Timeline
Author: Michael Crichton
Written: 1999
“He had a term for people like this: temporal provincials—people who were ignorant of the past, and proud of it. Temporal provincials were convinced that the present was the only time that mattered, and that anything that had occurred earlier could be safely ignored.”
Hello Ordinary Readers!
Do you like history? Science? Jousting? Swordplay? Catapults? Chases? Love? If so this is the story for you!
I am excited to get to another Michael Crichton book. He is still my favorite author, to be fair I have not read that many others! I am also excited to give you readers a glimpse into my fiction reading, which has ramped up a little. Many people have this book ranked in their top list of Michael Crichton books. It is currently #2 on Goodreads with ratings, whatever that really means. So far it is high on my list but I am just getting started!
Enough of that…on to Timeline. This book follows one of Crichton’s formulas, Jurassic Park, but doesn’t disappoint. Also, something that always amazes me when reading Crichton is the real-world thoughts that come through. Such as the quote above, many people don’t look at history and are proud of it. In this story, a company ITC run by an ego-maniac has found a way to travel through time. Sound familiar. I will say this maniac Doniger is much worse than Hammond in Jurassic park, but maybe that’s because the movies make him so lovable! Their lead scientist goes missing and so three historians head in to find him and bring him back. Chris, Kate, and Merek find themselves in a world they are not prepared for, except maybe Merek. To make things interesting there is also a time-limit to get back.
That is the premise. It is a crazy adventure that ramps up. What I like about this and many other Cricthon’s books is he spends the time explaining the science, whether real or made up, it makes it feel real. Crichton doesn’t rush to the action right away making us the reader care about the characters more.
I enjoyed this book, and I know some that like it even better than Jurassic and I would put it on par for sure. I personally like dinosaurs more than medieval history. I think that has a lot to do with Chricthon’s books. They are all fun adventures and which one you like is much tied to what you are already interested in. I encourage others to read this book if you’re wanting to get a taste of Cricthon’s writing and enjoy history!
Happy Reading!
Quotes
“He had a term for people like this: temporal provincials—people who were ignorant of the past, and proud of it. Temporal provincials were convinced that the present was the only time that mattered, and that anything that had occurred earlier could be safely ignored.”
“Yet the truth was that the modern world was invented in the Middle Ages. Everything from the legal system, to nation-states, to reliance on technology, to the concept of romantic love had first been established in medieval times.”
“Professor Johnston often said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree.”
“He had only imagined a slower fighting style from an unconscious assumption that men in the past were weaker or slower or less imaginative than he was, as a modern man. He had only imagined a slower fighting style from an unconscious assumption that men in the past were weaker or slower or less imaginative than he was, as a modern man.”
“We are all ruled by the past, although no one understands it. No one recognizes the power of the past,” he said, with a sweep of his hand. “But if you think about it, the past has always been more important than the present. The present is like a coral island that sticks above the water, but is built upon millions of dead corals under the surface, that no one sees. In the same way, our everyday world is built upon millions and millions of events and decisions that occurred in the past. And what we add in the present is trivial.”
“In every field, from business to politics to marketing to education, the dominant mode has become entertainment.”
“This artifice will drive them to seek authenticity. Authenticity will be the buzzword of the twenty-first century. And what is authentic? Anything that is not devised and structured to make a profit.”
“The purpose of history is to explain the present—to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us why the things we value are the things we should value. And it tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power—profound power. The power to define a whole society.”