Operation Thunder Child is a book by British civil servant Nick Pope. It is the prequel to his novel Operation Lightning Strike. He is most notably known for working in for the British Ministry of Defence on the subject of unidentified flying objects. Operation Thunder Child was first published in 1999. The book had to be cleared by the Ministry of Defence prior to publication.
A sequel, Operation Lightning Strike was published in 2000.
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It is a science fiction novel about UFOs and alien abductions, which shows 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. So far as Nick Pope is aware, this is unique in the history of science fiction.[3][4]