Timeline

[juldea]

So, right. I finished Timeline on Friday afternoon, and I was sorely disappointed. It wasn't very good at all. My biggest beef is with the characters. Some were simply placeholders - bodies with names that did things, but had absolutely no personality. This would be less of a problem if these characters weren't talked about as totally awesome by the other characters. Other characters were completely erratic, randomly doing things without reason; things that went against the type of personality that Crichton had been trying to portray (not very delicately, either). And most of the main characters were shallow, cliche characters, whose entire personality were based around single central ideas with no nuances or shading. Sigh.

So yeah, I don't really recommend it. I think it had a lot of promise - the basics of the story are some of my largest interests! - but it completely failed to deliver.

I'm still going to see the movie sometime if I get the chance. But I won't expect much from it.

Comments

[baronbrian.livejournal.com]

You should read the Andromeda Strain sometime then. It was one of Crichton's first books and really reads like one.

[azadam.livejournal.com]

I read it too, and it was almost entirely unmemorable. I remember feeling like I was reading a screenplay... he doesn't even bother feigning the attempt at a novel anymore, it was written to translate right onto the screen.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

The way you say that makes me think you're suggesting to me a BAD book, and I can't figure out why you would.

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

Andromeda Strain was his first novel and established his formula, more or less. Find some interesting bit of science, research it a bunch, imagine a government agency or company to study or exploit it, then something "bad" happens, usually as the result of unintended consequence. It was written in the early seventies, at the height of American space exploration, and there was a lot of chatter at the time about what happens if the astronauts "bring something back". That's basically the hook: "something" came back in one of the space probes. (Something small--we're not talking tentacled horrors here.) The movie that was made from the book was both close enough to the book that you didn't worry about it much (lasers vs. darts is the one thing that stands out in my head) and both the book and the movie struck a chord with the "secret government conspiracy" mindset of that decade as well. Granted, the majority of the time it consists of scientists talking to each other in laboratories but still, the methodical pressure of the investigation works. I thought Timeline was okay in a niche sort of way--Andromeda Strain I recommed highly.

[baronbrian.livejournal.com]

It wasn't bad but the ending did disappoint a little.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Interesting commentary. I'll take it to heart.