Timeline Book Report
Timeline by Michel Crichton, published in 1999, is mainly about a team of archeologists who try to save their professor after he was sent back to the fourteenth century. After experiencing many adventures and suffering many burdens they finally rescue him with just a few minutes to spare and get sent back home. One of the main themes in this story is about man’s reckless use of technology. The rest is an adventure story that results from that misuse of the technology.
Richard Doniger was a brilliant scientist who developed a type of time machine that could send you back to 14 century France. However he was not interested in using this technology to understand history or for other positive uses, he only cared about making money and gaining power no matter who he hurt. His comment about a devious trick to a competitor “All’s fair, Diane. Business is business.” (25), demonstrates his ruthlessness.
Throughout this story there are many changes about characters feelings. One is the relationship between Chris and Kate. During the story Chris had always been attracted to Kate, but Kate never saw anything in Chris. As the story goes on and Kate spends more and more time with Chris she slowly but surely starts to see Chris as a generous and loving man. For example, Kate is about to get her head cut off by a knight that had gone insane after his wife was killed. But luckily Chris showed up just in time and killed the knight before he could chop her head off. “Hastily, she rolled off the block and turned to see Chris standing a few yards away, holding the sword that she had dropped.”(421)
Marek had always enjoyed studying medieval times and he wished he could live back then. Once the archeologists get sent to 1357, Marek learned about Lady Claire and he fell in love with her which made him want to stay even more. He “wondered what it must be like to live your entire life in this world” (477).
One of the things that...