Could it have been that Michael Crichton chose Black Rock, New Mexico for his novel Timeline as an homage to the 1955 John Sturges film? In Bad Day at Black Rock, Spencer Tracy arrives to much hostility in a deteriorating desert town in search of a man who has, by all accounts, vanished into thin air. A similar search ensues in Crichton’s novel, but this time it is a team of archaeologists and historians traveling through the multiverse (a term that was actually coined in the late 19th century by philosopher William James!).
Published in 1999, the novel begins by acknowledging the fin de siècle. To make sense of our place in time, Crichton gives us a brief lesson in science and technology at end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. And now here we are, on the eve of the 21st century, on the verge of a new century. What has really changed in terms of thought and advancement? The brain begins to hurt as it considers the immensity of possibility. We have to accept that no matter how forward thinking we are, there are simply things that have yet to be discovered and invented that we cannot even begin to dream of, much less comprehend. As such, are we so different from our forefathers, those late 19th century scientists? Not according to Crichton. They never would have been able to conceive of our current technology and would have laughed such ideas off as fiction.
But fiction is precisely where these things can happen. If we’re at the point in technology where we can dream and conceive of such happenings but haven’t the technical know-how to create them, where else can we see these ideas in action but in fiction?
And what exhilarating fiction it is! Much like Jurassic Park - except with quantum theory and the Hundred Years War, rather than dinosaurs - Timeline offers us an ensemble cast of intelligent characters of assorted backgrounds, interests, cunning and talents thrown into a strange, new world. For the most part, characters are able to work together seamlessly as they make their way through obstacles, but then there are the occasional plot-advancing moments in which a character wanders off and gets lost/doesn’t follow directions/wastes time by asking stupid question/lets his ego take over reason. You’d think that by this point, on the eve of the 21st century, people would know better than to stray from the group or act like petulant jerks when their lives are on the line, but maybe some things really don’t change.
In this way, we see how Crichton is more invested in developing the medieval world the characters enter and the scientific process by which they enter it rather than the characters themselves. I know very little about 14th century France and I know a little bit about physics, but after Timeline, I could tell you more about quantum foam, time, particles, battlements, jousting and leather tanning than I could the characters I’ve just spent a day and a half with. But that’s okay, great even - this novel isn’t really about characters learning life lessons or growing as people. Who cares about that. It’s a rescue mission in a totally insane situation and that requires straight action. That’s what we get at every turn of the page.
If Crichton wraps up the novel too neatly, it is because he wants to give us readers what we want. The last Crichton novel I read was Jurassic Park, in 1993 when I was 9 years old and I finished it in one day. It was positively satisfying. The same goes for Timeline. I mean, it’s Michael Crichton. It’s summer. It’s a blockbuster. I read it the way I would have eaten a rocket popsicle on a hot summer’s day: as quickly as possible before it disappears.
Formula: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton + A Night in Terror Tower by RL Stine + Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy + Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene + Castle by David Macaulay
