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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 of Timeline, 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's Jurassic 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,
but Timeline swiftly 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 from Timeline and 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
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