Death Quake

Tom Swift IV #12

by Victor Appleton, Bridget McKenna

Tom's work on a psychotronic translator, which deciphers brain waves and reads minds, has been interrupted by a small earthquake. But the minor tremor may have major consequences: a terrorist group using stolen nuclear material has vowed to turned the epicenter of the next - and much more massive - quake into ground zero!

Genres: Science Fiction

155 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Victor Appleton was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its successors, most famous for being associated with the Tom Swift series of books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...

The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941.
In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It has four different storylines: eco-terrorists stealing a nuclear device, Tom's mind-reading device getting stolen by criminals, Tom's feud with a scientist who dismisses him because he's young, and stopping an earthquake by tunneling into the center of the earth (where they meet molemen!). I liked the first two storylines the best. Tom's mind-reading device was intriguing and easily could have been the focus of its own book, considering there are three variations of it.

The main complaint against the book seems to be that it does a bad job of juggling the storylines. In particular, the second half of the book paints itself into a corner, because the big earthquake and the journey to the center of the earth takes up 50 pages in a row. Since Tom is underground, it is literally impossible for him to stop the terrorists or recover the stolen mind-reading device. The book ignores those storylines, and throws in a quick resolution to them, in the last chapter. That was unsatisfying. It would have been better, if the book went back and forth between Tom underground, and the other characters stopping villains on the surface.

[Phil · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has it all: previous inventions, science, sub-par writing, pseudoscience, robots, earthquakes, mole-people, mind reading, gambling, and wild parties. This book was very unfocused and had too many sub plots masquerading as actual plots.

One of the plots dealt with earthquakes, and all of the science associated with that was pretty solid, I guess. Another plot dealt with a mind reading device, which was completely stupid. Another plot dealt with some sort of anti-nuclear power group of terrorists. And then there was something about a scientist not liking Tom Swift because he was a high schooler, and everyone was annoyed that the scientist didn't just fall down and worship Tom Swift for being the great and almighty Tom Swift. Those parts were just really, really annoying.

Overall, a badly written book, and it is not hard to see how the series went downhill after #10 Mind Games.

As a personal note, I had never read this one before. The library I patronized while I was growing up didn't have it in circulation. I didn't miss anything.

[Christopher Brehm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good