Timeline (Paperback, Reissue)

Through this exhilarating adventure story Crichton explores the advances and dimensions of quantum technology, a relatively unknown but emerging field which turns ordinary reality upside down.

A mysterious old man is found wandering in the Arizona desert, demented and talking in rhymes. In his pocket is a diagram that turns out to be the plan of a fourteenth century monastery in France. The monastery is being excavated by a team of medieval archaeologists from Yale and when the head of the archaeological team disappears, three graduate students in their twenties set out to find him.

Kate Erickson is a compact athlete with short blond hair and a passion for rock climbing and medieval architecture. She is attracted to heights and to risks. In contrast, Chris Hughes is slightly inept; a dreamy scholar still overcoming a family tragedy. Andre Marek, the third member of the team, is originally from Utrecht. An obsessive student of the medieval period he has learned the languages, skills and customs of the time, such as thatching a roof and fighting with broadswords. Together, the three possess considerable knowledge of the medieval world, but their adventure teaches them how little they really know.