Operation Thunder Child is a 1999 novel by British civil servant Nick Pope. Since Pope had worked for the British Ministry of Defence on the subject of unidentified flying objects, the book had to be cleared by the Ministry prior to publication.
A sequel, Operation Lightning Strike , was published in 2000.
The novel deals with UFOs and alien abductions, illustrating how the government and military cope with an increasingly intrusive and hostile alien presence. It draws on government work on UFOs and is a "what if" novel that reflects some of the author's concerns about the defence and national security issues raised by the UFO phenomenon. The book is a techno-thriller that draws on real crisis-management procedures.
The book received mixed reviews, with reviewers both describing it as an "excellent read" [1] and describing the political content of the books as confusing and close to ranting, [1] while other reviewers question the scientific plausibility of aspects of the novel. [2]
In Operation Lightning Strike, the limited battles in the previous book give way to all-out war, with the fate of Earth hanging in the balance. As with Operation Thunder Child, the book needed official clearance. This is unusual in fiction. [3] [4]
An unidentified flying object (UFO), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.
UFO conspiracy theories are a subset of conspiracy theories which argue that various governments and politicians globally, in particular the United States government, are suppressing evidence that unidentified flying objects are controlled by a non-human intelligence or built using alien technology. Such conspiracy theories usually argue that Earth governments are in communication or cooperation with extraterrestrial visitors despite public disclaimers, and further that some of these theories claim that the governments are explicitly allowing alien abduction.
George Adamski was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were of alien spacecraft, claimed to have met with friendly Nordic alien Space Brothers, and claimed to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.
Louis Whitley Strieber is an American writer best known for his horror novels The Wolfen and The Hunger and for Communion, a non-fiction account of his alleged experiences with non-human entities. He has maintained a dual career of author of fiction and advocate of paranormal concepts through his best-selling non-fiction books, his Unknown Country web site, and his podcast, Dreamland.
Ancient astronauts refer to a pseudoscientific set of beliefs which holds that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. Proponents suggest that this contact influenced the development of modern cultures, technologies, religions, and human biology. A common position is that deities from most, if not all, religions are extraterrestrial in origin, and that advanced technologies brought to Earth by ancient astronauts were interpreted as evidence of divine status by early humans.
Grey aliens, also referred to as Zeta Reticulans, Roswell Greys or Grays, are purported extraterrestrial beings. They are frequent subjects of close encounters and alien abduction claims. The details of such claims vary widely, however Greys are typically described as being human-like with small bodies, smooth, grey-colored skin; enlarged, hairless heads; and large, black eyes. The Barney and Betty Hill abduction claim, which purportedly took place in New Hampshire in 1961, popularized Grey aliens. Precursor figures have been described in science fiction and similar descriptions appeared in early accounts of the 1948 Aztec UFO hoax and later accounts of the 1947 Roswell UFO incident.
The Roswell incident is a collection of events and myths surrounding the 1947 crash of a United States Army Air Forces balloon, near Roswell, New Mexico. Operated from the nearby Alamogordo Army Air Field and part of the top secret Project Mogul, the balloon's purpose was remote detection of Soviet nuclear tests. After metallic and rubber debris was recovered by Roswell Army Air Field personnel, the United States Army announced their possession of a "flying disc". This announcement made international headlines but was retracted within a day. Obscuring the true purpose and source of the crashed balloon, the Army subsequently stated that it was a conventional weather balloon.
Nicholas Julian Cook was CEO of defence industry consultant firm Dynamixx. He is a British former aviation journalist as well as the author of fiction and non-fiction works.
Nick Pope is a media commentator and former civil servant. Whilst an employee at the British Government's Ministry of Defence (MoD), Pope was responsible, among other duties, for investigating UFO phenomena to determine if they had any defence significance.
Nicholas Redfern is a British best-selling author, journalist, cryptozoologist and ufologist.
Georgina Bruni was a British businesswoman and a UFO researcher best known for her book on the Rendlesham Forest incident, You Can't Tell the People. She worked as a celebrity events organizer and as the founder and editor in chief of the online magazine Hot Gossip.
Operation Lightning Strike can refer to:
Open Skies, Closed Minds, a book on ufology, expresses the views of Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator with the British Ministry of Defence (MOD).
Flying Saucer Working Party was the name of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) first "official study into UFOs", which has its roots in a study commissioned in 1950 by the MOD’s then Chief Scientific Adviser, the eminent radar scientist Sir Henry Tizard. As a result of his insistence that UFO sightings should not be dismissed without some form of proper scientific study, the Department set up what writer Nick Pope has described as "arguably the most marvellously-named committee in the history of the civil service".
In ufology, conspiracy theory, science fiction, and comic book stories, claims or stories have circulated linking UFOs to Nazi Germany. The German UFO theories describe supposedly successful attempts to develop advanced aircraft or spacecraft prior to and during World War II, further asserting the post-war survival of these craft in secret underground bases in Antarctica, South America, or the United States, along with their creators.
Project Condign was a secret unidentified flying object (UFO) study undertaken by the British Government's Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) between 1997 and 2000.
The Indestructible Man is a BBC Books original novel written by Simon Messingham and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The novel features the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe.
Die Glocke was a purported top-secret scientific technological device, wonder weapon, or Wunderwaffe developed in the 1940s in Nazi Germany. First described by Polish journalist and author Igor Witkowski in Prawda o Wunderwaffe (2000), it was later popularized by military journalist and author Nick Cook, who associated it with Nazi occultism, antigravity, and free energy suppression research. Mainstream reviewers have criticized claims about Die Glocke as being pseudoscientific, recycled rumors, and a hoax. Die Glocke and other alleged Nazi "miracle weapons" have been dramatized in video games, television shows, and novels.
There was an alleged UFO incident on Ilkley Moor on 1 December 1987. A retired police officer claimed that he was abducted by aliens while on a morning walk and briefly held on their craft before being returned to the moor. The man took a photograph of the moor which he said shows one of the aliens that abducted him.