Historical fiction book · Curated
Timeline
Michael Crichton · historical fiction
Yale historians reconstructing a fourteenth-century Dordogne fortress are sent by a quantum company into 1357 to rescue their professor—and land in the Hundred Years’ War among knights, a hidden crypt, and the siege of Castelgard and La Roque they had only studied in the dirt. Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel is medieval time-slip historical fiction of chivalry, quantum travel, and scholars who have to survive the past they came to map.
Why read it: A widely searched time-slip adventure—the Crichton title readers look up by name, and a Hundred Years’ War counterpart to Doomsday Book already on the shelf (not an Oxford Time Travel sequel).
About this historical novel
Timeline by Michael Crichton is historical fiction set around 1357 / 1999 in the Medieval period with key settings including Castelgard, La Roque, Dordogne, France. Yale historians reconstructing a fourteenth-century Dordogne fortress are sent by a quantum company into 1357 to rescue their professor—and land in the Hundred Years’ War among knights, a hidden crypt, and the siege of Castelgard and La Roque they had only studied in the dirt. Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel is medieval time-slip historical fiction of chivalry, quantum travel, and scholars who have to survive the past they came to map.
On HisFic we tag it under 8. Time-slip & dual timeline and 6. Adventure & epic so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include time travel, siege, chivalry, Hundred Years' War, and survival. A widely searched time-slip adventure—the Crichton title readers look up by name, and a Hundred Years’ War counterpart to Doomsday Book already on the shelf (not an Oxford Time Travel sequel).
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Plot summary
Yale historians reconstructing a fourteenth-century Dordogne fortress are sent by a quantum company into 1357 to rescue their professor—and land in the Hundred Years’ War among knights, a hidden crypt, and the siege of Castelgard and La Roque they had only studied in the dirt. Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel is medieval time-slip historical fiction of chivalry, quantum travel, and scholars who have to survive the past they came to map. A widely searched time-slip adventure—the Crichton title readers look up by name, and a Hundred Years’ War counterpart to Doomsday Book already on the shelf (not an Oxford Time Travel sequel).
Subgenres
Eras
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- The Physician · Noah Gordon
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- The Once and Future King · T. H. White
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- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame · Victor Hugo
In 1482 Paris, the cathedral of Notre-Dame watches over Quasimodo the bell-ringer, Esmeralda the street dancer, and Archdeacon Claude Frollo, whose desire pulls all three toward the towers, the Court of Miracles, and the gallows. Hugo’s novel is medieval historical adventure: a city, a cathedral, and a love story that made Notre-Dame itself a character.
- Doomsday Book · Connie Willis
Oxford historian Kivrin Engle is sent from 2054 to study 1320—and arrives instead in 1348, in a village where the Black Death is about to come down the road, while an influenza epidemic in future Oxford strands the team that might bring her home. Connie Willis’s Hugo- and Nebula-winning novel is medieval time-slip historical fiction of plague, faith, and a young woman nursing a parish through the end of the world.
- Ivanhoe · Walter Scott
In 1194, disinherited knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades to an England split among Saxons, Normans, and the absent King Richard, with Rebecca of York and Rowena caught in the same violent pageant. Scott’s romance of tournament, outlaw woods, and Templar menace is the template later historical novels still copy.
Regions & places
Europe
Castelgard · La Roque · Dordogne · France
Themes
- time travel
- siege
- chivalry
- Hundred Years' War
- survival
Tags
time-slip · adventure · bestseller