Customer Reviews

Under the Radar (Tom Swift, Young Inventor)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was familiar with the original series my own father read, so I got the first of these new titles when they started coming out. My then 8 and now 9 year old son enjoys listening to them as a read aloud. He reads well and might find the reading level a little easy compared to what he reads himself, but its fun. It strikes me to be a tad on the conservative side: the bad guys are often an anti-tech "environmentalist" group, and the role of Tom's sister is only given some credit in this most recent novel.

I began reading the Tom Swift Jr. stories back in 1960 and have collected every TS book out there starting with the original series circa 1910. Unfortunately, that includes this series - a terrible abuse of the name Tom Swift. The stories are ridiculously unimaginative and the writing (I am an author so I do know a few things about the writing game) is poor at best. Where other TS series seemed to be aimed at 12-18 year olds, this entire series, and this book, seemed aimed at 8 year olds.

In this story, Tom has a new invisibility suit. His father is kidnapped, so... wait for it... Tom uses the suit to rescue his dad.

The plot line is so thin you can see right through it and the lack of writing skill exhibited is like having an uncomfortably large elephant not just in the room with you, but actually standing on your foot. Grinding down.

It isn't any wonder that they stopped after just 6 of this series.

There is better fan-written fiction out there than this book and series.

This book helps readers understand how people who have thought they were "enemies" could take a different perspective and end up working together. As with other books in this series, "it is great," my son (8) says.

My son, who is 10, loves this series and has read all of them. He has recommended them to friends who have also gone on to read the whole series.