COMMENTARY: Timeline (1999)
The following are thoughts and reactions I had while reading Timeline (1999) by Michael Crichton. They do not reflect my overall post-reading opinion of the work.
⚠️ SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD (obviously). ⚠️
- Off to a great start. Feel like I haven’t read straight-up mass market in a while (I haven’t). No literary prose to work through, just clear-eyed workmanlike prose so you can feed the story straight into the veins. And we’re starting off with a bunch of mystery questions.
- The CEO is comically assholey. All the characters are 2D and play a role. It’s nice they’re racially diverse with a mix of male and female. I’m sure Crichton would throw in LGBTQ as well if he were alive today.
- 25% mark. Professor has gone missing. The team is assembled and now we have a science dump. Hugh Everett is interesting. Looked him up. Son is the lead for the rock band Eels. Remember seeing that album beautiful freak at the used CD shop I used to spend so many of my teenage years.
- 40% - ruh-roh. Now we’re stuck here.
- 50% - ITC blew up, Chris is about to joust. There’s a lot happening and I’m invested but you know what’s weird? I’m not wondering nor curious nor critical of the story at all. Either it’s perfectly spun, or I’m seeing it as mass market thriller trash, it’s Michael Crichton, or I dunno. I’m literally just enjoying the ride and don’t care the characters are all stand-ins and cardboard. I’m here for the science and history. The plot is secondary almost.
- Pg. 335/70% mark. Oh this is delicious. Crichton sets up a scene where Gordon reveals to Stern that there are other people from the twentieth century in the past, and then there’s a cat and mouse game where Marek and Chris figure out someone has an earpiece, and then they have a sequel scene where they talk about it openly. And now we’re kept guessing for the final third as to which villain is actually from the twentieth century. This is a great plot trick. Love it
- pg. 358/73% oh. Not a guessing game. A little disappointed. I mean… I had a vague distant suspicion since Crichton was cutting between the present and medieval timelines. But still. Would’ve still wanted… wait. Actually, there still could be spies. We shall see.
- pg. 360 - the guessing game is still on! Who’s the man from the future?
- Pg. 440 - I dunno man, I feel like the last fifty pages has been Crichton adding extra obstacles just to drag this out. Extra chases, extra “split the party”, extra falls, extra fights, extra threats to our characters by Oliver.
- pg. 456 - I mean, I knew it was De Kere, all the clues pointed to him, but it was still nice to not have absolute confirmation until now and to have a bit of a guessing tension.