Victor Appleton

In book 24 of this new series, Tom Swift runs afoul of several flying vehicles including a recent Venus Probe sent to study seismic activity on the super hot second planet. What he does not realize is he will be drawn into a rescue mission when the designers fail to take into consideration many things that go toward keeping a tall structure upright. Before he can even plan a rescue Tom and Bud Barclay must wrestle a small jet down to the ground when someone tries to knock them from the sky. Then, he and another pilot take a test flight that ends in Tom being a crash victim in an unfriendly country where he is rescued by a resistance organization but not before the government there declares to the world that the is dead Finally, when the mission to Venus looks as if it can be handled by a robot, it soon becomes clear that it will take a human touch. And, we all know that means Tom Swift

Tom Swift has enthralled generations of children with his amazing adventures. Here are Twenty four Tom Swift novels in two volumes. Each of these two massive omnibus editions has twelve complete novels. So return to a simpler time, put away your cynicism, and dust of your sense of wonder because you re off on a series of grand adventures Include here are Tom Swift in Captivity (Or a Daring Escape by Airship), Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera (Or Thrilling Adventures While Taking Moving Pictures ), Tom Swift and His Great Searchlight (Or on the Border for Uncle Sam), Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon (Or the Longest Shots on Record), Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone (Or the Picture That Saved a Fortune), Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship (Or the Naval Terror of the Seas), Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel (Or the Hidden City of the Andes), Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders (Or the Underground Search for the Idol of Gold), Tom Swift and His War Tank (Or Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam), Tom Swift and His Air Scout (Or Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky), Tom Swift and His Undersea Search (Or the Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic), Tom Swift among the Fire Fighters (Or Battling with Flames from the Air), Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive (Or Two Miles a Minute on the Rails)

Have you ever wondered just How Damon Swift went from the older Swift Company to having the mega-complex, Swift Enterprises? Well, the story is told in this new novel about his initial dream and announcement he intends to build a facility four miles on each side for a whopping sixteen square miles of space. It covers his struggles with various local and state government agencies, and how the FAA nearly put a halt to it all because of a misunderstanding This story takes place over a one year period and covers from the first set of plans through the first day the new Enterprises is open for business and also tells how some of the key people working there got hired. And, it tells the story of Damon's frustrating first encounters with would-be muckraker, Dan Perkins, the new Editor of the local paper, the Shopton Bulletin.

Tom Swift & friends journey to the Arctic in his custom airship to seek for the legendary Valley of Gold. When his map is stolen by his longtime nemesis, Andy Foger, who has himself built a competing airship, the race is on across frigid Alaska to see who will be the first to find the limitless fortune. (source: Wikipedia)

A $10,000 prize lures Tom into competing at a local aviation meet at Eagle Park. Tom is determined to build the fastest plane around, but his plans mysteriously disappear, which means Tom must redesign his new airplane from the beginning. A side-plot through the story is Mr. Swift's failing health. (source: Wikipedia)

"Tom, I don't believe it can be done " "But, Dad, I'm sure it can " Tom Swift looked over at his father, who was seated in an easy chair in the library. The elderly gentleman-his hair was quite white now-slowly shook his head, as he murmured again: "It can't be done, Tom It can't be done I admit that you've made a lot of wonderful things-things I never dreamed of-but this is too much. To transmit pictures over a telephone wire, so that persons cannot only see to whom they are talking, as well as hear them-well, to be frank with you, Tom, I should be sorry to see you waste your time trying to invent such a thing." "I don't agree with you. Not only do I think it can be done, but I'm going to do it. In fact, I've already started on it. As for wasting my time, well, I haven't anything in particular to do, now that my giant cannon has been perfected, so I might as well be working on my new photo telephone instead of sitting around idle.

"Well, Ned, are you ready?" "Oh, I suppose so, Tom. As ready as I ever shall be." "Why, Ned Newton, you're not getting afraid; are you? And after you've been on so many trips with me?" "No, it isn't exactly that, Tom. I'd go in a minute if you didn't have this new fangled thing on your airship. But how do you know how it's going to work-or whether it will work at all? We may come a cropper." "Bless my insurance policy " exclaimed a man who was standing near the two lads who were conversing. "You'd better keep near the ground, Tom." "Oh, that's all right, Mr. Damon," answered Tom Swift. "There isn't any more danger than there ever was, but I guess Ned is nervous since our trip to the underground city of gold.

"Letter for you, Tom Swift." "Ah, thanks, Mr. Wilson. This is the first mail I've had this week. You've been neglecting me," and the young inventor took the missive which the Shopton postman handed to him over the gate, against which Tom was leaning one fine, warm Spring day. "Well, I get around as often as I can, Tom. You're not home a great deal, you know. When you're not off in your sky racer seeing how much you can beat the birds, you're either hunting elephants in Africa, or diving down under the ocean, or out in a diamond mine, or some such out-of-the-way place as that. No wonder you don't get many letters. But that one looks as if it had come quite a distance.

"Where are you going, Tom?" asked Mr. Barton Swift of his son as the young man was slowly pushing his motor-cycle out of the yard toward the country road. "You look as though you had some object in view." "So I have, dad. I'm going over to Lanton." "To Lanton? What for?" "I want to have a look at that motor-boat." "Which boat is that, Tom? I don't recall your speaking about a boat over at Lanton. What do you want to look at it for?" "It's the motor-boat those fellows had who tried to get away with your turbine model invention, dad. The one they used at the old General Harkness mansion, in the woods near the lake, and the same boat that fellow used when he got away from me the day I was chasing him here." "Oh, yes, I remember now.

"Now, see here, Mr. Swift, you may think it all a sort of dream, and imagine that I don't know what I'm talking about; but I do If you'll consent to finance this expedition to the extent of, say, ten thousand dollars, I'll practically guarantee to give you back five times that sum "I don't know, Alec, I don't know," slowly responded the aged inventor. "I've heard those stories before, and in my experience nothing ever came of them. Buried treasure, and lost vessels filled with gold, are all well and good, but hunting for an opal mine on some little-heard-of island goes them one better." "Then you don't feel like backing me up in this matter, Mr. Swift?" "No, Alec, I can't say I do. Why, just stop and think for a minute. You're asking me to put ten thousand dollars into a company, to fit out an expedition to go to this island-somewhere down near Panama, you say it is-and try to locate the lost mine from which, some centuries ago, opals and other precious stones came. It doesn't seem reasonable.

"Father," exclaimed Tom Swift, looking up from a paper he was reading, "I think I can win that prize " "What prize is that?" inquired the aged inventor, gazing away from a drawing of a complicated machine, and pausing in his task of making some intricate calculations. "You don't mean to say, Tom, that you're going to have a try for a government prize for a submarine, after all." "No," not a submarine prize, dad," and the youth laughed. "Though our Advance would take the prize away from almost any other under-water boat, I imagine. No, it's another prize I'm thinking about." "What do you mean?" "Well, I see by this paper that the Touring Club of America has offered three thousand dollars for the speediest electric car. The tests are to come off this fall, on a new and specially built track on Long Island, and it's to be an endurance contest for twenty-four hours, or a race for distance, they haven't yet decided. But I'm going to have a try for it, dad, and, besides winning the prize, I think I'll take Andy Foger down a peg. "What's Andy been doing now?" "Oh, nothing more than usual. He's always mean, and looking for a chance to make trouble for me, but I didn't refer to anything special He has a new auto, you know, and he boasts that it's the fastest one in this country. I'll show him that it isn't, for I'm going to win this prize with the speediest car on the road."