From the startling opening, where an old man with garbled speech and body parts materializes in the Arizona desert, through the revelation that a venal industrialist has developed a risky method of time-travel (based on movement between parallel universes as in Crichton's other work, good, hard science abounds), there's not a dull moment. Crichton remains a master of narrative drive and cleverness. The novel, in fact, may improve as a movie its complex action, as the scientists are swept into the intrigue of the Hundred Years War, can be confusing on the page (though a supplied map, one of several graphics, helps), and most of its characters wear hats (or armor) of pure white or black. 'And the Oscar for Best Special Effects goes to: Timeline!' Figure maybe three years before those words are spoken, for Crichton's new novel-despite media reports about trouble in selling film rights, which finally went to Paramount-is as cinematic as they come, a shiny science-fantasy adventure powered by a superior high concept: a group of young scientists travel back from our time to medieval southern France to rescue their mentor, who's trapped there.

nonstop roller coaster of a novel.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer The pace will leave many breathlessly grasping for oxygen masks.” - The San Diego Union-Tribune than Jurassic Park and The Lost World combined. And with history opened up to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival-six hundred years ago. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study the past but to enter it. Suddenly they are swept off to the headquarters of a secretive multinational corporation that has developed an astounding technology. Halfway around the world, archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates.

In an Arizona desert, a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. brilliantly imagined.”- Los Angeles Times

In this thriller from the author of Jurassic Park, Sphere, and Congo, a group of young scientists travel back in time to medieval France on a daring rescue mission that becomes a struggle to stay alive.

Michael crichton book timeline