Operation Ares is a science fiction novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, published as a paperback original by Berkley Books in 1970.

[4] Operation Ares depicts a dystopian future where the United States is controlled by an anti-technological leftist regime.

The story traces protagonist John Castle's conflict with the government and his increasing involvement with a rebellion backed by a Martian colony which has severed its ties to the U.S.

[4] While occasionally cited as a libertarian text, Wolfe himself attributes its politics to his being "much more a doctrinaire conservative when I was a good deal younger.

She described it as "a convincing, quiet, low-keyed, intelligent book which somehow fades out into nothing" and, despite praising Wolfe's technique, concluded it was "a failure, shadowy and inconclusive.