When Apple Computer whiz Steve Wozniak was young, one of his fiction heroes was Tom Swift, the young hero of dozens of children’s sci-fi adventure stories. And Wozniak wasn’t alone - more than 20 million Tom Swifts have been sold since the first book series kicked off with Tom Swift and his Motorcycle in 1910. All Tom Swift books have been authored by ‘Victor Appleton’, and at least one title by ‘Victor Appleton II’; actually this is a collective pseudonym - many ghostwriters have been hauled in over the years, to produce 100-plus titles and spin-offs.
For science fiction fans the ‘real’ Tom Swift probably began with the super-science featured in a second series, published from 1954-1971. In these books, in which Tom Swift Jr stars as ‘son’ of the first Tom, amazing inventions were the undisputed stars. Don’t for a moment think that the inventions were real (though they were claimed to be ‘based on scientific fact and probability’) but for young readers they were at least as good as the cosmos-crashing space operas dreamt up by Lensman-author Edward E ‘Doc’ Smith for an earlier audience.
Tom Swift and His Flying Lab introduced the Sky Queen, a mega-machine on a par with today’s Airbus A380, but with a supersonic speed capacity, and able to take off and land vertically, like a Harrier jumpjet. Great stuff, gimme!
After 1971 came further series, and a new speedster, the Excedra, a faster-than-light (FTL) starship reverse-engineered from alien technology. Rumours of a Tom Swift movie surface from time to time - with state-of-the-art cgi and a decent plot, this could make highly watchable entertainment for popcorn munchers. Here’s hoping.
Visit this fact-filled Tom Swift AP site here.
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