Timeline, by Michael Crichton

Well, I read another book, yes sir bob, and this time it was Timeline.
I suppose it's far overdue, since it's not only a Crichton story, but
there's already a movie out. I know, I feel shamed. I should have read
it before any dust accumulated. This is from the guy that wrote
Jurassic Park, one of my all-time favorite worn out paperbacks.

I was told that the end to Timeline was lame, and this stopped me from
reading it for years. However, I took the plunge yesterday afternoon,
and just got finished. Well, it wasn't that long of a book. It could
have been at least half again as long as it was, and I would have been
thrilled.

(spoilers ahead) Timeline is about a crew of historians that get
blasted back to medieval France through a time machine in New Mexico.
They're on a rescue mission because a professor got lost in time. Back
then, France was not a nice place. People get smacked around and get
hurt. Some of the crew last an entire ten minutes before getting
killed. Some of the action scenes are just pure blurs of literary
goodness.

And it's true, the end was kind of lame. It's like Crichton just woke
up one morning and said, "Aw, let's get this book over with so I can
go do my next project."

(major spoiler) At the very end, the bad guy gets sent back to a nasty
time period. He doesn't know when or where he is, although he's in
some sort of forest. At this point, I just wanted a T-Rex to bite him,
or a gang of velocirapters to run out and get him. C'mon,
velociraptors! Just one raptor! PLEEEEASE! That would have been
freakin' awesome! But, no, it was not that far back in time, just the
time of the Black Death. Oh. Well, that is kinda lame.