Timeline
When you step into a time machine, fax yourself through a  "quantum foam wormhole," and step out in feudal France circa 1357, be very, very afraid. If you aren't strapped back in precisely 37 hours after your  visit begins, you'll miss the quantum bus back to 1999 and be stranded in a  civil war, caught between crafty abbots, mad lords, and peasant bandits all  eager to cut your throat. You'll also have to dodge catapults that hurl  sizzling pitch over castle battlements. On the social front, you should avoid  provoking "the butcher of Crecy" or Sir Oliver may lop your head off with a swoosh of his broadsword or cage and immerse you in "Milady's Bath," a brackish dungeon pit into which live rats are tossed now and then for prisoners to eat.This is the plight of the heroes ofTimeline, Michael Crichton's thriller. They're historians in 1999 employed by a tech billionaire-genius with more than a few of Bill Gates's most unlovable quirks. Like the entrepreneur in Crichton'sJurassic Park,  Doniger plans a theme park featuring artifacts from a lost world revived via  cutting-edge science. When the project's chief historian sends a distress call to  1999 from 1357, the boss man doesn't tell the younger historians the risks they'll face trying to save him. At first, the interplay between eras is clever, butTimelineswiftly becomes a swashbuckling  old-fashioned adventure, with just a dash of science and time paradox in the mix.  Most of the cool facts are about the Middle Ages, and Crichton marvelously  brings the past to life without ever letting the pulse-pounding action slow  down. At one point, a time-tripper tries to enter the Chapel of Green Death. Unfortunately, its custodian, a crazed giant with terrible teeth and a  bad case of lice, soon has her head on a block. "She saw a shadow move  across the grass as he raised his ax into the air." I dare you not to turn the page!Through the narrative can be glimpsed the glowing bones of the movie  that may be made fromTimelineand the cutting-edge computer game  that should hit the market in 2000. Expect many clashing swords and chase  scenes through secret castle passages. But the book stands alone, tall and  scary as a knight in armor shining with blood.--Tim Appelo--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.