The first Crichton novel I ever read and purchased was The Lost World, and I loved it. After reading it, I was sorely disappointed with the movie version, knowing that it simply did not compare with the book - one can always rely on Hollywood to botch a great story. But ever since then, I’ve been a solid Crichton fan.
With Timeline, Crichton again proves that he is a master of storytelling. This time, he seamlessly weaves medieval history with quantum physics, and writes a novel that I found very difficult to put down.
Timeline is a new spin for Crichton. Instead of bringing dinosaurs back to life, he takes us back in time to medieval France, using a technology that, while proven in theory, has yet to be proven in actuality.
Since the story moves along at a rapid pace, it might be easy to ignore something - a detail that I caught only after reading the novel through the second time around. And that question is: can anyone patent history?
Towards the end of the novel, we see Doniger, head of ITC, speaking to a small group of executives, telling them of the wonders of his newest technological development. He tells them about his grand plan of ’’patenting history.’’ Since ITC owns the technology, they will also own history itself. It will become ’’history with a brand name.’’
It is a horrific possibility, perhaps too horrible to contemplate, but quantum physics is making leaps and bounds with regards to improvement. It may not be long before we see a machine that works in the same way as the one in the novel.
And what then? What will we do?
Sometimes I think that Crichton writes novels like this to remind us about the dangers of using new technology to make a profit. He did it for genetics with Jurassic Park and The Lost World; now he does the same for quantum physics with Timeline.
But, putting all of that aside, Timeline is an excellent, well-written novel. You will never look at history the same way ever again.