. I so wanted to like this book. Up until this book I think I read nearly everything Crichton wrote.
Timeline, in my opinion, had a great premise. Swashbuckler disguised as Sci-Fi. The problem I had was that Crichton tried too hard to explain his premises, and ended up making a jumble that even he couldn't untangle.
This book was supposed to have all the good stuff: time travel, knights, castles, fighting, suspense. But the characters don't ever really make it off the page. The bad guys are so one-dimensional, they are hard to hate. Good book hate requires conflict, and the bad guys are just so unrelentingly bad. Same issue with the good guys, the "good" guys are so boring, they're hard to root for. In the end, I didn't really care if they made it back okay.
Speaking of the ending, it all seemed like it was just tacked on because some editor said: "Okay, you have to wrap this up in the next 40 pages, or it won't make a good movie script!" They're all in this inextricable mess, but suddenly the tide turns completely in their favor for the "good guys" who repair the device at the last second, make it running, send the bad guys back to die horribly, and the two sympathetic couples live happily ever after with babies? Ha!
...which is another thing that pissed me off. It seemed like Crichton was writing this just because it had been too long since he wrote a book that would "make a great movie!" (Thought the movie kind of sucked too.) And sure enough, it got optioned. bah. Don't you remember the days of amazing novels by Crichton?
Timeline, in my opinion, had a great premise. Swashbuckler disguised as Sci-Fi. The problem I had was that Crichton tried too hard to explain his premises, and ended up making a jumble that even he couldn't untangle.
This book was supposed to have all the good stuff: time travel, knights, castles, fighting, suspense. But the characters don't ever really make it off the page. The bad guys are so one-dimensional, they are hard to hate. Good book hate requires conflict, and the bad guys are just so unrelentingly bad. Same issue with the good guys, the "good" guys are so boring, they're hard to root for. In the end, I didn't really care if they made it back okay.
Speaking of the ending, it all seemed like it was just tacked on because some editor said: "Okay, you have to wrap this up in the next 40 pages, or it won't make a good movie script!" They're all in this inextricable mess, but suddenly the tide turns completely in their favor for the "good guys" who repair the device at the last second, make it running, send the bad guys back to die horribly, and the two sympathetic couples live happily ever after with babies? Ha!
...which is another thing that pissed me off. It seemed like Crichton was writing this just because it had been too long since he wrote a book that would "make a great movie!" (Thought the movie kind of sucked too.) And sure enough, it got optioned. bah. Don't you remember the days of amazing novels by Crichton?
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Don
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rated it 3 stars
Jul 27, 2008 09:17pm
Well delivered. Although I didn't hate the book, I can't disagree with anything you say.
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It never occurred to me to make different categories for read books, but so-bad-it-pissed-me-off is the only way to describe this book. I may have to make a similar category myself. Great review!
A student recommended this book to me. It is the first M. Critchon book for me. I read for enjoyment. I enjoyed the book. Sci-Fiction is often about topics we do not totally get, but it is fiction.
I really enjoyed it, but it's instantly forgettable. I don't disagree with any of your points but it did have me gripped for the most part. I'm a sucker for time travel and medieval stuff.
i guess i have to be the first person to disagree. this was such a great novel, i flipped it over and started it again.
One of my favorite novels ever and one I've actually read more than a couple of times...I hated the movie with a passion.
The "happily ever after" syndrome is in practically all sci-fi. Andromeda strain had it, Congo had it, next did too. This syndrome is present because the early innovator in sci-fi did it. Wells and Verne all had such endings. Actually, Scott Card wrote an excellent introduction to War of the Worlds (publisher: scholastic) detailing exactly why that is. A great read, that essay.
Mike wrote: "The "happily ever after" syndrome is in practically all sci-fi..."Interesting, and yes, I've noticed that most sci-fi (indeed most fiction,) plays in the arena of "good vs. evil." Obviously, conflict makes good fiction, and what could be more epic than Good vs. Evil?
I'll hunt down the essay, sounds fascinating. (Orson Scott Card?)
My objection to the "happily ever after" in Timeline, is not that it occurred, but rather that it occurred poorly. There was no tipping point, no pulling the strings of tension, it was just "the good guys are losing... losing... losing BADLY..." then WHUMP! WIN! Cheering! Babies!
I like a "good triumphs over evil" story as much as the next reader, I just prefer to believe it. Please, Mr. Author, don't write 200 pages of the good guys losing, then slap on a "oh, by the way - they WON! Yay! Isn't it GREAT!"
Please enjoy all of what Crichton contributed to the world of reading, some of his stuff isn't perfect; but it makes for a good read. R.I.P. Michael Crichton.
So what you're saying is that simply because the writer is dead, I now have to consider this piece of drivel to be a literary masterpiece? Thanks, but I'll pass.
Avel, I'm going to have agree with Stacey on one point. While I did enjoy this novel, his book Next was a complete waste of paper, as was Sphere, and I wish to forget both those books had ever been published.
This was a fantastic book! Are you confusing it with the movie? I'm thinking you people saw the movie first and then tried to read the book? The movie was horrible i agree 100% did the book no justice whatsoever. Either that or you never studied the mideval era. And this book was chopped full of brilliant insites into how life might have been during the hundred year war. Which is what the book was about! It wasnt about time travel or swashbuckling pirates!
Jason, you do understand that "swashbuckler" is descriptive of a type of storytelling and may not necessarily include pirates? I never saw the movie. I thought the book was crap, why would I waste my time or money on the movie?Also, I believe the phrase you're looking for is "chock full." But I would agree with you that Timeline is chopped, and I'm pretty sure I said so in my review. Chopped the full ending right off and smashed a crappy screenplay ending on, to finish the story in the alloted script time.
