The Hardys examine the space race (The Hardy Boys: Sky Sabotage - Franklin W Dixon)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Hardy Boys: Sky Sabotage - Franklin W Dixon
Date:	22/04/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some good moments

Disadvantages: Not the greatest tale

Hmmm......is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a satellite sabotage case for Frank an Joe Hardy, the eternally youthful Hardy Boys who have endured even the dodgiest of plots. This, the 79th Hardy Boys released, sees spies and satellites taking the boys to Florida to prevent a ruthless comms company from sabotaging their rivals' satellite.

While in Florida, the boys also encounter a second and seemingly separate case, involving the 'theft' of two porpoises. This is often a bit of a trademark of the Hardy Boys books, with the two plots being explored. They often become related as the books continue, but not always, and this is one where the plots do converge, in quite a scientific way.

Brothers Frank and Joe Hardy are 18 and 17 respectively. They always have been, and probably always will be. The wonderful world of fiction has reared its head here and created two eternally youthful characters and provided a plethora of plots for them to get stuck in to. As a result, their characters are explored very well if you are a fan and have read a lot of the books. You get a true feel for the brothers and a good clear picture as to what they look like. However, you don't get that if you just read this book. The two leads are skated over in terms of characterisation.

Similarly, the villains and the innocents also have to make way in their characterisation for a bit of action and even some comedic moments, which a lot of the Hardy Boys books contain. The settings are quite well described, though, and you do get a vision of their surroundings.

The writing style is very smooth and easy to read. There is nothing too complicated, which is no surprise seeing as the target audience is teenage boys and not adults. Frank and Joe give iconic figures for boys to look up to when reading. This does mean that the books can seem a little simple at times, but I understand that I am not part of the target audience.

As with most of the Hardy Boys books published since 1980, Sky Sabotage is tricky to get hold of in the UK, but it is readily available from amazon.com for next to nothing. I don't completely recommend reading this, but there are a lot worse Hardy Boys books, and it is enjoyable in places.

Summary: The 79th Hardy Boys book