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 this hardbound edition of book 25 of the new series, Tom Swift is approached by a rich man with a dream of building a city that can float above crowded cities and land without creating more ecological woes. His dream is a flying platform on which such aa dream town might be built, and he believes Tom is just the man to realize it! The inventor struggles with finding a technology to make this happen before he must tell his benefactor it is "impossible." But, a chance discovery on an Internet site devoted to making fun on crackpot inventors and their ideas sets him on the path to an answer. However, nothing runs smoothly in Tom's world and he soon finds an old foe is out to track him down, hurt or kill him and Bud Barclay, and ruin the HoverCity. Who will win in this multi-battle showdown?

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.

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? Complicating things is a mysterious woman and a deadly opponent out to keep Tom from winning or perhaps from ever getting back home.

In 2017, over 200 million Americans witnessed the spectacular total eclipse of the Sun, and the 2024 eclipse is expected to draw even larger crowds. In anticipation of this upcoming event, this book takes us back in history over 150 years, telling the story of the nation’s first ever eclipse chasers. Our tale follows the chaotic journeys of scientists and amateur astronomers as they trekked across the western United States to view the rare phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. The fascinating story centers on the expeditions of the 1869 total eclipse, which took place during the turbulent age of the chimerical Planet Vulcan and Civil War Reconstruction. The protagonists—a motley crew featuring astronomical giants like Simon Newcomb and pioneering female astronomers like Maria Mitchell—were met with unanticipated dangers, mission-threatening accidents, and eccentric characters only the West could produce. Theirs is a story of astronomical proportions. Along the way, we will make several stops across the booming US railroad network, traveling from viewing sites as familiar as Des Moines, Iowa, to ones as distant and strange as newly acquired Alaska. From equipment failures and botched preparations to quicksand and apocalyptic ‘comets’, welcome to the wild, western world of solar eclipses.