The book starts out when a couple finds a crazy old man in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. The climax of the novel is in 14th century France. How? you wonder. So did I. The first 1/3 of the book keeps you turning the page in curiousity, the middle 1/3 keeps you turning the page out of "I want to see what happens, but there's some slack and boringness in the plot". The last 1/3 however, which begins in the action scene in the mill, keeps you turning the page due to fast paced adventure, and the book even has a twist in the end. All in all it's a worthy read for any Crichton reader, and it sure beats Lost World and Terminal Man in my opinion.