Rick Brant Science Adventure Series Index
Jeff Allender
and sensitively wrote about "Rick Brant Science Adventure Series Index" -
MR> Rick Brant Science Adventures by John Blaine (Hal Goodwin & P.J.
MR> Harkins)
MR> 14. The Pirates of Shem (1958)
That would be "Shan".
MR> 19. The Red Ruby Mystery (1964)
"The Ruby Ray Mystery"
MR> 20. The Veiled Raider (1965)
Plural, "Raiders"
MR> 22. The Deadly Dutchman (1967)
I held this book in my hands only today. A friendly bookstore has it with a
pseudo-parchment letter telling how it had only one small print run. Then want
$1000 for it. Three zeros. Honest.
MR> 24. ?? [published by a small press in limited quantities]
_The Magic Talisman_, (c) 1989 by Hal Goodwin as Blaine. Still available for
about US$25 plus shipping from the publisher: Manuscript Press, Box 336,
Mountain Home, TN 37684. Same style as the late-60s editions (ivory/gray
spine with cover art).
MR> Rick Brant's Science Projects
They only want US$600 for this one, but it's not in quite as good a shape as
_Dutchman_. I only own 13 of the series, so I guess I'm more than halfway ...
I know where I can buy another ten of them, should I win a lottery someday.
Mike Gannis
posting a series index to the Rick Brant Science Adventures by "John
Blaine" (Hal Goodwin & P.J. Harkins). I *loved* these books when I read
them as a kid back in the Sixties.
For those of you who never had the pleasure, they were
near-Heinlein-quality juveniles about a couple of late-teenage males who
got involved in adventures and mysteries in which accurate, plausible
science played a role. Rick Brant wasn't an all-competent genius kid who
whipped up fabulous inventions on a moment's notice; this guy had had the
good luck to be the son of a high-tech entrepreneur, had an
undergraduate-level knowledge of science and electronics, and was quite
capable of staying up with friends til 2 am watching bad science fiction
movies on TV and eating pizza (in The Flying Stingaree, I believe).
Imagine a cross between Travis McGee and Jonny Quest ...
Rick Brant's Science Projects was an excellent guide both to doing science
fair projects and to just generally messing around with science (chemistry,
fingerprinting, skin diving - the sort of things young nerds did before
there were computers ;-) ). It's also the first place I ever encountered
the Scientific-to-English translation guide:
"Accidentally strained during the mounting process" <--> "Dropped on the floor";
"Handled with extreme care during the entire procedure" <--> "*Not* dropped
on the floor";
"Typical results are shown" <--> "The best results are shown" ...
Gosh, I wish I had a chance to re-read these books, if only to see whether
they really were as good as I remember them. What's their availability? I
have *never* seen one in a used bookstore.
Who were Hal Goodwin & P.J. Harkins? Did they ever write anything else?
Mighty Morgno
:
: For those of you who never had the pleasure, they were
: near-Heinlein-quality juveniles about a couple of late-teenage males who
: got involved in adventures and mysteries in which accurate, plausible
: science played a role. Rick Brant wasn't an all-competent genius kid who
: whipped up fabulous inventions on a moment's notice; this guy had had the
: good luck to be the son of a high-tech entrepreneur, had an
who was nearly invincible.
: undergraduate-level knowledge of science and electronics, and was quite
: capable of staying up with friends til 2 am watching bad science fiction
: movies on TV and eating pizza (in The Flying Stingaree, I believe).
: Imagine a cross between Travis McGee and Jonny Quest ...
I remember a scene where one physicist is explaining to
a bystander that another physicist can treat some wound
because he is after all a doctor. Why he even stitched
up his own back after a lion attacked him. How? He
turned around so he could see what he was doing.
My brain is far too cluttered.
--
Michael Thompson
Castle Morgno
mor...@netcom.com