What do you think?
Rate this book
TimeWars #5
The Nautilus Sanction
Major Lucas Priest, an agent of the elite Temporal Corps, journeys back in time to the nineteenth century to find a hijacked Russian nuclear submarine and encounters ruthless time pirates, Jean Lafitte, Jules Verne, and the mysterious Dr. Darkness
244 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1985
About the author
Simon Hawke
96 books244 followersAlso published as J.D. Masters.
He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels.
He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 28, 2014
This I think (and I see I am not the only one) is where the series starts to forge away in a new direction with the creation of its own villain- yes you have an inclining of it in the fact we are referring to the nautilus and Captain Nemo - again you have the literary nod to the Verne classic but this time they do not incorporate it in to the storyline. Instead you see the creation of the time wars own super villain - now as much as I enjoyed the idea (hey who does not need their own super villain after all) but you feel it is acting as distraction from the bigger picture - or was that just me
January 24, 2024
This book crossed bmy path accidentally, but I was delighted it did. Another book in the 'Time Wars' or 'Time Keepers' series is The Ivanhoe Gambit which I have adored since I was in my teens. This one did not enchant me quite as much, but it is still a fine book: A pure adventure yarn with a great, convoluted plot and lots of interesting worldbuilding.
One thing I really loved about this book is how many nods to other literary greats are in it. We start in the 'future' as our main protagonist, Major Lucas Priest, an agent of the elite Temporal Corps is given his mission to go back in time an locate a 27th century, Russian nuclear submarine that has been hijacked. While setting the time and place of 'the future' that the Time Keepers come from, the author mentions the 'Heinlein University on Dyson and the 'Bradbury facility on Mars' which I thought was pretty cute.
In the attempt to locate it Lucas and his team become passengers on an old 18th century vessel which has among it's other passengers Mr Jules Verne, an author who has not yet written anything especially noteworthy.
When they find the submarine, the bad guy has renamed it The Nautilus, and there are plenty of nods to the classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
In terms of writing, it is probably not for everyone, the adventure is fun but the characters are not given a lot of time; the assumption is clearly that you know them from previous books. The author (Who is Simon Hawke, not 'Hawke' - I am trying to get the librarians to fix this) is inclined towards info dumping; of the timelines, at the front of the book. Of the science behind time travel and the implements and weapons they use. Later the 'bad guy' does another history info dump at us/Jules Vern. It is not obnoxious, but it is not always great writing.
On the other hand, what he did with the history of the Caribbean was great - so it all evens out in the end.
I also reviewed this on Youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyrDq...
One thing I really loved about this book is how many nods to other literary greats are in it. We start in the 'future' as our main protagonist, Major Lucas Priest, an agent of the elite Temporal Corps is given his mission to go back in time an locate a 27th century, Russian nuclear submarine that has been hijacked. While setting the time and place of 'the future' that the Time Keepers come from, the author mentions the 'Heinlein University on Dyson and the 'Bradbury facility on Mars' which I thought was pretty cute.
In the attempt to locate it Lucas and his team become passengers on an old 18th century vessel which has among it's other passengers Mr Jules Verne, an author who has not yet written anything especially noteworthy.
When they find the submarine, the bad guy has renamed it The Nautilus, and there are plenty of nods to the classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
In terms of writing, it is probably not for everyone, the adventure is fun but the characters are not given a lot of time; the assumption is clearly that you know them from previous books. The author (Who is Simon Hawke, not 'Hawke' - I am trying to get the librarians to fix this) is inclined towards info dumping; of the timelines, at the front of the book. Of the science behind time travel and the implements and weapons they use. Later the 'bad guy' does another history info dump at us/Jules Vern. It is not obnoxious, but it is not always great writing.
On the other hand, what he did with the history of the Caribbean was great - so it all evens out in the end.
I also reviewed this on Youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyrDq...
October 13, 2026
In the far-off 27th century, the Russians build the biggest, baddest nuclear submarine the world has ever seen and name it the Nautilus. But before they can even show it off, some low-down time-traveling terrorists hijack the whole darn ship, rig it up with a temporal engine, and drive it straight back into the 19th century. They’re fixin' to torpedo history itself! To stop these scoundrels from blowing up the past, Major Lucas Priest and his elite squad of U.S. Army Temporal Corps commandos have to clock out and dive down history's timeline. They end up splashing right into the 1800s, chasing a nuclear sub while stuck on the wooden decks of old clipper ships. Our future soldiers realize they need some local help, so they team up with an unlikely bunch. They rope in a fiery Canadian harpooner named Ned Land, the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte, and a middle-aged French fellow who writes imaginative stories—none other than Jules Verne himself! While they’re dodging torpedoes and trying to save the timeline, the whole adventure gets twisted into a pretzel. It turns out the villain’s high-tech submarine shenanigans are the exact thing that inspires Jules Verne to write 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the first place. Talk about a mind-bender! If you like your sci-fi with a heavy dose of historical cameos, laser guns clashing with pirate swords, and underwater submarine tension, this book moves faster than a greased pig at a county fair. The time-travel rules get a little knotty toward the end, and a mysterious fellow named Dr. Darkness shows up acting a hair too convenient, but the action-packed climax is a real barn-burner. It's pure, glorious 1980s sci-fi pulp.
February 3, 2024
Simon Hawke's Time Wars continue with volume 5: The Nautilus Sanction, in which time terrorists steal a Soviet nuclear sub and aim to blow up history. Our heroes follow it downtime to stop it, and inadvertently rope in Jules Verne, whose work has inspired the villain, who in turn inspires Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. There's a bit of a time knot in this one that I'm not entirely sure follows the rules established prior, but is fun nonetheless. Temporal technology is advancing, which evolves the status quo, though I'm still not sure what to think of "Doctor Darkness" (what's with that name?) as a potential deus ex machina. Good action climax, however. But oof, the return of the Drakov, the villain from the previous novel, essentially turns him into a tour guide - which I realize isn't too far from how Verne plays Nemo - giving us long expository speeches about local history, Jean Lafitte, and most absurdly, how nuclear power was developed. Rather tedious padding, and it sounds like the guy is reciting from Wikipedia. Who speaks like this?!
June 2, 2023
Simone Hawke
Mr. Hawke. I love this series, the Wizard series, and the Shakespeare series. Pretty much anything you’ve written. All are extremely well done. I hope you continue with the new Robin Hood series. They are fascinating and, as usual, I’ve enjoyed every one.
This is still my favorite , but Robin Hood is pretty close.
Mr. Hawke. I love this series, the Wizard series, and the Shakespeare series. Pretty much anything you’ve written. All are extremely well done. I hope you continue with the new Robin Hood series. They are fascinating and, as usual, I’ve enjoyed every one.
This is still my favorite , but Robin Hood is pretty close.
January 23, 2019
Entertaining but clichéd.
Read
April 15, 2020An excellent read!
June 25, 2023
So far, this is my favorite of the series.
April 4, 2016
Ah, my 21st Hawke book. 5th in the TimeWars series.
The normal people from the prior books return. Lucas Priest, Andre Cross, Finn Delaney. And, as per the norm, Andre kind of barely has any 'lines', and Lucas is kind of cardboardy. Finn has 'lines' but even he appeared cardboardy this time. Forrester also returns, though to a lesser extent (he also, once again, traveled through time, making me wonder what that whole section in the prior book was about - the one where he went on and on about how his time had passed and now he couldn't travel in time . . . except he did in that book. And in this one). Drakov also returns. He has a meater role this time around.
Jules Verne's the 'name' addition this time, though others of historical note appear, like that Jean Lafitte guy who also was in that Pimpernel Plot book. He being based on the historical guy Lafitte who was a pirate.
This time around the 'book' being used as the basis and/or 'thing to get ideas from' is Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Captain Nemo doesn't make an appearance, but the Nautilus does. Though the Nautilus is a Soviet ship from 1993 that got stolen by Drakov and renamed the Nautilus - directly based off of 20,000 Leagues under the sea, so . . . um, there's that connection. Like Verne's book, Drakov's out for revenge in his sub. There's even some action among ruins (in 20,000, the ruins are Atlantis, here the 'ruins' are a sunken treasury fleet).
It was an interesting diverting read. Just . . . not something I'd rate as highly as the prior books in the series. Both because of how much stupider the 'time commandos' acted, and the introduction of assholes all over the place (see: mysterious Dr. Darkness, who can teleport, but mostly only as a hologram, and stuff).
Oh, and like prior books, people smoke like smoking's going to be banned tomorrow and they want to go out with a bang. Or something like that. And here I mean every century - those people from the 27th century, and those natives of whatever time periods are visited by the time travellers.
April 8 2016
The normal people from the prior books return. Lucas Priest, Andre Cross, Finn Delaney. And, as per the norm, Andre kind of barely has any 'lines', and Lucas is kind of cardboardy. Finn has 'lines' but even he appeared cardboardy this time. Forrester also returns, though to a lesser extent (he also, once again, traveled through time, making me wonder what that whole section in the prior book was about - the one where he went on and on about how his time had passed and now he couldn't travel in time . . . except he did in that book. And in this one). Drakov also returns. He has a meater role this time around.
Jules Verne's the 'name' addition this time, though others of historical note appear, like that Jean Lafitte guy who also was in that Pimpernel Plot book. He being based on the historical guy Lafitte who was a pirate.
This time around the 'book' being used as the basis and/or 'thing to get ideas from' is Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Captain Nemo doesn't make an appearance, but the Nautilus does. Though the Nautilus is a Soviet ship from 1993 that got stolen by Drakov and renamed the Nautilus - directly based off of 20,000 Leagues under the sea, so . . . um, there's that connection. Like Verne's book, Drakov's out for revenge in his sub. There's even some action among ruins (in 20,000, the ruins are Atlantis, here the 'ruins' are a sunken treasury fleet).
It was an interesting diverting read. Just . . . not something I'd rate as highly as the prior books in the series. Both because of how much stupider the 'time commandos' acted, and the introduction of assholes all over the place (see: mysterious Dr. Darkness, who can teleport, but mostly only as a hologram, and stuff).
Oh, and like prior books, people smoke like smoking's going to be banned tomorrow and they want to go out with a bang. Or something like that. And here I mean every century - those people from the 27th century, and those natives of whatever time periods are visited by the time travellers.
April 8 2016
August 21, 2014
It probably isn't fair to quibble over historical inaccuracies in a time travel science fiction novel, but when there are so many details of one particular element, many OS which are pretty accurate, how could there be such glaring mistakes? And creative license doesn't factor as the problems are not crucial to the story, but are repeated a few times.
Anyway. Fun stuff, though I remember now this one devolved into action pulp.
Anyway. Fun stuff, though I remember now this one devolved into action pulp.
February 3, 2012
I'm a huge fan of this series. The Nautilus Sanction is no exception. It's gritty, with sprinklings of humor dropped here and there. Add in an eccentric and altogether too curious Jules Verne and you have the next great installment in the TimeWars series.
Cautions: It's violent with some language in it.
Cautions: It's violent with some language in it.
Read
June 21, 2007A look at What Jules Verne might have done to create 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
Read
January 26, 2018Have tried reviewing the other books but not been able to
This is not a review of just this book but that of the whole series as a whole
If you want to know if a book movie or game is good just look at the after effects after reading viewing or playing the book movie or game
It took me nearly forty years to complete my collection of the whole series of 12 books
I have loved reading the series
In fact I am re reading the series again for the 12 time
That’s how much I am enjoying the series
I started re reading it about two weeks ago from the Ivanhoe Gambit and now I’m on book four already
I find the series extremely engrossing and a definite non put downer
One of the very few series that fall into that category
I said that if you want to know if a book etc is good check the ending after reading the book
Having read the book do you Just:
Shelve it?
Dump it?
Sell it?
Add it to your collection of books to re read again?
If you chose 1 2 or 3 it’s not a good book movie or game
If you added to your collection it means that you found the book worthwhile to keep
But then there is still another step to add
Does that book movie or Game entice you to go read farther
If it does then the author has achieved 100% success
Encouraging the reader viewer gamer to go do more research on the subject makes the book movie or Game something very special
In my case
I hated the classics
I found them boring and dull
Until I picked up this series of books
They so engrossed me that it drew me to the classics and I started reading them all based on the series
It was so interesting to see how Simon Hawke blended the Origional story into his Time Wars Saga
Now one needs to go read the classic to compare the two
It makes fascinating reading
If I had not picked up the Scarlett Pimpernel and Ivanhoe I would not have discovered the joy of the relating classics
To this day the Scarlett Pimpernel is still one of my favorite books and DVDs
So in conclusion
I heartily recommend this series of books to you
A definite 10/10 read
This is not a review of just this book but that of the whole series as a whole
If you want to know if a book movie or game is good just look at the after effects after reading viewing or playing the book movie or game
It took me nearly forty years to complete my collection of the whole series of 12 books
I have loved reading the series
In fact I am re reading the series again for the 12 time
That’s how much I am enjoying the series
I started re reading it about two weeks ago from the Ivanhoe Gambit and now I’m on book four already
I find the series extremely engrossing and a definite non put downer
One of the very few series that fall into that category
I said that if you want to know if a book etc is good check the ending after reading the book
Having read the book do you Just:
Shelve it?
Dump it?
Sell it?
Add it to your collection of books to re read again?
If you chose 1 2 or 3 it’s not a good book movie or game
If you added to your collection it means that you found the book worthwhile to keep
But then there is still another step to add
Does that book movie or Game entice you to go read farther
If it does then the author has achieved 100% success
Encouraging the reader viewer gamer to go do more research on the subject makes the book movie or Game something very special
In my case
I hated the classics
I found them boring and dull
Until I picked up this series of books
They so engrossed me that it drew me to the classics and I started reading them all based on the series
It was so interesting to see how Simon Hawke blended the Origional story into his Time Wars Saga
Now one needs to go read the classic to compare the two
It makes fascinating reading
If I had not picked up the Scarlett Pimpernel and Ivanhoe I would not have discovered the joy of the relating classics
To this day the Scarlett Pimpernel is still one of my favorite books and DVDs
So in conclusion
I heartily recommend this series of books to you
A definite 10/10 read
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews