Timeline

　　【紐約時報】：『就像一場驚心動魄、令人震撼的精采表演，教人不得不屏息，隨著書中人物穿梭在現代與過去之間！』

　　【洛杉磯時報】：『從各個角度來看，這部作品無疑是麥可．克萊頓最具雄心之作！他不僅呈現出量子學高科技時代最活躍的一面，更將讀者推回數百年前歐洲的混亂場面。』

　　【費城詢問報】：『麥可．克萊頓最棒的一本小說！教你欲罷不能，跟著故事情節一路起伏擺盪。』

　　一群研究生在古蹟中發現一張求救紙條，紙張和墨水經分析研判是十四世紀的產品，而不可思議的是字跡竟然完全符合他們指導教授的筆跡！正在一片混亂時，讓教授『回到過去』的ITC公司承認：教授回到了考古小組探勘的卡斯托加城，而且，他被困在十四世紀了！

　　於是迷戀騎士精神、精通中古語言的馬雷克，擅長重建古建築的攀岩高手凱特和中古科學工藝專家克里士不得不也坐上時空傳送機去救教授。這是一項高度危險的超時空任務，因為他們不能攜帶任何現代武器，偏偏目的地卻是六百年前歐洲最混亂的戰爭時代！更具威脅的是，他們只有37個小時！超過時限，唯一僅有的傳送機的電力會耗盡，而他們將永遠擱淺在另一個世界……

　　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 the headquarters of a secretive multinational corporation that has developed an astounding technology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study the past but to enter it. And with history opened to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival--six hundred years ago. . . .

作者簡介

　　Michael Crichton, who died in Los Angeles on November 4, 2008, was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. His most recent novel, Next, about genetics and law, was published in December 2006.

　　Crichton graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, researching public policy with Jacob Bronowski. He taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University and writing at MIT. Crichton’s 2004 bestseller, State of Fear, acknowledged the world was growing warmer, but challenged extreme anthropogenic warming scenarios. He predicted future warming at 0.8 degrees C. (His conclusions have been widely misstated.)

　　Crichton’s interest in computer modeling went back forty years. His multiple-discriminant analysis of Egyptian crania, carried out on an IBM 7090 computer at Harvard, was published in the Papers of the Peabody Museum in 1966. His technical publications included a study of host factors in pituitary chromophobe adenoma, in Metabolism, and an essay on medical obfuscation in the New England Journal of Medicine.

　　Crichton’s first bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published while he was still a medical student. He later worked full time on film and writing. One of the most popular writers in the world, his books have been translated into thirty-six languages, and thirteen have been made into films.

　　He had a lifelong interest in computers. His feature film Westworld was the first to employ computer-generated special effects back in 1973. Crichton’s pioneering use of computer programs for film production earned him a Technical Achievement Academy Award in 1995.

　　Crichton won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award for ER. In 2002, a newly discovered ankylosaur was named for him: Crichtonsaurus bohlini. He had a daughter, Taylor, and lived in Los Angeles. Crichton remarried in 2005.