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Operation: Montauk
Montauk is a time-traveling science fiction novel patterned after the pulp-adventure stories of the 1920s and 1930s. Lost in time after a failed attempt to kill Hitler before his rise to power, World War II soldier Cpl. Jack Mallory finds himself stranded, his whole team killed, nearly 100 Million years off course. Together with a group of other wayward time travelers, Mallory has to fight to survive in a hostile environment swarming with dinosaurs. Desperate to find a way home, the community of lost travelers searches for any solution that might send them all home and unlock the secret that shipwrecked them on the shores of time...But the jungle holds a secret from Mallory's future-past... ...and it's out to kill them all!Written by the author for his son, it's the perfect book for any sci-fi fan to enjoy on their own or with the entire family. Praise for "I think the most refreshing thing about this book though is that it tells a great story with interesting characters without the need for twenty seven encyclopedic volumes of epic insanity. I could hardly put my copy down, and if it had been longer I would have probably lost my job." - Glenn Buettner, Troll in the Corner"...I could not put this book down, only my need to sleep and work prevented me from finishing this in one sitting...So to sum up, is this book a must-read? Yes. Emphatically so.Why? Aside from it being a well written, interesting, fun book that will take you on a crazy roller coaster of a ride? Okay. Four Time travel, dinosaurs, Nazis. 'Nuff said." --Andrea Levine [insertgeekhere]
228 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 20, 2012
1 person is currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Bryan Young
119 books157 followersBryan Young (he/they) works across many different media. His work as a writer and producer has been called "filmmaking gold" by The New York Times. He's also published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He's been a regular contributor for the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider magazine, SYFY, /Film, and was the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot! In 2014, he wrote the critically acclaimed history book, A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination. He co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG and has written five books in the BattleTech Universe: Honor's Gauntlet, A Question of Survival, Fox Tales, Without Question, and the forthcoming VoidBreaker. His latest non-fiction tie-in book, The Big Bang Theory Book of Lists is a #1 Bestseller on Amazon. His work has won two Diamond Quill awards and in 2023 he was named Writer of the Year by the League of Utah Writers. He teaches writing for Writer’s Digest, Script Magazine, and at the University of Utah. Follow him across social media @swankmotron or visit swankmotron.com.
Support Bryan on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/swankmotron
Support Bryan on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/swankmotron
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 28, 2015
I picked this book up a couple years ago after seeing the striking cover by Blain Hefner and immediately picked it up for my Summer reading collection.
The cover says it all: It's a pulp adventure-fiction, steeped in military action, replete with dinosaurs, nazis, time-travel, and assorted time-displaced characters.
3 1/2 stars -- It's fast, fun, and hard to put down!
In some ways it feels like a YA novel, but I believe Operation: Montauk, is better classified as a Pulp-adventure novel, or...
I enjoyed the whole cast of characters. My favorites being James Richmond -the scientist / time-travel specialist from the 19th century, Albert -the alert, sharp-eyed, chimpanzee, Jack Mallory -our main character, a soldier from the World War II era, and Veronica Keaton -the beautiful, butt-kicking, "damsel-in-distress" girl of the present era ~ the perfect, more fitting substitute for the *Amazon woman* we almost always expect to 'see' in Pulp adventure fiction.
Bryan Young is a very easy to read author, his style distinctly educated from the writers of such classic tales as, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, L. Sprague de Camp's Rivers of Time and Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder and many others, I'm sure.
Out of the more modern stabs at Pulp Adventures with dinosaurs and such that I've read, this would be a good read for those who liked, Dinosaur Jazz by Michael Panush, Dinocalypse Now by Chuck Wendig, and Return To The Lost World by Steve Barlow & Steve Skidmore.
I would have dug more background info on the characters, and thought Captain Abigail Valentine, Grimsby, Nikolai and Wan-Li's back stories were a bit brief. Likewise, I thought the dinosaurs descriptions and habitat could've been a little more fleshed out. That probably would have slowed down the pace and the excitement -key to this stories success.
Ends with the expectation of a sequel.
Looking forward to that!
January 6, 2023
Enjoyable and action-packed, and a decent sample of the author's potential, this book ultimately fails to deliver.
The good news first. It's all action (all the time), and has really wonderful cover art. If you're looking for a brisk adventure tale, you really can't go wrong with this book to fit your needs.
Main drawback? Not using an editor with the ability to improve this novel up to the standard that it could have reached...
The author did start with a great concept for this book. It's a bit similar to Robert Silverberg's "Hawksbill Station", in which time travel is used as a one-way trip back to a specific point in Earth's pre-history. This one is a little different, in that it is accidental but unavoidable, and not a deliberate punishment as in Silverberg's story.
So... how could an editor have improved this book?
a) Sloppiness in details - Is it an ape or a chimp? I found it jarring each time the chimp was called an ape. (UPDATE: I've been told in the comments below that this can work one way, if not the other. Thanks for the information.)
b) Details that aren't thought through... For example: Escape pods were really poorly designed in this book. The background to one particular scene involved the very first spacecraft to travel at the speed of light. They leave Earth and accelerate up to light speed. So... think about it. If something were to go wrong, what good would an escape pod be? You'd be lost in space, drifting at near light speed. There'd be no chance of rescue for hundreds or even thousands of years while the human race developed better technology.
(An editor could have suggested that the escape pods are cryogenic chambers. So you wouldn't want to have to use them, but at least you'd know that you would be alive when rescued at some point in the future)
In this book, we're subjected to several pages of "get into your escape pod" during a crisis. Every single time I read it, I cringed because it's not much benefit to eject and then die a few days or weeks later in a tiny capsule. The author even admits that the escape pods are pointless at the end of the chapter that comprises that scene, with the captain reflecting on her crew "floating out there in deep space with no one to retrieve them". If even the author knows that's designed poorly, then why not fix it? At least give us the cryogenic angle so that we understand that they're not dying of thirst or starvation.
c) Lousy science... This book appears to be an homage to old-school pulp SF, and in the beginning, early pulp SF also played fast and loose with science. So, if the audience is not expecting realistic science, or if the audience doesn't care, then it won't matter. But for me it matters. Maybe the science issues should be fixed below.
-- the engine won't turn over, so the soldier kicks it twice... and "whatever caused the problem was knocked loose by the beating, and the engine turned over". Not likely to happen...
-- the time machine doesn't make noise when they flip the switch. One of the main scientists initially blurts out that it might be the capacitor. Makes you think of the flux capacitor in Back to the Future, but I really doubt that a charge-storing device would be the first thing to consider as a result of total failure on the first full test. It smacks of "hand-wavium" and jolts me out of the narrative.
-- the time machine doesn't have enough power, and an idea comes suddenly. "We'll have to flood the engine. It would boost the power exponentially". With no support whatsoever for the theory, the characters go about making it happen.
-- The flooding of the engine commences. The description says: "they could hear the high-pitched whine of the spaceship’s engines turning over, revving up at close to the speed of light". But, wait a minute! The engine doesn't rev at the speed of light. No engine could. It might be able to create motion at the speed of light, but it doesn't have to be turning revolutions at the speed of light itself. In science fiction, these types of details are important. They have to be internally consistent.
d) Parsimony. Avoid redundant words whenever possible, especially those that tend to crop up too often. It's all about showing what happens, instead of telling what happens. The author's main sin here is the phrase "that's when", which he uses often. These two words could be completely removed and probably should have been in almost every instance.
-- "his mind reeled, trying hard to comprehend how a ship so massive could have found itself landlocked so far up a hill and away from the ocean. That’s when he noticed something even more peculiar over his right shoulder."
-- "Wan Li pulled a clip from his belt, ready to reload, but the creature dug into the ground and sprung up into the air, its gaping maw of teeth coming within inches of tearing off Wan Li’s face. Its stubby, frontal arms tried their best to hold on to the lip of the platform, offering a purchase to attack, but that’s when the scant Asian technician fell back onto his haunches and kicked the monster in the face."
-- "Sitting there, tied to the tree, barefoot and bleeding, Mallory had never felt more alone in his life. That’s when he heard the low, chirping twitter of creatures in the shrubbery around him."
-- "Mallory knew he was running out of time. Desperately gnawing, he finally felt the rope give just a little. Hope returned to him, lifting ever so slightly his broken, tortured spirit. By this time, the raptor was back in fighting shape, ready to pounce. Staring into Mallory’s eyes, it scratched the dirt with its feet and let out a deep, bleating roar. That’s when the ropes went slack enough for Mallory to wiggle his wrists free."
e) American patriotism.
For the most part, the Nazis came across as a bit one-dimensional. They're Nazis, so of course they will just kill everybody else. This weakened the book, as we already had an opponent with whom you could not negotiate (the dinosaurs). Now we've also got Nazis with whom there can be no truce, no agreement. It would have been more gripping for them to make an uneasy truce with the Nazis, and then be in doubt as to how much they could trust their new allies. As it stands, the Nazis might as well be zombies, intent on mindless killing. So it's a dinosaur and Nazi zombie book, which gives away that there's only action here, and not much other depth.
And the American patriotism is contrasted with the crazy Nazis, so you get a bit of this:
"A switch went off in Mallory’s system, coursing anger and adrenaline into every recess of his brain and recoiled. He wasn’t Valentine’s biggest fan, but if the Nazis wanted to hurt somebody, they were going to have to deal with the blinding, patriotic glory of one of America’s finest soldiers."
A bit unrealistic, and definitely something that could have been turned into a strength if it wasn't so black and white. (Maybe the American soldier could question if he really was that much different than the Nazis... their mission was almost the same, for instance.) But this is an adventure novel intent on a white-knuckle ride, so perhaps the author considered that possible angle and discarded it.
Final Verdict
I think the author shows a lot of promise, and I hope he works with a really good editor in the future.
One thing, however... this author is now published not only as "Bryan Young" (for this book), but also as "Bryan L. Young" (on the cover of one of his other books, Man Against the Future).
This means that if I ever strive to become a published author, I'll have to use a pseudonym, as this author has now used not only my full name, but also my full name with my middle initial.
Oh well... if that's the case, then I hope that his future books are really great. I wouldn't want a Bryan Young novel to be anything less than excellent in every respect...
The good news first. It's all action (all the time), and has really wonderful cover art. If you're looking for a brisk adventure tale, you really can't go wrong with this book to fit your needs.
Main drawback? Not using an editor with the ability to improve this novel up to the standard that it could have reached...
The author did start with a great concept for this book. It's a bit similar to Robert Silverberg's "Hawksbill Station", in which time travel is used as a one-way trip back to a specific point in Earth's pre-history. This one is a little different, in that it is accidental but unavoidable, and not a deliberate punishment as in Silverberg's story.
So... how could an editor have improved this book?
a) Sloppiness in details - Is it an ape or a chimp? I found it jarring each time the chimp was called an ape. (UPDATE: I've been told in the comments below that this can work one way, if not the other. Thanks for the information.)
b) Details that aren't thought through... For example: Escape pods were really poorly designed in this book. The background to one particular scene involved the very first spacecraft to travel at the speed of light. They leave Earth and accelerate up to light speed. So... think about it. If something were to go wrong, what good would an escape pod be? You'd be lost in space, drifting at near light speed. There'd be no chance of rescue for hundreds or even thousands of years while the human race developed better technology.
(An editor could have suggested that the escape pods are cryogenic chambers. So you wouldn't want to have to use them, but at least you'd know that you would be alive when rescued at some point in the future)
In this book, we're subjected to several pages of "get into your escape pod" during a crisis. Every single time I read it, I cringed because it's not much benefit to eject and then die a few days or weeks later in a tiny capsule. The author even admits that the escape pods are pointless at the end of the chapter that comprises that scene, with the captain reflecting on her crew "floating out there in deep space with no one to retrieve them". If even the author knows that's designed poorly, then why not fix it? At least give us the cryogenic angle so that we understand that they're not dying of thirst or starvation.
c) Lousy science... This book appears to be an homage to old-school pulp SF, and in the beginning, early pulp SF also played fast and loose with science. So, if the audience is not expecting realistic science, or if the audience doesn't care, then it won't matter. But for me it matters. Maybe the science issues should be fixed below.
-- the engine won't turn over, so the soldier kicks it twice... and "whatever caused the problem was knocked loose by the beating, and the engine turned over". Not likely to happen...
-- the time machine doesn't make noise when they flip the switch. One of the main scientists initially blurts out that it might be the capacitor. Makes you think of the flux capacitor in Back to the Future, but I really doubt that a charge-storing device would be the first thing to consider as a result of total failure on the first full test. It smacks of "hand-wavium" and jolts me out of the narrative.
-- the time machine doesn't have enough power, and an idea comes suddenly. "We'll have to flood the engine. It would boost the power exponentially". With no support whatsoever for the theory, the characters go about making it happen.
-- The flooding of the engine commences. The description says: "they could hear the high-pitched whine of the spaceship’s engines turning over, revving up at close to the speed of light". But, wait a minute! The engine doesn't rev at the speed of light. No engine could. It might be able to create motion at the speed of light, but it doesn't have to be turning revolutions at the speed of light itself. In science fiction, these types of details are important. They have to be internally consistent.
d) Parsimony. Avoid redundant words whenever possible, especially those that tend to crop up too often. It's all about showing what happens, instead of telling what happens. The author's main sin here is the phrase "that's when", which he uses often. These two words could be completely removed and probably should have been in almost every instance.
-- "his mind reeled, trying hard to comprehend how a ship so massive could have found itself landlocked so far up a hill and away from the ocean. That’s when he noticed something even more peculiar over his right shoulder."
-- "Wan Li pulled a clip from his belt, ready to reload, but the creature dug into the ground and sprung up into the air, its gaping maw of teeth coming within inches of tearing off Wan Li’s face. Its stubby, frontal arms tried their best to hold on to the lip of the platform, offering a purchase to attack, but that’s when the scant Asian technician fell back onto his haunches and kicked the monster in the face."
-- "Sitting there, tied to the tree, barefoot and bleeding, Mallory had never felt more alone in his life. That’s when he heard the low, chirping twitter of creatures in the shrubbery around him."
-- "Mallory knew he was running out of time. Desperately gnawing, he finally felt the rope give just a little. Hope returned to him, lifting ever so slightly his broken, tortured spirit. By this time, the raptor was back in fighting shape, ready to pounce. Staring into Mallory’s eyes, it scratched the dirt with its feet and let out a deep, bleating roar. That’s when the ropes went slack enough for Mallory to wiggle his wrists free."
e) American patriotism.
For the most part, the Nazis came across as a bit one-dimensional. They're Nazis, so of course they will just kill everybody else. This weakened the book, as we already had an opponent with whom you could not negotiate (the dinosaurs). Now we've also got Nazis with whom there can be no truce, no agreement. It would have been more gripping for them to make an uneasy truce with the Nazis, and then be in doubt as to how much they could trust their new allies. As it stands, the Nazis might as well be zombies, intent on mindless killing. So it's a dinosaur and Nazi zombie book, which gives away that there's only action here, and not much other depth.
And the American patriotism is contrasted with the crazy Nazis, so you get a bit of this:
"A switch went off in Mallory’s system, coursing anger and adrenaline into every recess of his brain and recoiled. He wasn’t Valentine’s biggest fan, but if the Nazis wanted to hurt somebody, they were going to have to deal with the blinding, patriotic glory of one of America’s finest soldiers."
A bit unrealistic, and definitely something that could have been turned into a strength if it wasn't so black and white. (Maybe the American soldier could question if he really was that much different than the Nazis... their mission was almost the same, for instance.) But this is an adventure novel intent on a white-knuckle ride, so perhaps the author considered that possible angle and discarded it.
Final Verdict
I think the author shows a lot of promise, and I hope he works with a really good editor in the future.
One thing, however... this author is now published not only as "Bryan Young" (for this book), but also as "Bryan L. Young" (on the cover of one of his other books, Man Against the Future).
This means that if I ever strive to become a published author, I'll have to use a pseudonym, as this author has now used not only my full name, but also my full name with my middle initial.
Oh well... if that's the case, then I hope that his future books are really great. I wouldn't want a Bryan Young novel to be anything less than excellent in every respect...
March 22, 2021
If you like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones you will probably really like this book. Me, I was expecting a little more of a gradual character development and a little less of popping from one dinosaur attack to the next. Just not my thing.
This is a new spin on time travel, one which I quite enjoyed. Unlike some reviewers, I was actually rather impressed with the ending. I liked how it came together. It really didn't leave me hanging at all--he set the precedent and the rules of the universe and everything worked out to a point that it didn't feel like the conclusion had to be that explicit. I appreciated that the author trusted the readers enough to form their own conclusions.
This is a new spin on time travel, one which I quite enjoyed. Unlike some reviewers, I was actually rather impressed with the ending. I liked how it came together. It really didn't leave me hanging at all--he set the precedent and the rules of the universe and everything worked out to a point that it didn't feel like the conclusion had to be that explicit. I appreciated that the author trusted the readers enough to form their own conclusions.
November 25, 2015
Fun, enjoyable light read. The cover says it all. Pulp fiction with time travel, Nazis and a good ole American GI soldier. Somewhat old school in style and feel. I wasn't offended by stereotypes as I often am with old school science fiction. The women were a little more respected and self reliant than in most old school fiction. The only excessive stereotypes are the Nazis and dinosaurs. Both are mindlessly and fatally evil. They both attack the good guys without any thinking until they die. If you are looking for a light, fast time-travel action adventure, give it a try.
September 27, 2012
I really, really enjoyed Operation: Montauk. It took a few chapters to get into the meat of the story, which is fitting as the main character is finding his way in an unexpected land.
I don't want to give away anything more than what is already in the other reviews and description of the book. Yes there are Nazis and dinosaurs and time travel and romance and all sorts of things. There is drive behind the story that compels you to keep reading, guess what may happen to the characters, and then does something completely different in a good way.
The only criticism I have for the story is a difference of opinion regarding the ending. To me I clicked to go to the next page and was shocked to be at the end of the book. WAIT a minute I hollered, thinking I've got a bad file or a glitch or something... I was really upset to see the end of the book become apparent. I enjoyed the characters and the story entirely too much to see it come to an end without at least a "Coming soon, Part II"!
Kudos to Bryan Young for writing an engaging and interesting story!
July 10, 2012
Bryan Young's latest book is a fast-paced adventure. Cpl. Jack Mallory and his team were sent back in time to kill Hitler, but an unexpected effect rocketed them back 100 million years instead of only a few. Now Jack, the lone survivor, must hook up with other time travellers from different eras who washed up in the same place and time. Coincidence? To say any more would give away too much of the plot.
This is an engaging read that grabs you and keeps you reading until you arrive breathless at the end. The characters really come to life as individuals and have you rooting for them. My only criticism is that it does end way too abruptly, with a couple of plot points left unresolved. I'm hoping Mr. Young is already writing the sequel, otherwise are we just expected to assume what happened?
This is an engaging read that grabs you and keeps you reading until you arrive breathless at the end. The characters really come to life as individuals and have you rooting for them. My only criticism is that it does end way too abruptly, with a couple of plot points left unresolved. I'm hoping Mr. Young is already writing the sequel, otherwise are we just expected to assume what happened?
July 2, 2012
Another excellent book by Bryan Young and well worth more than what I paid for it on the Kindle. Who knew that time traveling could be such a chaotic and yet serine experience. In fact it was such a great read that I posted a full review of it here on my blog. Probably one of the better authors that I've read in a good while.
July 6, 2012
This book is one of the best books I've read in a long while. The characters felt so real and likeable which for me personally always makes such a difference. A great story by a great author I would (and plan to) recommend to my friends. Bravo Mr. Young.
July 20, 2012
Well written and fast paced story. I was so upset with the ending though. Hmmmm
January 17, 2023
Such a fun adventure!
December 28, 2013
***Spoiler alert***
I got this book as one of the rewards for backing Silence in the Library's Kickstarter for Janine K. Spendlove's third novel in her War of Seasons-trilogy.
It is a fast-paced entertaining book about people who find themselves stranded in the time of the dinosaurs after traveling through time. Trying to fend of the hungry dinosaurs attacks, they suddenly find themselves face to face with quite a few determined Nazis who are hell-bent on carrying on the Second World War in prehistoric times.
It was a fun, fast read, an ideal palate cleanser. The action is good, the premise interesting. It did not necessarily need the Nazis to make it more interesting.
I got this book as one of the rewards for backing Silence in the Library's Kickstarter for Janine K. Spendlove's third novel in her War of Seasons-trilogy.
It is a fast-paced entertaining book about people who find themselves stranded in the time of the dinosaurs after traveling through time. Trying to fend of the hungry dinosaurs attacks, they suddenly find themselves face to face with quite a few determined Nazis who are hell-bent on carrying on the Second World War in prehistoric times.
It was a fun, fast read, an ideal palate cleanser. The action is good, the premise interesting. It did not necessarily need the Nazis to make it more interesting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2017
For you Action Adventure fans: As long as you don't mind Crappy Endings, you will probably love this book. It is non-stop action from start to finish. It's has time travel, Dinosaurs, Nazis, spaceships, etc. It's fun. Don't overthink it. It was meant to be a modern take on pulp fiction action adventure, and it certainly is. The only problem, as I said, is the ending. It sucks, plain and simple. In fact, I think I'll take a few minutes after this review to think of a better one in my head and make that what happens.
5 stars for a rip-roaring good time. -3 stars for the crappy crappy crappy ending.... 2 stars.
Still, worth the read if you can think of your own ending.
5 stars for a rip-roaring good time. -3 stars for the crappy crappy crappy ending.... 2 stars.
Still, worth the read if you can think of your own ending.
July 27, 2016
Really interesting idea; lots of action. But the writing does not fully convince me (formulations, flow,...) and thus fails to fully grab me. Somthing is missing... (but I can't pinpoint what)
The explanation why all the time travellers end up at about the same time given by the book does not satisfy me, because it is too "thought about" (i.e. like someone designed it that way): This is not the way a physical universe behaves...
I would not have needed the Nazis (and for me the book lost a star when they arrived in the story); the dinosaurs are bad enough... But maybe that's because I am German.
PS: If you like happy endings - this is not for you... ;-)
The explanation why all the time travellers end up at about the same time given by the book does not satisfy me, because it is too "thought about" (i.e. like someone designed it that way): This is not the way a physical universe behaves...
I would not have needed the Nazis (and for me the book lost a star when they arrived in the story); the dinosaurs are bad enough... But maybe that's because I am German.
PS: If you like happy endings - this is not for you... ;-)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2014
Good Reads needs more stars. Excellent story with awesome elements of past and future. I didn't want it to end. And it didn't .
January 21, 2017
Another fun read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews