Tom Swift III - Series 3 Book List

The third series was published in black trade paperbacks. I believe the first nine were also released in hardcover. I'm not sure if number ten was released in hardcover or not. Number eleven was paperback only. The first three books in this series were also released as a three volume set. It should also be noted that libraries will sometimes buy paperbacks and convert them into hardcover books. They cut off the cover, slap a hardcover binding on it and then sometimes paste the paperback cover onto the new binding. Even original hardcover books aren't safe from rebinding. If a book gets a lot of use and starts to fall apart, libraries will rebind them as well.

THE COMPLETE LIST OF TOM SWIFT III (SERIES 3)

Tom Swift III by Victor Appleton

Published by Wanderer Books (A division of Simon & Schuster)

1981-1984

1. The City in the Stars (1981)
2. Terror on the Moons of Jupiter (1981)>
3. The Alien Probe (1981)
4. The War in Outer Space (1981)
5. The Astral Fortress (1981)
6. The Rescue Mission (1981)
7. Ark Two (1982)
8. Crater of Mystery (1983)
9. Gateway to Doom (1983)
10. The Invisible Force (1983)
11. Planet of Nightmares (1984)
12. Chaos on Earth (1984) (Never Released)
13. The Microworld (1984) (Never Released)

Click Here to view a picture of a what a complete set of Tom Swift series three paperbacks would look like sitting on a shelf.

There were definitely eleven books released, but I'm not sure about number twelve. I remember it appearing in the book catalog down at the local bookstore. But when they tried ordering it, they were told it was back-ordered. It may never have been released. If you have a copy, PLEASE let me know.

NOTE: As far as I know #12 was not released, but the book was obviously written and ready to be released. (i.e. almost ready to be sent to the printers) The question is, did any uncorrected proofs or advanced reading copies (ARCS) escape before they canceled the book?

I had been wary about adding #13 to the list since I did not have any concrete evidence that it actually had been planned. With #12, I had actually seen it listed in the "Books In Print" catalog down at the local bookstore during the '80s. But, as it turns out, both #12 and #13 do exist in manuscript form. When the Stratemeyer Syndicate was bought out by Simon & Schuster in 1984, the Syndicate's records, including the two manuscripts, were sent to a warehouse in Bristol, PA. They sat there collecting dust for about ten years before they were donated to the New York Public Library. They collected even more dust over the next three years as they waited to be cataloged. Finally, a group of Stratemeyer Syndicate scholars traveled to New York and gave the collection of Syndicate records a quick look-over. The collection still needed cataloging, so they managed to convince Chubb, a major insurance company, to cough up $75,000 to pay for the cataloging and preservation of The Stratemeyer Syndicate records. The cataloging will not begin until the spring or summer of 1998. Nobody will have access to the manuscripts until the cataloging is complete. (Thanks go to James D. Keeline, who was one of the researchers who had a chance to see the manuscripts, for this information.)

NEW! --- The cataloging is now complete and people have access to the Syndicate documents, including various manuscripts.

Robert E. Vardman was the author of Gateway to Doom as well as a couple of the Tom Swift series 4 books. He has a web page located at http://www.cenotaphroad.com

The first three books in this series were also released in a box set.

Click Here to view a picture of it.

The Tom Swift Series three books were released in Norway.

Click Here to go to Arnt Hatten's web page where he has scans of the books as well as the Norwegian editions of the Rick Brant Series.

I've also discovered a cover variation of the Tom Swift series three books.

Click Here to read all about it.

While re-reading "Terror on the Moons of Jupiter", I flipped the book over and read the caption on the back. To my surprise, it told of things that never happened in the book. Here is a partial quote from the caption.

"Someone else is after the minerals of Jupiter's moons, and that someone is a madman who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Tom risks his life to save the crew of the Danial Boone from a terrible plague unleased by the sinister criminal in this exciting tale of outer-space espionage."

Nobody was really interested in any minerals in the book. There was no plague. The only thing I can figure is the caption was written based on an early outline of the story and never fixed. I'm glad the story turned out like it did instead of like this. I wonder if any copies of the book had this fixed? Both of my copies have this strange caption on the back. I've noticed on several other books in this series that there are minor errors on their captions as well. Somebody must not have been on the ball. :-)

Number five, Tom Swift: The Astral Fortress was originally going to be called Tom Swift: The Space Fortress.

Tom Swift #7: Ark Two was originally scheduled to be the sixth book in the series but, for whatever reasons, it became the seventh with Tom Swift: The Rescue Mission taking it's place in the number six spot.

I love reading these books and if you have any extra ones you wish to trade or sell at a reasonable price, let me know. Condition isn't real important as I only need reading copies. Of course, if they are in nice shape, so much the better.

Click Here to view my trade list.

Click Here to go back to my main page.