I must be in the early stages of my dotage. I've been gradually reading/re-reading all the original
Tom Swift adventure stories and enjoying them quite a bit. Once they reach what's been dubbed the "second series" featuring Tom Swift
Jr. (1954-1971) they escape (mostly) from their old "boy's adventure story" roots and actually become some decent examples of early sci-fi. They were surprisingly original for the era they came out in even if they weren't Jules Verne novels by any stretch. Innocent, patriotic, occasionally naive, and "strictly boys club" though they were, I find them a nice bit of no-brain fun reading.
From a cultural perspective, these stories were significant in that it made it cool to be a "brain" and a "geek." I think they served as inspiration and a "green light" for a lot of the young readers (like me) who decided they really wanted to do something with science or technology when they grew up. Half of the early personal computer crowd, and a good number of people involved in the manned US space program (back when the US still had one
) acknowledge being inspired at an early age by these little tales. Not a bad thing when you think about the
real technology and innovations many of them were responsible for bringing into this world. Be interesting to see if the generation growing up on
Harry Potter and "young fantasy" novels will be inspired to do the same. (If not I guess they can always become wizards. Or maybe hook up with a really cool werewolf, or hottie vampire, and go have adventures battling flesh-eating zombies or something...)
Find summaries and Gutenberg links for the first series
here.
The second series is still under copyright. But very inexpensive used copies can often be found at 2nd-hand bookshops, Goodwill outlets, book faires, or online. I recently picked up a set of six at a local library sale for $4.
Story list for the second series (33 titles) behind the spoiler below.
Story list 2nd series
Tom Swift and His Flying Lab (1954)
Tom Swift and His Jetmarine (1954)
Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship (1954)
Tom Swift and His Giant Robot (1954)
Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster (1954)
Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space (1955)
Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter (1956)
Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire (1956)
Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite (1956)
Tom Swift and Ultrasonic Cycloplane (1957)
Tom Swift and His Deep Sea Hydrodome (1958)
Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon (1958)
Tom Swift and Space Solartron (1958)
Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope (1959)
Tom Swift and His Spectromarine Selector (1960)
Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts (1960)
Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X (1961)
Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung (1961)
Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar (1962)
Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober (1962)
Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates (1963)
Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway (1963)
Tom Swift and His Aquatomic Tracker (1964)
Tom Swift and His 3-D Telejector (1964)
Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere (1965)
Tom Swift and His Sonic Boom Trap (1965)
Tom Swift and His Subocean Geotron (1966)
Tom Swift and the Mystery Comet (1966)
Tom Swift and the Captive Planetoid (1967)
Tom Swift and His G-Force Inverter (1968)
Tom Swift and His Dyna-4 Capsule (1969)
Tom Swift and His Cosmotron Express (1970)
Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts (1971)
