Showing results by author "Victor Appleton" in All Categories

Young Tom Swift purchases a motorcycle and, being the inventor that he is, modifies it to his specifications in time to transport his father's new invention (a revolutionary turbine motor design) to Albany. However, a group of investors plan to steal the design for themselves, and send a gang of thieves after Tom as he travels the backroads to Albany.

The first in a series of 28 Tom Swift books by Victor Appleton, this book introduces us to our hero Tom Swift son of noted inventor, Barton Swift. Tom's father's invention for new and improved turbine motor is stolen by the Happy Harry Gang, who we will meet in future episodes since they manage to escape this time. Each chapter is a cliffhanger filled with intrigue, espionage and excitement!

Book 4 of the Tom Swift series opens with our hero's father completing an amazing submarine loaded with high-tech gadgetry in his backyard and ready to enter it into a government competition. Tom, however, discovers through the newspaper that a vessel has sunk containing $300,000 in gold (which was a lot of money back in 1910 when this book was published). Tom and his friends decide to forgo the government prize of $50,000 to pursue the bigger one - encountering some new villains and despicable characters along the way.

When your dad funds the Swift Academy of Science and Technology, you’re bound to have a bunch of tech at your disposal. So no one bats an eye when Tom and his best friend, Noah, test their new virtual reality drone before class. At the academy, once class starts and the drone is parked, their brainiac friends then launch into farfetched discussions about the curriculum. And when they watch a documentary about the FBI’s most wanted hackers from the '80s, they quickly start speculating that the academy custodian is one of them.

Tom Swift and His Motorcycle is Volume 2 of the original Tom Swift series. In this book, first published in 1910, our hero, the young inventor Tom Swift, buys a motorboat at auction that he "soups up", making it one of the fastest boats on Lake Charlupa. Meanwhile, the Happy Harry Gang has some sort of interest in the motorboat, with shady characters lurking about the Swift laboratories and the boat.

In this episode, our hero Tom Swift, perfects a noiseless aeroplane able to cross enemy lines in a silent single bound without detection. Of course spies and evil scoundrels attempt to steal Tom's secrets, even going so far as to kidnap Mr. Nestor. Stay tuned to learn how Tom overcomes the forces of evil to save his girlfriend Mary's father and of more.

In Tom Swift and His Motor Boat, Tom's father - Barton Swift - a world-famous scientist, has been robbed of one of his greatest inventions. It's up to Tom to bring the criminals to justice, but he becomes a target of the rogues' anger when he unknowingly buys a boat in which the criminals have an interest in. This full cast production is an exciting adventure for the whole family.

In Book 3 of the Tom Swift series, Tom Swift and His Airship, our hero, Tom Swift, with the help of his new friend, balloonist John Sharp, builds an amazing airship. It's part dirigible, part airplane, and totally amazing, with a 20-cylinder motor and the ability to land on tall buildings in a single bound. Once again, the redhaired bully Andy Foger plots against Tom, but once again, he is foiled by our hero. Every chapter is a cliffhanger loaded with excitement.

Tom gets to take all sorts of cool classes at the Swift Academy of Science and Technology, but robotics may be the one he is most excited for. Their teacher is holding a battling robot tournament, and Tom has to build a machine that will come out on top. With the final battle coming up, Tom and his friends need as much time as possible to refine their masterpiece. But the rest of their teachers have been giving so many pop quizzes that they can barely focus in class, never mind concentrate on the tournament.

Sunken treasure in the Atlantic Ocean! Millions of dollars in gold just there for the taking. All our hero Tom Swift has to do is find it, and recover it. He knows the latitude and longitude, but it's not that easy when the treasure lies somewhere leagues beneath the surface of the ocean. But leave it to our hero, his amazing submarine, and his faithful friends to find a way. Sail along with Tom Swift on another exciting adventure battling the forces of nature, sea monsters, and evil villains, as he searches for treasure!

Tom Swift and His Air Glider by Victor Appleton, volume 12 of the Tom Swift series, takes our hero to Siberia in search of a long lost platinum mine. In order to accomplish this, the young inventor invents an "air glider" that (don't try this at home) operates best in a hurricane. In this episode instead of his arch rival Andy Foger, the Czarists provide the intrigue as they attempt to capture Tom and his friends.

Tom Swift and his Electric Runabout takes us back to gentler times when the bad guys weren't really that bad, didn't carry Uzis, and being an inventor like Thomas Edison was the dream of many young boys. In this book our hero creates an electric automobile with a top speed of over 100 mi./h, saves the bank, gives the bully two black eyes, wins the prize for the fastest automobile in a 500 mile race, only stopping once to recharge his batteries. Without a NASCAR pit crew, it only took Tom 25 min.

Volume seven of the Tom Swift series brings our hero, Tom Swift, to Phantom Mountain, somewhere in Colorado, in search of a band of rascals who use the power generated in a flash of lightning to create diamonds. Tom Swift encounters Barcoe Jenks, an eccentric character we met in the previous volume, who enlists Tom's aid to get the secret of making perfect diamonds from the sinister gang of Diamond Makers. Once again our hero, Tom Swift, saves his companions from many a disaster.

Tom Swift puts his modified motorcycle to the test while delivering top-secret plans, dodging spies and danger. His first thrilling ride kickstarts a legendary adventure series.

This is volume 6 of the Tom Swift series, Tom Swift and his Wireless Message where our hero, the young inventor, Tom Swift helps a fellow inventor get his airship the Whizzer off the ground. So far off the ground in fact that he and his fellow travelers are caught in a storm stranding them on an uninhabited tropical island fraught with earthquakes.

Volume nine of the Tom Swift series pits our hero Tom Swift against his arch rival Andy Foger in an airplane race for a prize of $10,000. A lot of money back in 1910. Andy has developed an even nastier bag of tricks in this volume. Our hero not only builds the world’s fastest monoplane in his garage, but saves his father's life by flying a world-class surgeon in the monoplane to his father's aid. Every chapter of this book is a cliffhanger, leaving the listener in anticipation of the next exciting chapter.

When a top-secret space probe is mysteriously shot down over the ocean, Tom Swift Jr. jumps into action with his latest invention—the Electronic Hydrolung! In Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung, the young genius must race against a shadowy enemy to recover the probe from the ocean floor before it falls into the wrong hands. With danger lurking beneath the waves and sabotage at every turn, Tom’s ingenuity is pushed to the limit in this thrilling sci-fi adventure.

Volume 10 of the Tom Swift series finds our hero building a new airship and taking it to Africa, where he hunts elephants with his new electric rifle and rescues two missionaries from a savage and crafty tribe of red pygmies. Please remember that this book was published in 1911, and attitudes and language acceptable at that time are not politically correct today.

With his new shadow in tow, Tom expects the night to be uneventful. But when the facility suddenly goes into quarantine mode, the overnight lock-in turns into a building-wide lockdown. Tom and his friends are left trapped in their respective rooms, with no way to communicate the outside world. As they make their way through the facility using methods that are a little more...creative...than normal, Tom and his friends start realizing that there is more to this quarantine than meets the eye. It’s up to them to not only escape, but also find out what - or who - is behind the lockdown.

It's another day at the Swift Academy when Tom starts finding little troll-like figures around campus. And he's not the only one. Much to the amusement and curiosity of students, these dolls are appearing all over the school. But even after they're collected by faculty, a second wave mysteriously appears - except these replacements record audio and play it back for surrounding listeners. Before everyone knows it, secrets and gossip are revealed across campus, and suddenly the figures aren't nearly as fun as they used to be.