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In an Arizona desert, a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to... read more

Summary edit see section history

The novel begins with a couple driving along a road in Arizona towards a near town when they are startled to see a man wandering in the middle of the road speaking deliriously and in need of medical attention. He is soon rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors notice veins, arteries and even... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The novel begins with a couple driving along a road in Arizona towards a near town when they are startled to see a man wandering in the middle of the road speaking deliriously and in need of medical attention. He is soon rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors notice veins, arteries and even bone joints misaligned in the man's body.

During this same time in a region in France, Professor Edward Johnston heads a team of historians and archaeologists studying a site in the Dordogne region of France where the medieval towns of Castelgard and La Roque stood. Suspicious of the detailed knowledge of the site shown by ITC (their funder), Johnston flies to ITC's headquarters in New Mexico to investigate. Soon the archaeologists begin to uncover modern objects in the ruins, recognizing among them the lens of Johnston's eyeglasses.

Researchers Chris Hughes, Kate Erickson, André Marek (a medieval enthusiast), and David Stern fly to ITC. Here they meet Robert Doniger, the founder of ITC. They learn that Johnston traveled back in time to the year 1357, to visit the site they were excavating, but has not returned as expected. Doniger insists that they travel back in order to retrieve Johnston. They are persuaded to do so and undergo the process of transferring their physical selves back to 1357. Accompanying them is a hardened marine and an experienced individual who works with ITC.

When they arrive in the past, the team is plagued by misfortune. They are attacked by a team of horsemen in pursuit of a boy suspected of being a thief, ultimately killing the ITC member and the marine. A grenade smuggled to the past by the marine is activated and sent to the present, destroying the transit pad and complicating the team's return. Kate and André see Johnston being taken away by the men of Lord Oliver of Castelgard.

Separated from the others, Chris follows the boy and accidentally declares himself as a noble. The boy leads Chris to Castelgard and is revealed to be Lady Claire in disguise, trying to escape from Sir Guy's clutches.

In the castle, Chris and André find themselves challenged to a joust by Sir Guy and his second (Sir Charles de Gaune). Chris, thanks to André's instruction, survives the joust and André defeats both Sir Guy and his second. Sir Oliver orders the death of André and Chris for dishonouring Sir Guy. Kate helps them escape, but from then on they are pursued by the forces of Oliver, most notably Sir Guy and Sir Robert de Kere.

Lord Oliver believes that Johnston knows a secret passageway into the otherwise impenetrable castle of La Roque. Arnaut de Cervole is approaching Castelgard to lay siege and Oliver must know this secret to successfully defend the castle. Johnston helps Oliver, despite knowing that, historically, he loses the siege, but he never gains Oliver's trust. Chris, André, and Kate use Johnston's clues (which they had uncovered in 1999) to find the secret passageway themselves in order to save Johnston.

Chris and company learn that someone else from 1999 is also in the past with them and has been spying on their transmissions, always staying one step ahead in their pursuit of Lord Oliver. It is revealed that Rob Deckard, an ITC employee and former marine, who went insane from an accumulation of "transcription errors" (slight errors that occur during the process of traveling that, over time, can physically and mentally alter the traveler), went back to 1357 more than a year ago and never returned. Eventually Robert de Kere reveals his true identity as Deckard to the researchers and tells them that he has no intention of permitting their return to 1999.

Kate, Chris, and André are captured by Arnaut's men but are saved by Lady Claire and later escape. André enters La Roque as Johnston's assistant. As Arnaut prepares his siege, Oliver decides that Johnston is hiding information and takes him to a torture device to drown him. Meanwhile Chris and Kate find the secret passageway and enter La Roque. Kate kills Sir Guy and Arnaut's men begin to enter La Roque. Arnaut and André find Oliver about to drown Johnston, but save Johnston and leave Oliver to drown instead. De Kere goes after Chris to get the marker beacon that will allow the travelers to go home, but Chris manages to kill him.

ITC and Stern finally repair the landing area just in time for the travelers to return. André—who had longed for the Middle Ages long before he knew that time travel was possible—decides to remain in the past with Lady Claire.

The group, including Kramer and Gordon, decide to send Doniger back into the past and leave him to die, as he was responsible for the mess. He presumably catches the Black Death.

Back in the present, Chris and Kate are together and expecting a child. The researchers find André and Lady Claire's graves, and discover that André lived a good life as a Medieval knight after they left him behind.

Characters/People edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Should have killed it," Marek whispered. "I'm hungry.”
    André Marek
  • “Risk everything, or gain nothing”
  • “Nothing in the world is as certain as death”
  • “A nut by any other name would smell like feet.”
    Crazy man from begining
  • “I pray God look with favor upon your journey and deliver you safe back.”
    André Marek
  • “I'm not leaving," Marek said. "I'm staying here.”
    André Marek
  • “El tiempo no pasa, pasamos nosotros”
    John Gordon
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • “In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.
    Highlighted by 51 Kindle customers
  • 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.
    Highlighted by 41 Kindle customers
  • “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.
    Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers
  • “The very concept of time travel makes no sense, since time doesn’t flow. The fact that we think time passes is just an accident of our nervous systems—of the way things look to us. In reality, time doesn’t pass; we pass. Time itself is invariant. It just is. Therefore, past and future aren’t separate locations, the way New York and Paris are separate locations. And since the past isn’t a location, you can’t travel to it.”
    Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers
  • Yet the truth was that the modern world was invented in the Middle Ages. Everything from the legal system, to nationstates, to reliance on technology, to the concept of romantic love had first been established in medieval times.
    Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers
  • “The glory of the past is an illusion. So is the glory of the present.”
    Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers
  • Then in 1957, a physicist named Hugh Everett proposed a daring new explanation. Everett claimed that our universe—the universe we see, the universe of rocks and trees and people and galaxies out in space—was just one of an infinite number of universes, existing side by side.
    Highlighted by 21 Kindle customers
  • “I pray God look with favor upon your journey and deliver you safe back.”
    Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers
  • “Risk everything, or gain nothing.” GEOFFREY DE CHARNY, 1358
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
  • Baker, a forty-year-old building contractor in Phoenix, was beginning to feel uneasy. Especially since his wife, an architect, was one of those artistic people who wasn’t practical about things like gas and water.
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
Show all 17 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Organizations edit see section history

  • ITC: The organization behind the dig site, as well as behind the time travel technology.

First Sentence edit see section history

He should never have taken that shortcut.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Time-Travel: What happens to people who travel in time. Can they impact the timeline?

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 68 of 100 in NPR's Top 100 Killer Thriller. (community list)
This is book 5 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels in 1999. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Michael Crichton (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Stephen Lang (Reader)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1999
ISBN: 0679444815
Page Count: 449

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3553.R48 T56 1999
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

This book may be advanced for young readers.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • Wikipedia: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Movie Connections edit see section history

  • Timeline (IMDb): 2003, directed by Richard Donner, starring Paul Walker, Frances O'Conner, and Gerard Butler.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Time Machine

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Echo McCool, Outlaw Through Time

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