Nautilus

The Turing Protocol #2

by Nick Croydon

The second novel from the author of gripping historical thriller, The Turing Protocol.

Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters.

But what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands? The machine is in the custody of Turing’s granddaughter, Annabelle, but she’s unaware that her husband, Edward, is plotting to use it for his own personal gain.

And Edward isn’t the only one with designs on the machine. Other rogue operators want to harness its abilities, and they have even bigger targets in their sights: they want to use it for power, manipulation and even to bring down nations.

Will the machine’s capacity for good outweigh its potential for catastrophic harm? In this follow-up to the bestselling The Turing Protocol, the fate of Nautilus – and of the whole world – is on a knife’s edge.

Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2026

Reviews

[Lewis Fisher · Rating 1 out of 5]

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK

normally i break my goodreads use embargo to gas up authors i really love (looking at you mark lawrence) and instead i've decided to break it to drag nick croydon who has decided to return to the scene of the crime of last years 'the turing protocol' as the perpetrator and be the most inconspicuous bystander possible. to catch those up who missed out on the drama:

- Alan Turing, the famously gay codebreaker who was chemically castrated which lead to his suicide, is instead rewritten to be vaguely gay except when the story demands it: ie when he needs to father a child with joan clarke [in a weird lavender marriage situation given they never actually marry, just remain engaged] who then witholds ever letting him see the child on account of what alan is [joan, you were able to overcome your disgust of him to conceive a child but now you can accept the societal shame of being a mother out of wedlock?], changing his death from a homophobia-fueled suicided into a shapeless communist murder plot that seemingly is never brought up again. Croydon has defended this by saying “At no time did I say Turing wasn’t gay. The book makes it very plain that he is gay,” Croydon said. “It talks about how he had to hide the fact that he was gay, and in the historical note page at the back of the book I again acknowledge the travesty of the treatment he received.” (https://www.theaustralian.com.au/cult...)

- Nick Croydon is also coincidentally the CEO of QBD Books, and when this book was being released, made this book the August Book of the Month company wide, a programme which is designed for debut authors to be promoted to customers. Seems a conflict of interest no? As a former employee of QBD Books, these Book of the Month are important KPI's for all members of the bookselling and customer-facing employees of the company, and often performance of these will inform how shifts are given out.

- If you look at the reviews for the first book in this series, 'The Turing Protocol', you will notice that many of the five star reviews are made with profiles that only have made one review, and it is of this book. this is because many of the reviews that were initially posted were most likely (i have a strong suspicion of this but cannot confirm) due to accounts created by either staff from qbd, staff from the publisher, or fake accounts created in order to prop up the wave of negative reviews that were flowing in against the release of this book. Some five star reviews that did exist included: “I’m gay and I enjoyed the book so much" and “I don’t know why you guys hate because its just fiction.” which you wouldn't expect on a normal book review unless you were expecting backlash or had already seen backlash and had set up reviews. We have a five-star review from Henry Croydon that is just laughable "Really good read. Nice twist and lots of history references. Dan Brown watch out. Read the book on flights around the world and departure lounges. Good company.". Only someone who is out of touch would be making Dan Brown references in alleged astroturfed reviews in 2025 when this was posted on the previous book (https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com...). Then there's this pointed five star review of "I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I don't understand why people are trying to make something political that is clearly not. Ignore than one star reviews coming from people who haven't read the book or are taking offence to something that is not intended. Enjoy the work of FICTION for what it is. Thoroughly recommend and look forward to more from this author" from 'Jonathan' who clearly thinks that if you label it fiction, you can just handwave away any sort of changing of historical fact. The final five star review I have a problem with is this one "I also love that the author has given Turing the redemption he so deserves, both as one of the greatest scientists in history, and also as a normal human being, trying to cope with life in a world that wanted 'his sort' to be hidden away, or destroyed on the front pages if they tried to step into the light.". Does 'Peter Couzens' really think that Turing still lives on in ignominy? Given that Queen Elizabeth publically issued an apology for what happened to Alan Turing, and there are the Alan Turing laws that were issued in 2017, Turing has already had his redemption? Or does this review simply mean his redemption as a heterosexual-passing person?

- When 'The Turing Protocol' was released, many reviews that did not get on board with the book were also deleted, and I once again have a strong suspicion of this but cannot confirm that this is as a result of the publisher or Goodreads deleting them as a result of an author being upset.

- If you would like a more in-depth breakdown with textual references of Croydon's writing in 'The Turing Protocol', please check out this review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I think with the release of this book to make it free with purchase with any book is scummy behaviour, and only continues to confirm my decision to no longer continue shopping at QBD.

[Jan Mawdesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Ian Banks for Bluewolf Reviews and Simon & Schuster Australia
The second explosive book from Nick Croydon Nautilus, has it all, as captures every nuance of the human psyche in a futurist, or maybe not so futuristic, look at the politics of the world which can be controlled by a complex and sophisticated machine that has the capability to change history.
Created by Alan Turing during World War II, Nautilus has been carefully hidden a in a vault, accessible only to his daughter Annabel, who has been given the custodianship of the machine on the death of her father.
Married to Edward, and now a Cabinet Minister, she is aware of the capabilities of the machine and the damage that can be caused should it fall into the wrong hands. Only she can access the vault, through a series of complex protocols established by her father.
But there are factors in the political and monetary world that are aware of the machine and its capabilities and will do any at all to access what they consider great wealth, great power and world dominance.
During a routine check on Nautilus, Annabel has discovered a series of code which translated delivers some very disturbing intelligence. She makes the decision to alert “C” the head of MI6, and by doing so sets in train a series of events which not only make her doubt those closest to her, but could if allowed to continue, change the world forever.
Fast moving and full of intrigue wrapped around the world in which we live, should a machine with the capabilities of Nautilus, which can be used for good or evil, fall into the wrong hands, the results would be catastrophic.
Not only are there ruthless global entities who will stop at nothing to get the machine, but closer to home and in the most devasting manner, there is someone who do anything at all to save himself and gain untold wealth.
Poised on the edge of futuristic fiction, Nautilus is entrenched in the time old tale of greed, lies and treachery, common addictions to the past, the present and maybe even the future as an intriguing, carefully crafted and researched world comes into being through the skill of Nick Croydon.
Nautilus; an absolute must read thriller based on fact, fiction and a world of maybe tomorrow.

[James Foster · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was intentionally written to insult readers. Nick Croydon writes down his own personal fantasy of himself being rich and having a politically powerful wife. But even in his own fantasy, Croydon doesn't get the money or the girl.

The Turing Protocol, even with its own issues, had a fantastic concept. Croydon barely managed to reach the bottom of that concept in the first outing. The sequel's tagline and blurb promised global conflict and espionage. What we got was Edward, a crappy anti-hero, whose only motivation was money. Although Edward was already billing £700 per hour for his clients in his law firm, he justified using Nautilus to make himself even more richer because he was jealous of all the rich(er) people! Even though he had three properties spread across London, country England AND even in Spain, AND he was taking family trips to the USA and Europe... it was not believable in the slightest.

Instead of having real consequences for his actions like having one of his kid's (or even both) die and him not being able to reverse it because the time machine was in cooldown due his own greedy reasons, his "consequence" was him dying. BUT instead of being remembered as a betrayer, the official story was he died a hero AND his entire profit went to Annabelle.

The concept, the story, the dialog, everything was utterly terrible and I will never forgive Croydon for taking an amazing concept and wasting it on his own personal fantasy.

And to top it off, the cover that shows a spy-looking man holding a gun in a European location... it never happened. It was a bait and it should be classed as false advertising and marketing. Even the blurb was a bait.

This book was downright horrible. Avoid at all costs.

[Clive Hodges · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nick Croydon’s first book, The Turing Protocol, introduced us to an astonishing machine invented by Alan Turing. This awesome piece of equipment – named Nautilus - enables us to receive messages from the past and to send messages eight weeks back in time. Turing proposed it should only be used when humankind was severely threatened.

It should not be used, for example, to send instructions to buy stocks and shares, knowing they will go up in price. Then selling them in the present to become a billionaire. To ensure this did not happen, he strongly urged that operating instructions be restricted to descendants of the Turing family who, hopefully, would have the fortitude not to use it for personal gain.

Annabel, Alan Turing’s granddaughter, is the current guardian of Nautilus. She is an aspiring politician in Boris Johnson’s accident-prone government and is being pressured by MI6 to confirm or deny the existence of Nautilus.

Edward Morris, Annabel’s husband, is a lawyer earning an impressive salary that is more than sufficient to fund a perfectly good lifestyle. For most people this would’ve been the definition of success but he wants more. He wants serious wealth.

Nautilus is an intriguing science fiction fantasy combining pride, greed and envy with time travel, espionage, betrayal and stock market speculation. It’s well-researched, engaging and thought-provoking.

[Paige Turner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, Nautilus was even more lacklustre than The Turing Protocol. I found the pacing slow, the characters difficult to invest in, and a premise that promises high-stakes intrigue never delivered the tension or excitement I expected.

The continued fictionalisation of Alan Turing and his family still sits uncomfortably with me, and the story's exploration of technology, power and ethics felt far less compelling than the publisher's description suggests.

Being selected as a QBD Book of the Month certainly brings plenty of hype, but given the author's position as QBD's CEO, it's difficult for me to separate that promotion from the book itself. For me, Nautilus simply didn't live up to the billing.

[Jay Dwight · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the premise of this series, a machine that can send messages back in time. Like The Turing Protocol, I feel a little disappointed more wasn’t explored with the concept.

This episode in the series follows more around how the machine could be misused and the consequences that might follow misuse.

Still, I found it entertaining and enjoyed the read.

[Andrew Neale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edit: This is not an advanced copy. It was published on 28 July 2026.

Truly awful.

And I thought the Turing Protocol was substandard, I feel that in giving it 2 ⭐️s however, I at least gave myself somewhere to go with the later offering. That somewhere? Down.

And what is with the cover? A greater disconnect between the cover and story you will never find.

[Jessie H · Rating 1 out of 5]

As bad as the first book.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t bother