FORGOTTEN BOOK: TOM SWIFT AND HIS PLANET STONE

 Tom Swift and His Planet Stone; or, Discovering the Secret of Another World by "Victor Appleton" (Harriet S. Adams, this time) (1935)

Ah, Tom Swift.  Youthful inventor and clean-cut all American boy, later to grow into an inventing business mogul and all-American young man...the hero of forty juvenile novels, beginning with Tom Swift and His Motorcycle; or, Fun and Adventure on the Road in 1910...later to spawn four additional series featuring Tom's descendants and various versions of Tom, for a total of 103 volumes thus far.

Some basics about the original Tom.  The character was created by book packager Edward Stratemeyer; the books were ghost-written under the name "Victor Appleton" following outlines provided.  Howard Garis -wrote the first 35 books, ending with 1932's Tom Swift and His Giant Magnet; or, Bringing Up the Lost Submarine.  (Garis was best known for writing the Uncle Wiggily stories, producing six a week for 37 years -- a total of more than 11,000 stories about the likable rabbit.  For Stratemeyer, he also wrote 26 books in the Bobbsey Twin series, the Curlytops series, the Buddy series, the Rocket Riders series, and the Teddy series, as well as a number of books in the Motor Boys series, the Baseball Joe series, and several in the Campfire Girls series.  In all, Garis published over 197 juvenile novels.)  Stratemeyr's daughter, Harriet S. Adams, wrote books #32-38, including Tom Swift and His Planet Stone.   Tom then went into a hiatus of four years before returning for two final books in 1939 and 1940.  These two were ghosted by Thomas Moyston Mitchell and were published as Big Little Books; both were poorly written and did not reflect well on the Tom swift saga.  In my mind, I consider Planet Stone to be the last real Tom Swift adventure. while also acknowledging that the Harriet Adams books did not hold a candle to those written by Garis.

Tom is the son of Barton Swift, owner of the Swift Construction company.  (Mrs. Swift is long dead.)  Barton Swift soon morphs into a successful inventor himself.  Tom's best friend is Ned Newton.  His girlfriend is Mary Nestor.  Mush later in the series, Tom marries Mary (once married, Mary fades rapidly into the background) and Ned becomes Tom's business manager and financial advisor.  Tom has become friends with Mr. Wakefield Damon, an elderly (-ish) man who sold Tom his first motorcycle, and whose speech is laden with "Bless this" and "Bless that.'.  Damon often accompanies Tom and Ned on their adventures.  Eradicate Sampson is an elderly Negro who works for the Swifts; indicative of the times, Rad is poorly educated and totally loyal to his masters.  The early books in the series also had Boomerang, Eradicate's much loved and much stubborn mule, now long dead.  Added to the Swift circle is Koku. a giant from the South American hidden country of Ambolata, or Giantland -- first encountered in 1912's Tom Swift in Captivity; or, A Daring Escape by Airship.  Koku is a low intelligence, super strong being who guards Tom and his interests with fierce loyalty.

Tom, by the way, has only a high school education but his native American grit has held him in good stead as he out-invents the smartest people on the planet.   Tom is also amazingly jingoistic, but in a very innocuous manner.  Unless you are a friend -- such as Eradicate or Koku -- Tom is remarkable blase about the value of lives of other races and ethnicities -- stereotypical, I fear, of the times; I advise all to swallow a big chill pill before embarking on the series.

 Over the years, Tom has invented a wide number of inventions, many of which were used by the government for war purposes.  Others revolutionized different areas of business.  The Swift's  company had grown to a large and important business, often the target of spies and neer-do-wells.  By now, Barton Swift is old and in poor health, leaving the company to Tom.  Also old and unable to accompany Tom on his adventures is Eradicate, who is expected to soon join Boomerang in that land beyond.

When Planet Stone, Tom is working on a lamp whose rays he hopes will be used to cure disease.  He is interrupted by an intruder -- intruders tend to have an easy time getting past Tom's super tight security measures.  The man is Dr. Hardman Bane, supposedly a medical doctor from New York City.  He wants Tom to use his new lamp to see if it can eliminate various samples of deadly diseases he has brought with him.  It's uncertain how Bane had heard of Tom's lamp because Tom tends to keep a tight rein on inventions he is working on.  Plus, Bane's manner and appearance is off-putting.  As Tom is turning down the request, Koku suddenly collapses into a mysterious coma.  Tom rushes koku to the hospital, where doctors are in a quandary on how to treat the giant.  Nothing is working and Koku appears to be near death.  Bane reappears and asked to "borrow" Tom's Television Detector, an invention from two books previous;  the Television Detector is still going through the patent process and Tom once again refuses Bane.  Bane leaves, telling Tom he may regret his decision.  Tom at least figures out what has caused Koku's collapse and he prepares and antidote.  He rushes to the hospital to apply the antidote to his dying friend, only to find Bane in the giant's room about to inject him with something.  Tom stops Bane and injects his cure into the giant.  Bane insists that Tom be arrested for practicing medicine without a license,  It's all a kerfuffle, but as Koku recovers, Tom's legal danger lessens.

So where does the "Planet Stone" come in?

Just before Koku collapsed, he received a letter from his twin brother Tola, who was working in England as a circus strongman.  Koku and Tola's evil brother Kosk, king of their hidden tribe, has died, and Koku and Tola must travel back to Giantland to rule the country. Evidently a giant stone had fallen from the sky and the names of Koku and Tolu were written on its side -- an omen which the tribe deciphers as a message the two should rule the country.  The stone, of course, is a meteor.  The names on the side were most likely makings that accidently resemble the names of the twin brothers -- much like people can see images in cloud formations.

For no reason that I can discern, about a third of the way through the book, Tom starts calling the meteor the "Planet Stone."

It should be noted that, while in his coma, Koku, speaking in his native language, said that the stone from the sky fell and crushed Tom, then split open to release all sorts of animals, birds, and vegetation.  Koku then immediately lapsed back into his coma, so his utterances must have been from a dream.  Right?

So it's off to South America with Tom, Ned, Koku, Tola, and Mr. Damon, along with a crew for the "Sky Train," which will carry them.  (The Sky Train was the invention featured in Tom's previous adventure.)  In addition to wanting to see their friends enthroned, Tom and Ned are interested in examining the strange fallen meteor.  (Mr. Damon was interested in avoiding his wife, so the trip was a blessing.)  Just before taking off, our heroes learn that Bane has purchased an old dirigible that Tom had invented years before, has modified it so that it will travel faster than Tom's Sky Train, and intends to travel to Ambolata himself to capture the meteor.

Anyway, that's the setup.  There are dangers, there are thrills, there are rescues galore.  Tom and crew jump from one frying pan to another to another.  And Coincidence Theatre is in full swing here.  SPOILER ALERT:  All ends well because Tom is an all-American hero.

Tom Swift and the Planet Stone is one of the harder books in the series to obtain.  Prices from internet sellers put it out of my reach.  It was one of the few that is still under copyright protection so it is not available to read on the internet.  Few libraries have copies they are willing to lend; I have tried for a number of years to get a copy from Interlibrary Loan to no avail,  Except this week.  A copy arrived from the Library of Congress.  Usually when a book arrives from the LOC, it must cannot be carried out of the receiving library, but this time I was allowed to check the book out.  Huzzah!  Planet Stone happens to have been the only original Tom Swift novel I had not read, so I was super exciting to read it.

Was it worth it?  I think so.  It was far more fantastical (and far more unbelievable -- and THAT's saying something) than the previous books, like reading a watered down book in Stratemeyer's Great Marvel series by "Roy Rockwood," or some of the Carl Claudy science fiction stories from The American Boy.  Part of me was happy to pay rest to the Tom Swift saga and part of me wishes there were more.  The question is, should I go on to the Tom Swift, Jr. books published in the fifties and Sixties as by 'Victor Appleton II"?  These were very popular among my age group when I was young but the one that read did not do it for me.  Time will tell whether I bite the bullet on that series.