Operation Roswell: The Novel [Hardcover]

Kevin D. Randle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2002

From the bestselling author of UFO: Crash at Roswell

Roswell, New Mexico-1947

It is the troubled period just after World War II, and America has asserted its power across the globe, but problems still remain. With the ever-present threat of atomic weapons in enemy hands, the country has begun a race for military supremacy. Every inch of sky is monitored by radar, and every eye is open.

The face of America's enemy seemed very clear, until reports of an unidentified aircraft flying over the New Mexico desert arrived in Washington. The reports state that the ship is impossibly light, with the ability to hover in place, then speed away at more than one thousand miles an hour-and it looks like no other aircraft the country has ever seen.

While President Truman does his best to maintain plausible denials, the situation is placed in the hands of Major General Curtis LeMay, a military zealot whose only concern is securing America's dominance in the arms race. When his men shoot the craft down, it becomes obvious that this was no Russian vessel-and that it may not be from this planet at all. An examination of the crew proves this to be all too true . . . and one of them has survived.

As the army rushes to defend the country, as the government attempts to erase an event from public view, humanity prepares to witness an event so powerful that it could mean a change in life as we know it.

Nothing you believe will ever be the same . . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its by-the-numbers plot and stock characters, ufologist Randle's first novel is strictly for readers who can't get enough of the many permutations of the Roswell legend. On June 30, 1947, scientists meet at the Pentagon with Major General Curtis LeMay of Army Air Force Research and Development to view top secret photos of a strange "flying disk" taken by a pilot on a training flight over Arizona. Faced with the possibility of arousing aliens with superior technology, President Truman warns LeMay to leave the UFOs alone, but LeMay is more concerned with gaining that technology to use against the Russians in the escalating Cold War. On July 4, one of LeMay's pilots manages to shoot down a UFO outside the small town of Roswell, N.Mex., and the race is on to learn as much as possible about the craft and its crew before the news leaks to the rest of the world. The sole survivor of the crash is taken to "Over the Rainbow," a secret Army laboratory in the Nevada desert, to be studied by scientists. Little do they know that LeMay has authorized the use of an atomic bomb to destroy the facility and everyone inside it if anything goes wrong. Of course, things do go wrong, allowing Randle to push this thin-but-brisk suspense story into overdrive for an explosive climax. SF readers are unlikely to be impressed by this Roswell rehash, but fans of fast-paced thrillers should enjoy the ride.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In 1947, a mysterious aircraft crash-landed near Roswell, NM. When investigators at the scene discovered evidence that suggested an extraterrestrial origin of the vessel, the military and the government launch a massive security effort to determine the implications of the alien ship and its crew-and to prevent the rest of the country from panicking at the thought of an alien invasion. Drawing his information from personal research and other evidence, the author of The Abduction Enigma and UFO Crash at Roswell presents a fictionalized account of one of the 20th century's most controversial topics. UFO fans as well as historical fiction buffs and the open-minded should enjoy this novelization. For most sf collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312867107
• ISBN-13: 978-0312867102
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,658,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kevin D. Randle is a retired lieutenant colonel who served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot and in Iraq as a battalion intelligence officer. He began writing for UFO magazines and eventually moved onto books. A goal had been to publish science fiction and to join the Science Fiction Writers of America. He has appeared on countless radio and television programs in the mid-1990s hosted his own show on KTSM Radio in El Paso, Texas. To prove that he hasn't been stuck in a rut, he has written books about UFOs, science fiction, action adventure and even a vampire novel called, cleverly, VAMPYR. Someday he hopes to be on The Amazing Race. His blog can be found at www.KevinRandle.blogspot.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and games in 1947, October 3, 2004

By 

Dennis E. Smirl (Topeka, KS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Operation Roswell: The Novel (Tor Science Fiction) (Mass Market Paperback)

Kevin Randle's take on the Roswell Incident lends itself well to a sprawling potboiler of a novel. If you read it without an agenda, it is simply fun! If, on the other hand, you try to accept it as a fictionalization of actual events, then you will probably get embroiled in details and miss out on the enjoyment. Personally, I don't know if the Roswell Incident occurred, nor do I care. I have read enough about it and seen enough on TV to have a passing familiarity, so I never got lost in the novel. What I did enjoy was Randle's characterizations of Harry S. Truman and Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay. Putting two such powerful personalities in a closed room and letting the sparks fly was enough of a hoot to carry the rest of the book--even when I wasn't all that thrilled with the details.
For the record, there are two things that bothered me about Randle's research. First, was having a jet fighter in 1947 equipped with air-to-air missiles. Uh-uh. Our only jet fighter in 1947 was the Lockheed F-80 and it was equipped with six .50 caliber machine guns, and a very primitive radar ranging device for the gunsight. At that time, there were rockets that could be slung under a fighter's wings, but they were for air-to-ground use, and didn't enjoy anything near pin-point accuracy. Second, Randle does a fairly good job with a shoot-em-up near the end of the book, but spoils the scene by having the 'reek of cordite' hanging around after the shooting. Uh-uh. Cordite was used for only a very short time, well before 1947. At the time of the novel, the smokeless propellants were light-years ahead of cordite and had a very different aroma.
Those nits aside, I liked the book and plan to advise several of my friends to buy their own copy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Believer or Non-Believer, You Should Enjoy This, August 16, 2006

By 

Terry Sunday (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Operation Roswell: The Novel (Hardcover)

First off, I am not a believer in the Roswell "crashed UFO" story. There is no doubt in my mind that a rancher recovered some unusual debris from an aerial object in the New Mexico desert near Roswell in 1947. Similarly, there is no doubt in my mind that the source of the debris was a top-secret "balloon train" flight of Project Mogul, which was designed to investigate acoustical techniques of detecting Soviet nuclear explosions (remember, the Soviets had not yet tested an atomic bomb at the time). All of the recent hype about a crashed saucer and small extraterrestrial bodies found in the wreckage and alien autopsies and mysteriously silenced witnesses is, in my opinion, just that--hype.

With that said, I still found "Operation Roswell," taken simply as a science fiction tale, to be a good read. I had no trouble "suspending my disbelief" for the sake of the story. Author Randle does a good job of weaving together factual and fictional plot elements into--mostly--a rousing good yarn. His inclusion of real historical figures, such as General Curtiss E. LeMay and President Harry S Truman, adds verisimilitude, and the other characters are well-drawn, individualistic and interesting. I very much enjoyed about three-fourths of the book. However, I was disappointed with the "shoot-`em-up" ending. I agree with another reviewer who observed that Randle apparently had a hard time figuring out how to bring his story to a close, so he threw in an alien attack and some gratuitous gunplay that were in no way foreshadowed. Yes, the ending was a surprise, but not in a good way.

Still, on balance, "Operation Roswell" was a pleasant diversion. You don't have to be a believer to enjoy it. I recommend it if you're looking for an interesting "niche" science fiction story that nicely integrates elements of the real and the unreal in a reasonably exciting way.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A-Bomb of a story, August 31, 2004

By 

Rafael A. Ruiz Jr. (Queens, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Operation Roswell: The Novel (Tor Science Fiction) (Mass Market Paperback)

Warning---Spoilers below!

I'm a huge fan of the UFO/Alien novels that have been coming out lately. Read the entire Area 51 series and loved every single book. Operation Roswell had all the key elements in becoming a great book until, I read the last couple of chapters. Disappointing is the least I can say about this story's ending. It was like he had no idea how to complete the book and decided "What the hell...I'll make them into blood thirsty Aliens. That would make a great ending and it catch the reader off guard!" No cigar, man. I had started to connect with the living Alien and the author was great in expressing how the Alien was feeling while being held captive. I really wish he had made it that they somehow communicated with it before he/she/it passed along. The author never quite explained where the blood thirsty aliens came from. Only the protaganist's speculation was explained. Nothing outstanding came out of the autopsies and I was really hoping for something groundbreaking to them. All in all, borrow this book from the library like I did. You'll be sorry if you bought it.