Tom Swift and His 3-D Telejector

Tom Swift Jr. #24

by Victor II Appleton

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Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Childrens

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Tiggyleee · Rating 5 out of 5]

All these early reading books are great. I gained my early knowledge and interest of reading from these books. I read this one because it was given to me and I had never read this one before.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tom Swift, Jr., books were a fun, upbeat, and interesting adventure series published for kids from 1954 to 1971 that promoted science, fair-play, patriotism, and team-work; they were good, positive books. The series served as a sequel to the original Tom Swift series that appeared from 1910 to the beginnings of World War II; Tom and his sister, Sandy, are the children of the first Tom and his wife, Mary Nestor; Tom's girlfriend Phyllis Newton is the daughter of Tom Sr.'s sidekick Ned Newton (now Uncle Ned to Tom and Sandy); the family home is still located in Shopton along Lake Carlopa, etc. It's nice that the continuity is preserved rather than just being over-written as happened to The Hardy Boys; in the first Tom Jr., book beings make contact that were first hinted at in the final real Tom Sr., book, Planet Stone, and throughout the series references to the history are made such as naming a device the Damonscope in honor of a character from the first series, Mr. Wakefield Damon. In addition to the Swifts and Newtons, Tom Jr. has his own sidekick, Bud Barclay, and there are several interesting supporting characters such as Phil Radnor, Harlan Ames (I wonder if Harlan Ellison was the inspiration for the name?), Hank Sterling, Miss Trent (who I don't believe ever had a first name), and especially Chow Winkler, Tom's cook, a former "Texas chuck-wagon" cook who was given to a variety of wild and unlikely expressions such as, "Well, brand my space biscuits!" The earlier books had nice covers, end-papers, and illustrations: Graham Kaye and Charles Brey provided the art for the first twenty-five volumes, followed by Edward Moretz, after which the artistic (as well as the literary) quality starting going downhill. Tom invented and built many fantastic inventions (but remember it was the '50s and '60s), and had many exciting adventures along with his friends and family. They faced off against saboteurs and spies and the evil Brungarians but their good spirits and hard work and can-do attitude always paid off in the end. The continuity didn't always hold logically from book to book, and looking back it's easy to pick apart one thing or another, but they were fun and fine books in their time. This twenty-fourth volume has an okay cover with clunky robots in the middle-- presumably the Video Vikings checking the Green Orb.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought several of the Tom Swift, Jr. books as a child, and I decided as an adult that I'd try to collect the ones I don't have. I saw this at a Half Price and picked it up. It was a quick read; not too exciting for an adult and very 1950's in the boy/girl interactions (not surprising since it was written then).

It's definitely written for the 8-12 crowd, but it is full of non-stop action. It was a nice bit of nostalgia for me.