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Rick Brant Science-Adventures #2
The Lost City: A Rick Brant Electronic Adventure
With the success of the lunar rocket in the previous book, The Rocket's Shadow, Rick and Scotty learn that they have been chosen as part of the expedition to Tibet for the second stage of the experiment. From the beginning of the expedition, however, they discover that someone does not want the experiment to succeed. As the date for the lunar relay looms closer, they are still miles away from their destination and in the hands of a dangerous criminal. Their one friend only a small Indian boy who has disappeared. Can they make it in time? Find out in this second volume of the Rick Brant Electronic Adventure Series.
153 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1947
13 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
John Blaine
168 books9 followers"John Blaine" was a pseudonym of Harold Leland Goodwin and Peter J. Harkins.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 13, 2021
In the afterglow of history's first successful rocket launch to the moon, one couldn't blame the Spindrift Island scientists for celebrating, but there's no time to spare. A scientific team is needed to travel to the plateau of Tengi-Bu in mountainous Tibet, where precise calculations have confirmed a radio receiver would be able to communicate via triangular signal between Spindrift Island and the moon. Teenage Rick Brant and his ex-Marine friend Scotty will attend the Tengi-Bu expedition, as well as two of Spindrift's finest scientists: big, broad-chested Hobart Zircon, and small, nervous Julius Weiss. Hartson Brant—Rick's father and Spindrift's lead scientist—will wait at home while this crew of four attempts to make it to Tengi-Bu by July 10, when Hartson will send the radio signal. Getting to the plateau and setting up the radio apparatus by then won't be easy, but the saboteurs from the previous book have been dealt with, and Rick and his companions are ready to make history. It will be fun...right?
The seagoing portion of the trip starts badly when Rick finds evidence that someone on the boat tried to damage Spindrift's radio equipment. The only clue to who ordered the sabotage is a name—a man known as "Conway" contacted a crew member and bribed him to do the deed—but at least now Rick, Scotty, Zircon, and Weiss know to keep close watch over the equipment. Docking in India, our party finds the city of Bombay as sensuous as they could imagine, a place of rich cultural heritage yet extreme poverty. They meet an immaculately dressed traveler named Hendrick Van Groot, who pledges whatever help the Spindrift team needs, but crisis hits when multiple attempts are made to steal the radio equipment. The mission would be a total loss if not for the intervention of a local fifteen-year-old named Chahda, who knows Bombay's mazelike streets and is eager to assist Rick, Scotty, and the others for a few extra rupees in his pocket. The expedition repeatedly verges on disaster, but for now it's still a go.
Over time, Chahda proves his loyalty extends beyond his pocketbook. Rick, Scotty, and the scientists can feel they're close to the big moment when they enter Tibet, a region whose elevation leaves all four Americans gasping for breath as they trek through the cold mountains. This truly feels like the Roof of the World: Rick, Scotty, and Zircon are strong, but even they feel dangerously weak from lack of oxygen...and they must climb still higher. Trouble strikes when they discover their map to Tengi-Bu is counterfeit, another casualty of Conway's inexplicable desire to thwart the mission, but the most severe trial comes after Rick and company wander into an area untouched by the modern world. What will a city of long-lost Mongols do when faced with American intruders? From this point on it's a race to freedom for Rick, Scotty, Zircon, and Weiss, down sheer mountain cliffs and through ancient city structures built by a micro-culture the contemporary world has no idea exists. Can our heroes survive angry Mongol warriors and Conway's sly strategies to keep them from ever returning home?
I liked book one of this series, The Rocket's Shadow, but The Lost City is better. The quality of writing ebbs and flows, but eventually Harold Leland Goodwin and Peter J. Harkins—writing together as "John Blaine"—get into the flow of the story, creating suspenseful, cinematic scenes. The part where Scotty is lowered down the mountain face on a coiled wire, with Rick, Zircon, and Weiss anchoring him and straining not to go pitching over the cliff, is outstanding; so are the book's last few pages, which are ample emotional reward for the hardship undergone to get to that point. Chahda is an excellent character, one I hope to see again in later books. The Spindrift men adhere to a "Speak softly and carry a big stick" philosophy; groundbreaking advances in science require brilliant minds like Hartson and Rick Brant, as well as Zircon and Weiss, but Rick, Scotty, and Zircon aren't afraid to mix it up with their enemies in combat when necessary. Their fighting skill protects the diligent, creative work done by Spindrift's scientists, so badly motivated rivals can't wreck the party. I'll rate The Lost City two and a half stars, and would round to three if the themes were more potent or the writing a bit clearer and more consistent. The Rick Brant Science-Adventure Stories are equal to the Tom Swift franchise in most ways, and if you've yet to join the fun, I recommend it. Rarely is science so entertaining.
The seagoing portion of the trip starts badly when Rick finds evidence that someone on the boat tried to damage Spindrift's radio equipment. The only clue to who ordered the sabotage is a name—a man known as "Conway" contacted a crew member and bribed him to do the deed—but at least now Rick, Scotty, Zircon, and Weiss know to keep close watch over the equipment. Docking in India, our party finds the city of Bombay as sensuous as they could imagine, a place of rich cultural heritage yet extreme poverty. They meet an immaculately dressed traveler named Hendrick Van Groot, who pledges whatever help the Spindrift team needs, but crisis hits when multiple attempts are made to steal the radio equipment. The mission would be a total loss if not for the intervention of a local fifteen-year-old named Chahda, who knows Bombay's mazelike streets and is eager to assist Rick, Scotty, and the others for a few extra rupees in his pocket. The expedition repeatedly verges on disaster, but for now it's still a go.
Over time, Chahda proves his loyalty extends beyond his pocketbook. Rick, Scotty, and the scientists can feel they're close to the big moment when they enter Tibet, a region whose elevation leaves all four Americans gasping for breath as they trek through the cold mountains. This truly feels like the Roof of the World: Rick, Scotty, and Zircon are strong, but even they feel dangerously weak from lack of oxygen...and they must climb still higher. Trouble strikes when they discover their map to Tengi-Bu is counterfeit, another casualty of Conway's inexplicable desire to thwart the mission, but the most severe trial comes after Rick and company wander into an area untouched by the modern world. What will a city of long-lost Mongols do when faced with American intruders? From this point on it's a race to freedom for Rick, Scotty, Zircon, and Weiss, down sheer mountain cliffs and through ancient city structures built by a micro-culture the contemporary world has no idea exists. Can our heroes survive angry Mongol warriors and Conway's sly strategies to keep them from ever returning home?
I liked book one of this series, The Rocket's Shadow, but The Lost City is better. The quality of writing ebbs and flows, but eventually Harold Leland Goodwin and Peter J. Harkins—writing together as "John Blaine"—get into the flow of the story, creating suspenseful, cinematic scenes. The part where Scotty is lowered down the mountain face on a coiled wire, with Rick, Zircon, and Weiss anchoring him and straining not to go pitching over the cliff, is outstanding; so are the book's last few pages, which are ample emotional reward for the hardship undergone to get to that point. Chahda is an excellent character, one I hope to see again in later books. The Spindrift men adhere to a "Speak softly and carry a big stick" philosophy; groundbreaking advances in science require brilliant minds like Hartson and Rick Brant, as well as Zircon and Weiss, but Rick, Scotty, and Zircon aren't afraid to mix it up with their enemies in combat when necessary. Their fighting skill protects the diligent, creative work done by Spindrift's scientists, so badly motivated rivals can't wreck the party. I'll rate The Lost City two and a half stars, and would round to three if the themes were more potent or the writing a bit clearer and more consistent. The Rick Brant Science-Adventure Stories are equal to the Tom Swift franchise in most ways, and if you've yet to join the fun, I recommend it. Rarely is science so entertaining.
September 17, 2018
The Lost City is the second Rick Brant adventure, and is a bit of a drop off from the first, The Rocket's Shadow; the globe-spanning adventures of the 1950's were the best of the bunch, and this one from 1947 hadn't quite hit the stride yet. Rick and Scotty sail off to Asia, along with Drs. Weiss and Zircon, to bounce radar waves off the moon to communicate with Spindrift. They soon become entangled with saboteurs and discover the titular lost city, which is the final resting place of Genghis Khan. It's mentioned that they'll be away for a year, which kind of throws off the continuity of their ages, and the it seemed to me that the whole lost city plot line worked more realistically in the pre-WWII era. In this one we learn that Rick has an Aunt Jennifer. There seems to be a lot of destruction in this one, and they must have killed quite a few natives though that point isn't dwelled upon. There are a couple of racial slurs that jarred me a bit, though I probably didn't notice them when I read it as a child. (Perhaps Scotty's use of the derogatory terms can be understood since he fought with the Marines in the Pacific theatre.) I did catch one plot problem: the crew is stranded on a plateau at one point where they dis-assemble packing crates in order to construct a windmill to produce power, but later when they're liberated the crates seem to be intact and packed. It all turns out all right in the end, of course; the experiment is a success, they meet their new companion Chahda, and Barby unwittingly saves the day. The Rick Brant books were a series of boys' (today they'd just be labeled "y.a.") scientific (originally called "electronic") adventures that were written between the late '40s and '60s. They were in many ways superior to the better-known Tom Swift, Jr. books; they were more realistic and included descriptions of projects and puzzles that engaged the reader, as well as having more down-to-earth settings and set-ups and more realistic and likable characters. Rick lived on Spindrift Island, the location of a small but superior scientific facility headed by his father, Hartson Brant, along with his friend Scotty (who was originally an ex-Marine veteran of World War Two), his younger sister Barby, his mother (who was never named other than "Mom" or "Mrs. Brant" so far as I can recall, and a large and expanding likable cast of scientists, and including Dismal (Diz), the family dog. Spindrift was a lovely and wonderful location, as detailed by the map on the endpapers in each volume, with a farm, a rocket launcher, cliffs and woods, a pirate's field, a dock and airfield, an orchard, a large house and laboratory facility; in short, everything a right-thinking young person of the 1950's could ever need. There was a fine and ever-changing cast of supporting characters in addition to the Island residents, including Chahda (an enterprising and bright young friend from India), and Agent Steve Ames, government liaison beyond compare, whom I always believed to be related to Harlan Ames, the security chief in the Tom Swift, Jr. books. Typically the stories started at home, on Spindrift, and then took the boys to some remote and exotic location in the company of one or more of the cast of scientists, where they would have adventures, solve mysteries, and perform valuable scientific experiments and research. They're fun and exciting stories despite inevitable dating, and I am enjoying revisiting them.
April 25, 2020
An exhilarating adventure where Rick and Scotty join a couple of scientists on a journey to Tibet where they will attempt to bounce waves off of the moon for a cheaper and more reliable method of long distance communication. Someone is determined to stop them! Several attempts are made to sabotage and steal their equipment. When that doesn't work more deadly methods are employed. A final confrontation in a lost city will determine if Rick and his group survive and manage to complete their experiment.
An exciting book that shows the efforts to improve communications around the world with scientific experiments that quickly became outdated with the use of satellites. Also, the story use the trope of a lost civilization or city so often used in adventure stories in "exotic" locations but it is actually based on some real historical facts. I enjoy this series because, though it is full of amazing adventures, it is based on realistic science instead of science fiction. It is not as outlandish as many of the Tom Swift, Jr. or even Sr. stories (those can be fun too in their own way).
An exciting book that shows the efforts to improve communications around the world with scientific experiments that quickly became outdated with the use of satellites. Also, the story use the trope of a lost civilization or city so often used in adventure stories in "exotic" locations but it is actually based on some real historical facts. I enjoy this series because, though it is full of amazing adventures, it is based on realistic science instead of science fiction. It is not as outlandish as many of the Tom Swift, Jr. or even Sr. stories (those can be fun too in their own way).
March 30, 2023
I collect this series along with both Tom Swifts, Tom Corbett, Tom Quest, and breaking the Tom pattern, Ken Holt. I enjoy scouring antiques stores and used book shops for my missing ones and found #16 of this series last week. I shelved that, and pulled this. The title page calls it a Rick Brant Electronic Adventure, but Grosset & Dunlap soon changed it to Science-Adventure.
Rick and bud Scott accompany a pair of scientists to Tibet to receive a radar bounce off the moon. Published in 1947, the story came on the heels of a real experiment in 1946 to do the same. Typical of this series, it has a little bit of science and a lot of bit of fantasy. And, typical of the series, more than a little racism. When the team arrives in Bombay (recall, 1947) they see modern dock equipment, but "people like something out of Arabian Nights. The dock workers seemed to be all of a kind, all clad in brief, draped rags, and with soiled turbans on their heads." The westerners (and villain) refer to the people of India as "a nation of beggars,..." And the authors don't seem to see their hypocrisy. Rick gets bent when one of the scientists says of the native sidekick in the story (there's always one, right? with a sadly comical patois of Hollywood English) "The little beggar seems to be a man of affairs, don't you think?" But later, Rick encounters (in the fantasy section of the story) people who "had wide, cruel mouths, and their faces were yellow and oily, and their eyes slanted." Rick looks "into the greasy, Oriental faces with their black, animal-like eyes..."
Science need not be weak and dumbed down for children, but it often was. Of course, Rick and crew McGuyver their way through a problem with implausible solutions, but that's the point of fantasy adventure, right? I was surprised Hal Goodwin and Peter Harkins were off by 50% on the distance to the moon, citing 326,000 miles instead of 239,000. I should look up when the first accurate distance was determined.
Rick and bud Scott accompany a pair of scientists to Tibet to receive a radar bounce off the moon. Published in 1947, the story came on the heels of a real experiment in 1946 to do the same. Typical of this series, it has a little bit of science and a lot of bit of fantasy. And, typical of the series, more than a little racism. When the team arrives in Bombay (recall, 1947) they see modern dock equipment, but "people like something out of Arabian Nights. The dock workers seemed to be all of a kind, all clad in brief, draped rags, and with soiled turbans on their heads." The westerners (and villain) refer to the people of India as "a nation of beggars,..." And the authors don't seem to see their hypocrisy. Rick gets bent when one of the scientists says of the native sidekick in the story (there's always one, right? with a sadly comical patois of Hollywood English) "The little beggar seems to be a man of affairs, don't you think?" But later, Rick encounters (in the fantasy section of the story) people who "had wide, cruel mouths, and their faces were yellow and oily, and their eyes slanted." Rick looks "into the greasy, Oriental faces with their black, animal-like eyes..."
Science need not be weak and dumbed down for children, but it often was. Of course, Rick and crew McGuyver their way through a problem with implausible solutions, but that's the point of fantasy adventure, right? I was surprised Hal Goodwin and Peter Harkins were off by 50% on the distance to the moon, citing 326,000 miles instead of 239,000. I should look up when the first accurate distance was determined.
May 16, 2019
Took a little bit of a trip back to my childhood with this book, essentially an adventure story for boys between the ages of 6 to 10. I read two other Rick Brant books when I was that age, but I got a late start on the series, as most of the reading I did back then was either Tom Swift Junior or the Hardy Boys. Not a bad a little adventure tale, which was written in 1947, but I don’t think it’s up to the same standard as the Hardy boys or Tom Swift Junior adventures.
It’s often fun to re-read books from series you read as a youngster.
In essence, Rick and his buddy Scotty and two professors go to Tibet to set up a communication relay in post war Asia, and stumble into all kinds of unexpected adventures along the way. A nice little escape for a few nights.
It’s often fun to re-read books from series you read as a youngster.
In essence, Rick and his buddy Scotty and two professors go to Tibet to set up a communication relay in post war Asia, and stumble into all kinds of unexpected adventures along the way. A nice little escape for a few nights.
August 6, 2017
Tom Swift is more famous. Rick Brant and Don "Scotty" Scott are just plain better. Of all the series I read as a kid -- The Hardy Boys; Nancy Drew; Trixie Belden; Five Little Peppers; Boxcar Children; Outdoor Girls; Chip Hilton; Bobsey Twins; and, of course, the aforementioned Tom Swift -- The RB series is the only one I'll re-read today. Love Rick and Scotty. Especially Scotty.
September 18, 2021
There is a big difference between modern stories set 75 years ago and stories that were actually written then. This book, written for young adults in 1947, is a fun little adventure just chock-full of clichés. One has to wonder if they were clichés back when the book was actually published. Regardless, it's a good light read for the beach.
December 29, 2025
The ones set in New Jersey are as good as ever, but any book where they travel internationally is egregiously dated and racially insensitive. It was, after all, published in 1947, but this was not something I noticed as a young child. Probably hadn't read this one in 20 years!
October 8, 2017
Read a few Rick Brant series books back in the 70s
April 8, 2019
A fun adventure story, but beings set in India and Tibet, it has, as you would expect from a story written at this time, questionable treatment and portrayal of the inhabitants of those countries.
January 2, 2020
This is my childhood favorite book! It was neat to be able to relive the adventure again!
June 13, 2021
I am really enjoying this series!
November 24, 2023
Riveting!
Excellent and exciting!
Imagine that something written so long ago could capture the reader’s attention and keep the pages turning!
Excellent and exciting!
Imagine that something written so long ago could capture the reader’s attention and keep the pages turning!
April 7, 2025
I found this in a little free library and just had to read it. 📚 it was very dated and a bit racist but it had a good story.
July 1, 2012
review of
John Blaine's The Lost City
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 27, 2012
While written under a pseudonym, these Rick Brant stories were all written by the same author (or coauthors), unlike the similar Hardy Boys & Tom Swift series. As I explained in my review of the Hardy Boys' The Clue in the Embers ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... ), I recently got interested in rereading bks that I read as a child thanks to an interview question posed to me by my friend & fellow writer Alan Davies. As I wrote in that review: "I find it moderately fascinating to reread something that I wd've last read 50 yrs ago to reappraise the culture that they represented at the time."
While I definitely read the Hardy Boys & Tom Swift bks, I'm not sure about this "Rick Brant Electronic Adventure". But given that it was published by the same publisher as the former 2 series & that the size & look of them is similar, it seems very familiar nonetheless.
I started reading this one b/c I'd hurt my leg & wanted to read something completely undemanding to while away my recovery time. I didn't bother to take notes for this review b/c it didn't seem worth the effort.
As w/ the Hardy Boys, the main protagonist is a young 'white' male whose father has an exciting profession that's both led to extraordinary knowledge at an early age & to adventures few are ever likely to encounter. Like The Clue in the Embers, this adventure takes the characters to another continent where 'exotic' people live. Also like The Clue in the Embers, mysterious people try to sabotage their mission. In other words, this is formulaic writing meant to encourage 'white' boys to be resourceful in 'conquering' the world - wch is, of course, their oyster.
This isn't really as 'bad' as my use of the word 'conquering' implies. The use of far-flung locales (in relation to the New Jersey origins of the young men) is a way of introducing parts of the world to the readers to get their imaginations 'out of the box' & into a wider world. In this story, the main villain is an impeccably dressed 'white' man from the Netherlands wearing a clean white suit - & 'our heros' fall for him as someone to be trusted b/c of this appearance. On the other hand, the most helpful character is an impoverished young Indian lad who's dirty & ragged & who speaks pigeon-English & who the protagonists make the mistake of not taking seriously. SO, there's a bit of parody of American stereotyping.
Nonetheless, there's a bit of 'yellow peril' here w/ such torrid passages as "Rick looked into the greasy, Oriental faces with their black, animal-like eyes and knew he could expect no mercy." This latter in reference to the descendants of Ghenghis Khan - by all accounts an extremely nasty fellow.
All in all, I enjoyed it & wd recommend it to practically no-one. Why? As w/ the Hardy Boys, this story was written for a particular time & place & wd have to be revised to reserve the same function as it originally did. As literature in & of itself, it's not that great. For one thing, the villains are so transparent to the reader that they're immediately recognizable while the heros blunder on stupidly. That, of course, can be a technique for making the reader feel smarter & making the reader get emotional about the ongoing foolishness of the protagonists but I just found it annoying.
I wonder if there are any equivalent series today? & how naive & Polly Purebred wd the characters be if there were one? I think of Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27... ). Wd Grosset & Dunlop (the original publisher of many of these series) be as daring as Pynchon & have their heros be young anarchist train-hoppers fighting greedy corporate villains?
John Blaine's The Lost City
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 27, 2012
While written under a pseudonym, these Rick Brant stories were all written by the same author (or coauthors), unlike the similar Hardy Boys & Tom Swift series. As I explained in my review of the Hardy Boys' The Clue in the Embers ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... ), I recently got interested in rereading bks that I read as a child thanks to an interview question posed to me by my friend & fellow writer Alan Davies. As I wrote in that review: "I find it moderately fascinating to reread something that I wd've last read 50 yrs ago to reappraise the culture that they represented at the time."
While I definitely read the Hardy Boys & Tom Swift bks, I'm not sure about this "Rick Brant Electronic Adventure". But given that it was published by the same publisher as the former 2 series & that the size & look of them is similar, it seems very familiar nonetheless.
I started reading this one b/c I'd hurt my leg & wanted to read something completely undemanding to while away my recovery time. I didn't bother to take notes for this review b/c it didn't seem worth the effort.
As w/ the Hardy Boys, the main protagonist is a young 'white' male whose father has an exciting profession that's both led to extraordinary knowledge at an early age & to adventures few are ever likely to encounter. Like The Clue in the Embers, this adventure takes the characters to another continent where 'exotic' people live. Also like The Clue in the Embers, mysterious people try to sabotage their mission. In other words, this is formulaic writing meant to encourage 'white' boys to be resourceful in 'conquering' the world - wch is, of course, their oyster.
This isn't really as 'bad' as my use of the word 'conquering' implies. The use of far-flung locales (in relation to the New Jersey origins of the young men) is a way of introducing parts of the world to the readers to get their imaginations 'out of the box' & into a wider world. In this story, the main villain is an impeccably dressed 'white' man from the Netherlands wearing a clean white suit - & 'our heros' fall for him as someone to be trusted b/c of this appearance. On the other hand, the most helpful character is an impoverished young Indian lad who's dirty & ragged & who speaks pigeon-English & who the protagonists make the mistake of not taking seriously. SO, there's a bit of parody of American stereotyping.
Nonetheless, there's a bit of 'yellow peril' here w/ such torrid passages as "Rick looked into the greasy, Oriental faces with their black, animal-like eyes and knew he could expect no mercy." This latter in reference to the descendants of Ghenghis Khan - by all accounts an extremely nasty fellow.
All in all, I enjoyed it & wd recommend it to practically no-one. Why? As w/ the Hardy Boys, this story was written for a particular time & place & wd have to be revised to reserve the same function as it originally did. As literature in & of itself, it's not that great. For one thing, the villains are so transparent to the reader that they're immediately recognizable while the heros blunder on stupidly. That, of course, can be a technique for making the reader feel smarter & making the reader get emotional about the ongoing foolishness of the protagonists but I just found it annoying.
I wonder if there are any equivalent series today? & how naive & Polly Purebred wd the characters be if there were one? I think of Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27... ). Wd Grosset & Dunlop (the original publisher of many of these series) be as daring as Pynchon & have their heros be young anarchist train-hoppers fighting greedy corporate villains?
July 13, 2016
I admit, I probably would have enjoyed this book immensely when I was about 10, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it now. The comparisons to the 1960's Jonny Quest TV series are apt.
Jonny Quest = Rick Brant: a high-school age kid
Dr. Benton Quest= Hartson W. Brant: Rick's father, world famous scientist, and swell guy
Roger "Race" Bannon= Don "Scotty" Scott: a kid a little older than Rick & a Marine vet
Hadji= Chahda: a resourceful Hindu teenager
Bandit= Dismal: the family dog
Other characters include Rick's sister, Barby, and Rick's Mom who is a "good sport" but who also has no equivalent in the Jonny Quest TV show that I remember although she was killed in the 1993 movie. There were also a couple of scientists and, Julius Weiss, noted mathematician.
Rick and Scotty set off with the scientists on an expedition to Tibet to bounce a radar signal off the moon and get involved in a series of dangerous and exciting adventures.
Children will enjoy the fact that the boys, Rick, Scotty, and Chahda, are brave, smart, and resourceful while the adult scientific geniuses appear to be brain damaged in comparison. Professor Hobart Zircon is supposedly one of the country's leading electronic scientists but, compared to Rick, he is dumber than your average Cornish game hen. Rick knows right away who the bad guys are. "Rick looked hard at the man and decided he didn't like him." But it took the scientists ages to come to that conclusion. "Light was dawning on Zircon now."
Warning to parents: Political correctness had not yet dawned in 1947. On page 24 Scotty is looking forward to shooting a panda. On pages 150 and 151 Asians are referred to as "gooks" and "yellow monkeys."
Jonny Quest = Rick Brant: a high-school age kid
Dr. Benton Quest= Hartson W. Brant: Rick's father, world famous scientist, and swell guy
Roger "Race" Bannon= Don "Scotty" Scott: a kid a little older than Rick & a Marine vet
Hadji= Chahda: a resourceful Hindu teenager
Bandit= Dismal: the family dog
Other characters include Rick's sister, Barby, and Rick's Mom who is a "good sport" but who also has no equivalent in the Jonny Quest TV show that I remember although she was killed in the 1993 movie. There were also a couple of scientists and, Julius Weiss, noted mathematician.
Rick and Scotty set off with the scientists on an expedition to Tibet to bounce a radar signal off the moon and get involved in a series of dangerous and exciting adventures.
Children will enjoy the fact that the boys, Rick, Scotty, and Chahda, are brave, smart, and resourceful while the adult scientific geniuses appear to be brain damaged in comparison. Professor Hobart Zircon is supposedly one of the country's leading electronic scientists but, compared to Rick, he is dumber than your average Cornish game hen. Rick knows right away who the bad guys are. "Rick looked hard at the man and decided he didn't like him." But it took the scientists ages to come to that conclusion. "Light was dawning on Zircon now."
Warning to parents: Political correctness had not yet dawned in 1947. On page 24 Scotty is looking forward to shooting a panda. On pages 150 and 151 Asians are referred to as "gooks" and "yellow monkeys."
September 5, 2015
Delightful adventure of 2 young men, Rick and Scotty, who at one point are held captive with some friends, without any hope of escape. In part of the story they realize they are near a secret burial place of a famous person. The Lost City is just that, a place separated from "modern" time. Rick and Scotty are always trying to use some new scientific information or gadget to help them in their adventures. Some times their adventures start in the lab where Rick's dad works on Spendthrift Island. Scotty is a young man, a former marine who has been adopted as a member of Rick's family.
Roles are traditional and refreshing.
Loyalty, honesty, manliness, femininity, respect for elders, chivalry are always present in these intriguing stories.
My son owns many copies of these books. Some books are reprinted, others are old copies, and some are downloads from the Gutenberg site.
Roles are traditional and refreshing.
Loyalty, honesty, manliness, femininity, respect for elders, chivalry are always present in these intriguing stories.
My son owns many copies of these books. Some books are reprinted, others are old copies, and some are downloads from the Gutenberg site.
January 8, 2020
One the most dated of the books.
The science in this book is irrelevant today.
In the early 1960s there were a couple of satellites put up to bounce radio signals around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project...
The bigger problem is the portrayal of the Indians and the Mongols.
It's a pretty exciting story but very much of its time.
Modern readers would find it ridiculous that they would have to spend almost
two months just to get to their target site.
The science in this book is irrelevant today.
In the early 1960s there were a couple of satellites put up to bounce radio signals around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project...
The bigger problem is the portrayal of the Indians and the Mongols.
It's a pretty exciting story but very much of its time.
Modern readers would find it ridiculous that they would have to spend almost
two months just to get to their target site.
September 5, 2008
Having read the first two of this series, and having looked at the blurb for the third one, I can see that "sabotage" of scientific experiments play a big role in the series. Enjoyable, and quite full of action, but I would certainly have liked them more if I'd been 13 when I read them instead of 49.
July 7, 2010
I read this many years ago, when I was probably only 10 years old or so, and I enjoyed it, but can't remember too much about it. I remember I drew a picture of one of the characters, so it must have made some impression on me at the time! haha
December 30, 2025
Excellent Rick Brant adventure
Though written in the 1940s, this Lost City adventure featuring Rick Brant and the Crew, is thoroughly entertaining and fairly timeless. The writing is excellent.
Though written in the 1940s, this Lost City adventure featuring Rick Brant and the Crew, is thoroughly entertaining and fairly timeless. The writing is excellent.
September 26, 2008
Book two in the boy's series.
March 16, 2014
This book was okay. It didn't seem to be in my interest range though.
November 9, 2015
Terrific book! I learned so much by reading this, about India and Genghis Khan.. all the while enjoying every moment.
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