Customer Reviews

Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle Or, Daring Adventures in Elephant Land

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I have just read Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, and enjoyed it. The book was written in 1911, which means it is nearly 100 years old. It is surprising that it can still prove entertaining, but it shows the "notions" of its time.

The story is typical of the approx. 35 "Tom Swift Sr." books-- written from 1910 to about 1935. Tom comes up with an invention -- in this case, his electric rifle -- and has a number of adventures with it. In this book, Tom first designs the rifle and builds it. There's a sense of expectation, and there's the excitement of testing the weapon out. The new rifle fires blobs of electrons that are like tiny balls of electricity. The weapon is silent, and has a dial that can set the power from "stun" to "destruction." So far so good. We are into a good story, and enjoying ourselves.

Next, Tom decides to go to Africa, to the elephant land, as he calls it, to test the rifle out on big game. He brings along Mr. Durban, an old "shakir" and white hunter, who cut his teeth hunting elephants in Africa. This is where the notions of a century ago start to come into conflict. In the book, Tom and his friends "mow down" countless elephants for their tusks. They also circle over a herd of Cape Buffalo, firing continually, and wiping out a good part of the herd. The buffalo slaughter is justified because "the buffalo MIGHT harm nearby natives in a village." Tom's friend Mr. Damon gets in some trouble for trying to shoot rhinoceros while they are sleeping. It goes on and on. All the members of the expedition -- Tom, Mr. Damon, Ned, and Mr. Durban -- are delighted that they have Tom's airship loaded from one end to the other with ivory. At the end of the book, we are told that they sold the ivory and more than recompensed the cost of the expedition. Well, this is fine. Today, we would not be so sanguine about this type of "mowing down" of game animals.

I personally think the book was heavily influenced by Theodore Roosevelt's famous expedition to Africa to hunt big game. Roosevelt, like many hunters of his day, seemed to feel his macho was at stake in hunting, and did not want to kill just one elephant, but dozens. As for African antelope -- stack them up like cordwood. At that time, Africa was teeming with game and wilderness. We can't really apply today's environmental sensibilities to a boy's book written a century ago.

The book has a very major plot element involving the rescue of two white, American missionaries from the clutches of a savage native tribe. There are heated battles, and many exciting scenes. Tom sets the electric rifle to stun, so we do not have wholesale slaughter of people. Even so, the action chapters are well turned, and provide page-turning moments.

It is only because this book is not comfortable reading in today's world that I rate the book "three stars." It is certainly not the first Tom Swift I would purchase. Even so, with a little understanding and some accomodation to the different world-view of the author, it can still entertain. It has entertaining and enjoyable characters, rich doses of humor, some lively dialog, and enough action to please any teenager. Or any superannuated, would-be teenager such as myself.

Hope this helps you get some sense of what's in this rather typical "Tom Swift Sr" adventure. If it is not your cup of tea, remember-- there are 34 other ones without these criticisms or shortcomings.

John Clute (1993) states that in the edisonade (a breathless adventure featuring the inventor-as-hero), inventions usually tend to be transportation or communication devices rather than weapons. But there are exceptions to this rule. Victor Appleton's _Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle_ (1911) is one such case. Of course, Tom does invent a new airplane in this thriller as well. But his main invention is most certainly a weapon.

The _Electric Rifle_ is the tenth Tom Swift novel and was written by Howard R. Garis, of _Uncle Wiggily_ fame. Garis wrote the first thirty-five Tom Swift adventures. (Harriet Stratemeyer Adams wrote the last three.) Garis was also the author of the first six titles in the Great Marvel series, another Stratemeyer syndicate project. For my money, the Great Marvel stories were better written and more imaginative than the Tom Swift tales. But they were never as popular. Tom Swift became the archtypical edisonade hero.

Sam Moskowitz (1976) once pointed out that the speech patterns of Mr. Damon in the Tom Swift stories resembled that of Uncle Wiggily. Garis's style of writing was stilted, even for his day. But what Garis lacked in literary polish, he made up for in speed of production. The first five Tom Swift books were published in 1910. The second five were published in 1911. And the next five were published in 1912. After that, his production slowed down a bit. But he frequently wrote more than one adventure a year.

Tom uses his invention-- a rifle that fires bolts of electricity-- to go big game hunting. Now, I will confess at the outset that I am not a hunter. I can think of few things in life that I would hate more than going on a hunting trip. I cannot watch a hunting and fishing show longer than 20 seconds. Listening to hunters recount their exploits sets my teeth on edge. So the scenes in which Tom reduces a whale, several sharks, and a water buffalo to bloody pulps did not exactly stir my blood with a sense of excitement. Nor did the scenes in which he kills a pair of pythons, several antelope (for supper), a pile of elephants (for their ivory tusks), rhinoceri, and lions. Hippos are spared because they are not considered "good sport".

I am not naive enough to assume that everybody shares my values. And certainly these hunting scenes would not have been considered at all remarkable back in 1911. There is a kind of innocent optimism about this novel-- a belief that mankind can persevere, do better, make the world a better place. We are a bit more sophisticated today. I sometimes wonder if we are the better off for it. But we cannot really go back, you know.

I would like to close with a technological note. Some sixty years later, Jack Cover invented the taser, an electronic weapon marketed by Taser International. "Taser" is an acronym for _Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle_. Few readers today remember the original novel. But it was not without some cultural impact.

_References_: Clute, John. "Edisonade". _The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction_, ed. Clute, John and Peter Nicholls. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993, 368-370.

Moskowitz, Sam. "Tom Swift and the Syndicate". In _Strange Horizons: The Spectrum of Science Fiction_. New York: Scribner's, 1976.

Its The Hunter again when I read the title I was like Elepant Land.? Of course you cant judge a book by its cover. Another great Tom Swift by Victor Appleton