Tentatively, Convenience's Reviews > Timeline

Crichton is incredibly popular - wch is enuf to make me suspicious of him immediately! Nonetheless, I found a few bks by him for a dollar or so & decided to read them. He's prolific, he's directed 10 movies & 12 others have been made based on his plots. I've liked some of the movies. SO, even though he's popular, maybe he's really a smart guy, eh? Nah.. "Timeline" is a time travel novel. There's nothing new here, for dedicated readers of SF like myself this is just another generic variation on the theme. Crichton is a competent (or even excellent) formula writer, he's got the generic thrill-ride down, he slots in the latest scientific possibilities, but he's completely unoriginal both in the writing style & in the content. He's probably a little 'better' than Dean Koontz. Still, I liked it ok, it wasn't until I got to "State of Fear" that I started to despise the guy. More about that later.