Friends, this is my review of the book Time Line by Michael Crichton, which I read recently. The title of the book seemed to be quite appropriate for the day, being the end of the year. Though this book was written a number of years ago, and has had a film made using the plot, the tale is still a good one.
The idea is that an American business has worked out how to travel to other times using quantum technology, with the idea of producing the ultimate historical experience. The story flits between America, where the technology is based and France, where they are going back to the 13th century, to provide those extra details for an archaeological dig. But of course things go wrong, the professor is trapped in the past, and a rescue mission needs to be made. Three of his students go back along with two guides from the company. Sadly very quickly the guides are killed, and one manages to come back to the present with a live grenade that goes off, which destroys the launch and recovery area. There is a window of opportunity of 36 hours for the rescue, and the majority of the story covers this time. Can the professor be found, and can the recovery site be rebuilt in time.... Our heroes get caught up in the ongoing war between the English, and the French, along with tension between the nobility and the poor. Add to this the plague, secret passages and romance. The outcome is an exciting believable story. A page turner, with lots of twists, that make it a really good book. Perfect for curling up in front of the log fire with a glass of wine this holiday time. This was book 10 week 7 fiction 10 (audio book 3) non fiction 0
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Friends, so we start a new book list of 52 books, this is my fourth such list. I am currently re-reading some books that I have had on my bookshelves for a number of years. (Nothing like having a good sort out, you come across all sorts of things)
So this is my review of the book Airframe by Michael Crichton, which I re-read recently. Having originally read this over a decade ago, the big challenge was, could I remember the story line, and especially the key points of the plot. Though this book was written over fifteen years ago, it is still an exciting page turner, and shows the skill and quality of the writing. The story line is all about an incident that occurs when flying from Hong Kong to America. There are three fatalities and a large number of injuries, and the interior cabin is virtually destroyed. What had caused the incident, was it an issue with the plan, replaced parts, or even pilot error. The star of the book, Casey from QA, has to solve this before a sales deal collapses with China. Everything seems to work against this frantic investigation, board room infighting, union issues, TV media deadlines, and legal ambulance chasers, trying to sue. Added to this more and more work is given to her. On one hand to help her succeed on the other to try and ensure she fails, including mentoring an assistant, who seems to be up to no good. Added to this is the level of detail, that Michael gives making the story very real, and an enjoyable page turner. So this was book 1 week 1 – fiction 1, non fiction 0. This is my review of the book Micro posthumously published by Michael Crichton.
Sadly I would say that this is a book that should have been left unpublished. The idea was good, but I felt the execution was not up so some of Michael's other books. So what was the idea – A group of up and coming graduate students are offered, seemingly the job of a life time, by a company in Hawaii. The firm is doing cutting edge Microbiology. The brother of one of the group is a vice president of the company. He them mysteriously seemingly dies in a boat accident, and they start to investigate. Very soon they find out that there is an arch enemy around who uses the companies new technology to zap them with magnetic waves, which shrinks them to a micro size. They think they are safe in this Micro world, but they have forgotten about nature, inspects, birds etc. that all look on them as food. The story them becomes a chase across the micro world to see if they can get out alive. Running parallel to this is an investigation by the police into unsolved murders, and a secret government contract for killer robots. These micro-drones are programmed to attack and do this by getting inside the blood stream and chop the person up from the inside out. So potentially they could kill any leader on the earth. The text goes into great detail describing the insect world and how it attacks the heroes and kills them off one by one. I love the bit where one of them is eaten alive and then spat back out again still alive, but the trouble is I was not left with any regret when one of them died. The characters just lacked any real personality. If the same number of words had been used to describe the people as was used to describe the world they were inhabiting then it would probably have had a bit more depth to the story line. If this is your first Michael Crichton book, then do go on and look for others as he has written some very good thrillers with original plots. Sadly I did not think that this book was quite so good. This was book 51 week 33 fiction 47 (14 on audio) non fiction 4 |
Tim Fuller
Dyslexic doodles on photography, food (growing, cooking & of course eating), faith and other fascinating things. This is a personal blog expressing my views. Archives
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