Time-travel- to- medieval- Britain novels?

[shimmergal]

I'm looking for suggestions of books with this premise.

I _have_ already read Willis's DOOMSDAY BOOK which I really liked. Also probably some others, but can't remember titles right now.

Thanks!

[Sadie4629]

1. Have you read

"Timeline" by Michael Crichton?

[Hieronymus]

2. Gave up on Crichton .. too much of a wingnut.

[pitohui]

3. "timeline" is horribly written, you haven't missed a thing

expecting someone to go from willis to chricton is like expecting someone to go from dom perignon to boone's farm!

[shimmergal]

4. Haven't read Timeline;

two-out-of-three pans doesn't sound too promising. Hopefully there are some others! Thanks to everyone for commenting.

[Orrex]

6. Allow me to pile on...

:rant:

Timeline is so bad that, if a friend recommends it to you, cut off all contact with that person immediately, destroy any record of having known the person, and change your residence, phone number, and email address so that the person can't find you again.

You'll thank me, I promise.

It's not even that Crichton clearly wrote Timeline secure in the knowledge that he'd get a shitload of money for the option (everything by Crichton is written that way); the problem is that the entire novel, from concept to character to execution, is utter crap and is therefore insulting to anyone who might otherwise have been interested time-travel, a medieval setting, or quantum tunnelling.

In terms of the quality of his writing, I couldn't care less about Crichton's politics. But his writing is consistently so awful that I will laugh openly at anyone I see reading one of his hack novels.

Though I don't advocate the burning of books--even such dubious "books" as Crichton's--I might support a campaign to have his entire body of work buried in a manure heap for a few summers.

[pitohui]

7. the manure heap proposal

i have often wondered if chricton has different ghost writers for different books, he has this crap that is completely horrible and without any sign of skill or merit, that a 12 year old could have written (and probably better) -- such works as "timeline" and "prey" and "lost world"

yet there are books that actually have some evocative images, such as "jurassic park"

[Orrex]

8. Grudgingly...

I have to admit that Jurassic Park was a reasonably fun romp of a novel, though it kind of deteriorated to a standard "run from the monster" story after the first few chapters. Still, everyone loves dinosaurs...

The Andromeda Strain also isn't too bad, but it was so long ago that it seems almost wrong to give the current hack any credit for it. You may be onto something with your ghost-writers theory... Perhaps he comes up with plots and basic characters, and then he puts it into the hands of Michael Crichton Incorporated.

[pitohui]

9. you know it's a funny thing

i was going to mention "andromeda strain" was his other novel that i liked but then i didn't

i really do see huge differences in quality between those two and the rest of the drek...it just makes you wonder

[Orrex]

10. Heh

Crichton's literary ability is the proverbial "stopped watch" that has been right just twice, and those two books are the evidence.

[Tesha]

12. Make it n-1 out of n pans...

Timeline, the novel, is entertaining so long
as you ignore certain blatanly-gaping holes in Crichton's
basic premise of whot-the-Hell-is-going-on. But it's
no barn-burner of a book and the gaping holes just keep
glaring at you through the whole novel.

Timeline, the movie, takes this hash of a novel
and turns it into an even-worse movie.

Tesha

[raccoon]

5. "The House on the Strand" by Daphne du Maurier

http://www.amazon.com/House-Strand-Virago-Modern-Classics/dp/1844080420/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197301889&sr=1-8

[shimmergal]

11. Thanks for the suggestion, raccoon.

I'll check it out.

[flamingyouth]

13. I just picked up "The Doomsday Book" today.

Looks like a good read.

[pitohui]

14. it is and i envy you discovering this for the first time

a great read by the fire on a gloomy winter's day, for sure! and well written too

[Ezlivin]

15. Another vote for Connie Willis

"Doomsday Book" was my first taste of Ms. Willis' work. It really is an outstanding read. You may also enjoy "Lincoln's Dreams."

[flamingyouth]

16. Thanks, both of you.

I have a few "quiet days" coming up here and I plan on taking full advantage of them, starting with this book. :D

[Orsino]

18. And its sequel...

...To Say Nothing of the Dog, while having nothing much to do with medieval times, is a neat take--dryly humorous, not at all like the dreary (but great) Doomsday Book.

[flamingyouth]

19. Ah thanks - something for my wish list.

:hi:

[Tesha]

17. If you can pass on Time Travel, the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael make a wonderful read.

If you can pass on the time travel aspect, you may find
that the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael make for a
wonderful read.

Edith Pargetter, writing as Ellis Peters, wrote twenty
murder mystery novels and three short stories about
Brother Cadfael, a monk at Shrewsbury Abbey who employs
a rather-modern almost-scientific approach to solving
the various murders, a sort of CSI:Shrewsbury if you will.
You can get a flavor of these stories from the TV series
of the same name, but as you might expect, the books are
far better.

If you decide to indulge, these read far better when read
in order. The first is entitled A Morbid Taste for
Bones.

Tesha

[flamingyouth]

20. Those are great!

Unfortunately, a few of them are out of print but you can find them pretty easily on abebooks.com and places like that. Excellent recommendation. :thumbsup:

[Uncle Roy]

21. Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (nfm)

[yellowdogintexas]

22. The Lute and the Glove, is a neat little Gothic novel which time travelled to

Tudor England