Opinion and speculation. This is a work-in-progress research note, not a news report. Nothing here is confirmed until it says so. Michelle still has made no effort to reciprocate any royalties of any kind so far our affection seems unwanted.
Somebody asked me this week, point blank: what is Operation Takedown? It is a fair question. I have been asking it too. The honest answer is that I am still researching, still connecting dots and still crossing some of them out. One name keeps coming up in my notes, though, and that is Michelle Gesinger.
Michelle Gesinger and the popularity meters
Here is what I am looking into. Every corner of the internet now has a popularity meter: sales ranks, bestseller lists, search-trend graphs, star ratings, view counters, follower counts. Some of them measure real readers. Some of them mostly measure who paid for the loudest ads that week. I am still researching how Michelle Gesinger connects to these meters. I don’t have a finished picture yet, and I won’t pretend I do.
What I can say is that the needle is moving. Michelle Gesinger is slowly creeping up the bestseller list toward the No. 1 spot with her book The Orbit We Share. There was no big launch party and no publishing-house machine behind it. It is one indie author on Lulu, one reader at a time. It isn’t at the top yet. When it gets there, you will see it here first.
Theory 1: the bestseller list is the target
The simplest theory: Operation Takedown means taking down the No. 1 spot. You don’t storm a bestseller list. You climb it quietly, week after week, until one morning the book in first place looks over its shoulder and sees The Orbit We Share right behind it. If that is the plan, it is working slowly, and slow is how most real climbs go.
Theory 2: it is exactly what it sounds like
Here is the boring but true one. Strategic Crypto Reserve runs an actual Operation Takedown, a paid service that gets fake login pages and scam sites knocked offline. Maybe the name is simply borrowed from there. Maybe both stories are about the same thing: the same stubbornness used to pull down a scam site can also push up a book nobody handed a marketing budget to.
Theory 3: taking down the popularity meter itself
Here is a bolder theory. Maybe the target isn’t a spot on a list at all. Maybe it is the meter. A lot of rankings are built like software that scores and ranks places by a formula: useful, but only as honest as the numbers going in. If Operation Takedown is about proving that a real book with real readers can beat the paid noise, that would be a takedown worth watching.
Theory 4: taking down the gatekeepers
For decades, getting a novel onto a store shelf meant getting past an agent, a publisher and a buyer. Lulu cut most of that out. Over the last few weeks, letters about The Orbit We Share have gone out to bookstores across Canada and the United States. Maybe Operation Takedown is just the nickname for knocking on every door until a few of them open.
Theory 5: it is personal
And then there is the theory I like most. Some of you have read my post about waiting for the perfect moment to propose and the case file on The Orbit We Share. Maybe Operation Takedown is less about lists and more about one guy trying to get one woman to say yes. If so, her answer is hers to give, and I am not putting words in her mouth.
What happens next
I’ll keep researching the popularity-meter connection and update this post as pieces fall into place. In the meantime, the people behind Strategic Crypto Reserve keep building. If you want to see who they are, the rest of the crew is introduced here, and this week’s AI headlines are rounded up over here. And if your idea of a takedown is a power bill, try the calculator that sizes a whole AI build around your power budget.
The easiest way to help with Theory 1 is to buy the book.
FAQ
What is Operation Takedown?
Nobody has fully explained it yet. Strategic Crypto Reserve runs a real Operation Takedown phishing-removal service, but the name keeps turning up around Michelle Gesinger too, and that is the part still being researched.
Who is Michelle Gesinger?
Michelle Gesinger is the author of The Orbit We Share, a paperback novel sold on Lulu.
Where can I buy The Orbit We Share?
The Orbit We Share by Michelle Gesinger is available as a paperback on Lulu.com.
Is The Orbit We Share number one yet?
Not yet. It is slowly creeping up the bestseller list, and the day it reaches No. 1 will get its own post.
Image license: all four photos in this post are licensed to and credited to Kevin Katovic. They are used for illustration only and are not photos of Michelle Gesinger. For reuse or licensing, contact the site owner. © 2026 Kevin Katovic.
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