Books by II Appleton

In the twenty-first novel in this new series, Tom has defeated the Electricity Vampires and now wants something a bit less diabolical to take up his time. A new X-Prize is announced that intrigues him: fly a solar-powered aircraft, non-stop, around the globe in just 36 hours! That sort of speed will require an electrical powered jet, and that will burn up a lot of electricity. So, how can he manage to make what he needs by day... and still have enough to run at full speed at night? Might his recently discovered cousin in England, Thomasina Swift, be of some assistance? After all, she and her partner, Betty, have come up with an incredible solar cloth! Just as long as nothing "exotic" is used like one of Tom's Power Pods. Complicating things is a mysterious woman, and a deadly opponent, seemingly out to keep Tom from winning or perhaps from ever getting back home alive.

In the 20th adventure of this new series, Tom Swift finds a pleasant day test sailing a new yacht is turning into an attack from the sky. Out of nowhere a lightning bolt strikes his boat and sucks all power from everywhere. Not a freak incident, it seems to be more of a warning of things to come when a large power generating station along the East Coast is attacked next, with the same loss of electricity as if it had been siphoned back into the sky. This time, there is a great deal of damage and a near death. More and more power stations are targeted and now Tom must try to find out several vital things: Who is attacking? Why are they invisible and how do they manage that? What is their purpose in zig-zagging up and down the country hitting station after station? Not only is he broadsided by these attacks, he also finds out there is another Tom Swift out there; or rather a Tommy Swift. Together they work to uncover the evil attackers Bud Barclay has dubbed the Electricity Vampires.

In this hardbound edition of novel 23 in this series, Tom must travel to Mars to find out just why the small moon, Phobos, has suddenly begun coming close to the surface. In fact it is coming down to lower and lower orbits that could, within months, endanger the colonists on the planet below.He first tries to use brute force and to push it back into higher orbit, but nearly loses several spacecraft in the attempt. So, he now is faced with finding out the why of it all before he can find a solution that won't mean simply destroying the moon.That, he fears, might backfire and do damage to the colony and the planet. He tries to find some answers with the aid of his Space Friends, but they seem to have disappeared from his life. Without their help he mounts an expedition of Phobos and finds about the last thing he might think of. Now it is a race against time to see if he can rectify the situation and re-place Phobos in its correct orbit.