(picture borrowed from Amazon.com)
I think a trend is developing here. This is my fifth book review and the second I have done of a Michael Crichton book. Believe it or not, he is a relatively new discovery to me but one thatI have taken to almost feverishly.
This seond book of his that I have read, and which I want to review today is Timeline. Simply, this book is about what it sounds like...time. The concept is that time travel is possible by way of quantum mechanics, and due to circumstances, a group of historian/archologists end up trying to the 14th century, just in "time" to get involved in a battle between the French and the English over anarea of France. There is plenty of action, lots of intrique and a very active story line.
Where on occasion I find myself so enthralled in a book, I want to read it at one sitting, that was notthe case here. Instead I found myself doing all sorts things, and in my "spare" time coming back to readTimeline some more. Every time I picked it back up, however, It felt like a reunion with an old friend.
Reading Michael Crichton seems to be to be an exercise in reading about posibilities. He based on someof what he writes on principals that are in germ state in science. I would say that his is a stype ofscience fiction but withsome very real science, more clearly seen, fueling it than many other science fictions novels have seemed to have. While the science has a germ of the concept he writes about,his writtings also serve as a cautionary about humanity's ability to misuse that science. Remember, this is also the author that wrote Jurassic Park which supports that thesis also, which I was not aware of this recently. (I thoughtthe movie was too scarey and didnt really like it but may have to read the book now).
I guess it goes without saying that I LIKE this book and strongly recommend it to anyone who likes storiesabout possibilities, both of the negative and the positive variety. Stay tuned, I am sure I will find myself reading anotherMichael Crichton book before very long....State of Fear and Timeline have turned me, who knew nothing about Crichton till about 3 weeks ago into an avid fan. Beware, if you read some of his work, the same may happento you. :)
