Timeline

Timeline – Michael Crichton

Evan’s ESS = 10 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = 5 out of 10

Content = PG-13 (Language, Violence, Adult Concepts, Overuse of the Word “Core”)

Why:  Here’s another novel with an awesome shiver scene.  We don’t want to give anything away so all we’ll say is: the professor’s glasses. 

It’s hard to screw up a plot set in the middle ages because there are so many cool things: jousting, sword fighting, and meat on a stick.  Michael Crichton also introduces one of the best time travel related health concerns: transcription errors.  Plus, the use of a countdown before each new chapter only adds to the already thickly applied suspense.  Once the band of historical researchers head back to the year 1357 to rescue one of their own, you’ll have a hard time finding a stopping point before the conclusion.    

This is easily our favorite Michael Crichton book, which is saying something (we’re not sure exactly what it says, but there you have it).  Crichton does a marvelous job taking an insanely complex time-travel concept and explaining it easily for anyone who doesn’t have a doctorate in Multiverse theory.  Timeline also gets a few extra bonus points for one of the most satisfying endings without going all Kingsbury-ish.  What we mean by this is that the end is tied up quite nicely, yet not in a “we all made grave after school special mistakes but we learned from them and now we’re living happily-ever-after” kind of ending. (We apologize most humbly and profusely to those that LOVE Karen Kingsbury).