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Tom Swift III #6
Tom Swift: Rescue Mission
Tom and his friends find themselves in the hands of unfriendly robots who are trying to eliminate all biological life from their planet.
- GenresScience FictionChildrens
Hardcover
Published June 1, 1999
31 people want to read
About the author
Victor Appleton II
123 books23 followerssee also Victor Appleton
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
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
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 25, 2024
This one is fairly good. The best since book one.
September 10, 2014
I've read Tom Swift novels before—most recently The Black Dragon, which I enjoyed, and Cyborg Kickboxer, which I most certainly did not—but The Rescue Mission falls within the third series, the one I remember having read and enjoyed as a teenager. And on rereading The Rescue Mission, I was not disappointed, for the most part.
The third Tom Swift series, credited to brand-name author Victor Appleton but—at least in the case of The Rescue Mission—actually written by Bill Rotsler and Sharman Divolo, was different from the other Tom Swift series in that, while it starred Swift as teenage prodigy inventor, it took place further in the future and was very much space opera. And, true to form, in The Rescue Mission, the team of Swift, computer expert Ben Walking Eagle, and empath Anita Thorwald investigate a distress call from outside the Solar System itself.
The Rescue Mission is fun, if a bit juvenile, but it doesn't condescend to the young adults who would have been reading it in 1981; it decidedly did not do so to me. (However, it gets points off in this regard in its referencing past and future Tom Swift adventures by the names of the adventures, rather than by reference. This is hamfisted at best, and at worst it makes brutally obvious that the book is part of a series—collect them all!) The writing is nothing special, but it reads quickly, and is a nice introduction to more-or-less hard science fiction for kids and young adults; with luck, such youngsters might progress to, say, Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile science fiction, such as, say, Starship Troopers. And it's nice to see Rotsler and Divolo making good, tacit use of Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics in the character of Aristotle, and playing with convention by making the villains violate the First Law.
Where The Rescue Mission falls off most precipitously, is in Anita's role as "damsel-in-distress". Yes, Rotsler and Divolo wrote the book in 1981, but that's really no excuse for not making Anita as strong as she could be otherwise. I don't recall that in Terror on the Moons of Jupiter, the other Tom Swift novel I remember reading as a teenager, there was quite the same problem.
But, all things being equal, that's a minor mar on an otherwise enjoyable, if "fluffy", book.
The third Tom Swift series, credited to brand-name author Victor Appleton but—at least in the case of The Rescue Mission—actually written by Bill Rotsler and Sharman Divolo, was different from the other Tom Swift series in that, while it starred Swift as teenage prodigy inventor, it took place further in the future and was very much space opera. And, true to form, in The Rescue Mission, the team of Swift, computer expert Ben Walking Eagle, and empath Anita Thorwald investigate a distress call from outside the Solar System itself.
The Rescue Mission is fun, if a bit juvenile, but it doesn't condescend to the young adults who would have been reading it in 1981; it decidedly did not do so to me. (However, it gets points off in this regard in its referencing past and future Tom Swift adventures by the names of the adventures, rather than by reference. This is hamfisted at best, and at worst it makes brutally obvious that the book is part of a series—collect them all!) The writing is nothing special, but it reads quickly, and is a nice introduction to more-or-less hard science fiction for kids and young adults; with luck, such youngsters might progress to, say, Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile science fiction, such as, say, Starship Troopers. And it's nice to see Rotsler and Divolo making good, tacit use of Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics in the character of Aristotle, and playing with convention by making the villains violate the First Law.
Where The Rescue Mission falls off most precipitously, is in Anita's role as "damsel-in-distress". Yes, Rotsler and Divolo wrote the book in 1981, but that's really no excuse for not making Anita as strong as she could be otherwise. I don't recall that in Terror on the Moons of Jupiter, the other Tom Swift novel I remember reading as a teenager, there was quite the same problem.
But, all things being equal, that's a minor mar on an otherwise enjoyable, if "fluffy", book.
October 28, 2013
A great series for young adults. Tom Swift continues his adventures in outer space. A great adventure. I enjoyed these when I was in junior high.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews