Timeline (novel)
Timeline is the title of a science fiction - novel by Michael Crichton from the year 1999 . It is a mixture of science fiction and historically guaranteed representation of the warlike and lively origins of modernity in the late Middle Ages . A group of young historians hurries to the Middle Ages after their professor, who was away in time.
The scientific background of this work is a multiverse theory , which assumes that there is a separate universe for all possible times and circumstances .
The German translation by Klaus Berr was published in 2000 under the title Timeline. A journey into the middle of time in the Blessing-Verlag, Munich.
action
A group of archaeologists led by Professor EA Johnston is excavating the medieval fortress of La Roque in France. One day his colleagues Kate Erickson and André Marek found an old parchment with a handwritten message from the professor in a newly discovered vault that had been buried up until then. Johnston, who recently left hastily on a business trip and has not been available since then, asks for help. As the laboratory examination shows, the note actually dates from the 14th century.
It turns out that the company ITC, which sponsors the work, is conducting experiments in the field of time travel . The professor had traveled to 1357 and was lost there. To rescue Johnston from his emergency, a group of employees - Marek, Erickson, and technology historian Chris Hughes - also travel back in time with two ITC employees.
Immediately after their arrival in 1357, the group gets into a skirmish with murderous warriors, in which not only are the ITC employees killed and the students separated, but the time machine is also destroyed, making it impossible to return at first.
The remaining group is led by André, an experimental historian whose skills in sword fighting prove to be essential for survival. Your task now is to find the professor and to survive in the hostile environment until ITC manages to repair the time machine. During the following hours the historians experience a tournament - Chris is even forced to take part in it - they gain an insight into life in a monastery, in a castle and in the city. In doing so, they find some of the hypotheses they made during the archaeological investigations to be confirmed, others prove to be erroneous.
A particularly big problem is that the area is fought over during the scientists' stay. The lord of the castle, Lord Oliver, is preparing to defend himself against the approaching, so-called archpriest , who wants to conquer the castle, which is considered impregnable. The Lord's entourage is also a former ITC employee who had stayed in the past a long time ago. He had suffered physical and psychological damage through numerous time journeys and had become pathologically aggressive. Of course, he immediately sees through the time travelers' disguise, while it takes them a long time to recognize him as one of their own contemporaries. Only at the last second does André ensure the return of the others. He himself stays behind with a young noblewoman with whom he has fallen in love. In the present, his colleagues are later digging up traces of his fulfilled continued existence in the Middle Ages.
technology
The technology in Timeline does not follow a single theory. When explaining the time machine z. B. explains quantum effects , but not how they enable a journey through time. The quantum computer described in the book is still a long way off.
Movie
In 2003 a film adaptation was made under the direction of Richard Donner , in which Paul Walker , Frances O'Connor , Gerard Butler and Billy Connolly could be seen. However, the film differs from the original in essential points.
Pc game
The novel spawned computer game maker Timeline Computer Entertainment, who developed the PC game Timeline , which was published by Eidos Interactive in 2000 .