#59-84
59. Night of the Werewolf - excellent
60. Mystery of the Samurai Sword - good
61. The Pentagon Spy - good
62. The Apeman's Secret - good
63. The Mummy Case - not good
64. Mystery of Smugglers Cove - excellent
65. The Stone Idol - not good
66. The Vanishing Thieves - very good
67. The Outlaw's Silver - good
68. The Submarine Caper/Deadly Chase - not good
69. The Four-Headed Dragon - excellent
70. The Infinity Clue - very good
71. Track of the Zombie - very good
72. The Voodoo Plot - very good
73. The Billion Dollar Ransom - good
74. Tic-Tac-Terror - good
75. Trapped at Sea - good
76. Game Plan for Disaster - good
77. The Crimson Flame - good
78. Cave-In - excellent
79. Sky Sabotage - good
80. The Roaring River Mystery - not good
81. The Demon's Den - very good
82. The Blackwing Puzzle - not good
83. The Swamp Monster - good
84. Revenge of the Desert Phantom - excellent
I already wrote that I was favorably impressed with the Hardy Boys Wanderer books. In fact, I consider the Hardy Boys Wanderer books to be much better than their Nancy Drew counterparts, #57-78 in the Nancy Drew series. This is because the Hardy Boys series retained some of the authors of the original 58 for this portion of the series. The Nancy Drew series changed to completely different authors due to the passing of Harriet Adams, and quality and continuity suffered as a result.
#85-108
From here on I note which books feature sabotage, which is a theme that is used way too much by Simon and Schuster.
85. The Skyfire Puzzle - sabotage, excellent
86. The Mystery of the Silver Star - sabotage, very good
87. Program for Destruction - sabotage, excellent
88. Tricky Business - very good
89. The Sky Blue Frame - excellent
90. Danger on the Diamond - sabotage, very good
91. Shield of Fear - not good
92. The Shadow Killers - not good
93. The Serpent's Tooth Mystery - excellent
94. Breakdown in Axeblade - excellent
95. Danger On The Air - sabotage, excellent
96. Wipeout - sabotage, good
97. Cast of Criminals - sabotage, excellent
98. Spark of Suspicion - sabotage, good
99. Dungeon of Doom - good
100. The Secret of the Island Treasure - very good
101. The Money Hunt - good
102. Terminal Shock - good
103. The Million-Dollar Nightmare - not good
104. Tricks of the Trade - very good
105. The Smoke Screen Mystery - very good
106. Attack of the Video Villains - very good
107. Panic on Gull Island - not good
108. Fear on Wheels - sabotage, not good
These are the early books created by Simon and Schuster, and they correspond to Nancy Drew #79-101. Like with Nancy Drew, this is a good group of books. Some of them are quite creative while others fall into the boring sabotage plot. I'd say that overall these are about equally good as the corresponding Nancy Drew books.
#109-135
109. The Prime-Time Crime - good
110. The Secret of Sigma Seven - not good
111. Three-Ring Terror - sabotage, not good
112. The Demolition Mission - sabotage, very good
113. Radical Moves - sabotage, good
114. The Case of the Counterfeit Criminals - excellent
115. Sabotage at Sports City - sabotage, very good
116. Rock 'n' Roll Renegades - very good
117. The Baseball Card Conspiracy - not good
118. Danger in the Fourth Dimension - excellent
119. Trouble at Coyote Canyon - sabotage, excellent
120. The Case of the Cosmic Kidnapping - excellent
121. The Mystery in the Old Mine - very good
122. Carnival of Crime - sabotage, good
123. The Robot's Revenge - sabotage, good
124. Mystery with a Dangerous Beat - sabotage, good
125. Mystery on Makatunk Island - sabotage, good
126. Racing to Disaster - sabotage, not good
127. Reel Thrills - sabotage, good
128. Day of the Dinosaur - excellent
129. The Treasure at Dolphin Bay - very good
130. Sidetracked to Danger - not good
131. Crusade of the Flaming Sword - sabotage, not good
132. Maximum Challenge - very good
133. Crime in the Kennel - very good
134. Cross-Country Crime - excellent
135. The Hypersonic Secret - excellent
The Nancy Drew books that correspond to this group are #102-127. 15 of those 26 books use sabotage. 12 of these 27 Hardy Boys books use sabotage, which is slightly less than the Nancy Drew series. In both series, the sabotage is repetitive and gets old.
#136-150
136. The Cold Cash Caper - not good
137. High-Speed Showdown - sabotage, not good
138. The Alaskan Adventure - excellent
139. The Search for the Snow Leopard - very good
140. Slam Dunk Sabotage - sabotage, very good
141. The Desert Thieves - good
142. Lost in Gator Swamp - not good
143. The Giant Rat of Sumatra - sabotage, good
144. The Secret of Skeleton Reef - excellent
145. Terror at High Tide - sabotage, not good
146. The Mark of the Blue Tattoo - good
147. Trial and Terror - good
148. The Ice-Cold Case - excellent
149. The Chase for the Mystery Twister - good
150. The Crisscross Crime - very good
Just like with the corresponding Nancy Drew books, the series partially moves away from sabotage and has more varied plots, which are more interesting for the most part. Also in this group, the publisher reused some words from the titles of the original 58 books for the titles of these books.
#151-190
151. The Rocky Road to Revenge - excellent
152. Danger in the Extreme - sabotage, not good
153. Eye on Crime - not good
154. The Caribbean Cruise Caper - sabotage, good
155. The Hunt for the Four Brothers - not good
156. A Will to Survive - very good
157. The Lure of the Italian Treasure - good
158. The London Deception - sabotage, very good
159. Daredevils - sabotage, very good
160. A Game Called Chaos - excellent
161. Training for Trouble - sabotage, very good
162. The End of the Trail - excellent
163. The Spy that Never Lies - very good
164. Skin & Bones - very good
165. Crime in the Cards - very good
166. Past And Present Danger - excellent
167. Trouble Times Two - good
168. The Castle Conundrum - sabotage, excellent
169. Ghost of a Chance - sabotage, not good
170. Kickoff to Danger - excellent
171. The Test Case - excellent
172. Trouble in Warp Space - sabotage, not good
173. Speed Times Five - sabotage, very good
174. Hide-and-Sneak - sabotage, not good
175. Trick-or-Trouble - sabotage, not good
176. In Plane Sight - sabotage, very good
177. The Case of the Psychic's Vision - very good
178. The Mystery of the Black Rhino - not good
179. Passport to Danger - sabotage, not good
180. Typhoon Island - sabotage, very good
181. Double Jeopardy - sabotage, not good
182. The Secret of the Soldier's Gold - very good
183. Warehouse Rumble - sabotage, not good
184. The Dangerous Transmission - not good
185. Wreck and Roll - sabotage, not good
186. Hidden Mountain - excellent
187. No Way Out - good
188. Farming Fear - sabotage, very good
189. One False Step - very good
190. Motocross Madness - sabotage, not good
Like in the Nancy Drew series, continuity errors appear at times, particularly noticeable with respect to the boys' boat, The Sleuth. I feel like the inconsistencies are less noticeable in this series than in the Nancy Drew series, although my perception may be flawed since I am more knowledgeable about Nancy Drew and have read those books multiple times. The final Nancy Drew Digest books have serious continuity problems, like Nancy's age changing back and forth between 17 and 18 and Ned suddenly becoming blond for the only time in the publishing history of Nancy Drew. I do not notice those kinds of problems in the final Hardy Boys Digest books.
The overuse of sabotage is problematic in both the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series. Simon and Schuster must have a list of sabotage plots that they alternate between. Here are the main types.
museum sabotage
fundraiser sabotage
sports sabotage
television show/movie sabotage
music group/rock star sabotage
business sabotage
I may have left out a few, but those are the main ones that come to mind.
Thanks to the Hardy Boys series, I now absolutely hate sports sabotage. Sports sabotage involves excessive detail in describing every stage of a sporting event, which always results in sabotage. The book then describes a second, third, and fourth event in the competition with the same excessive detail, and each one ends in sabotage. It is so extremely boring! I marked most of the sports sabotage books as "not good" in my list.
Since the books were written for boys, I assume that male readers enjoy that kind of book more than I do. I get nothing from excessive description of a sporting event that results in sabotage. I would almost rather eat dirt than read about that. Almost.
The question is, did Simon and Schuster do better with the Nancy Drew Digest series or the Hardy Boys Digest series?
| Nancy Drew Out of 119 books: Not good - 35 books or 29.4% Good - 32 books or 26.9% Very good - 38 books or 31.9% Excellent - 14 books or 11.8% Overall - 43.7% very good or excellent |
Hardy Boys Out of 132 books: Not good - 34 books or 25.8% Good - 32 books or 24.2% Very Good - 36 books or 27.3% Excellent - 30 books or 22.7% Overall - 50% very good or excellent |
It looks like I overall enjoyed the Hardy Boys Digest series more than I did the Nancy Drew Digest series. It's not enough of a difference, however, to be significant. More significant is that I rated 30 Hardy Boys books as excellent and only 14 Nancy Drew books as excellent. It's important to note that Nancy Drew is my very favorite series.
What makes the difference is that the Hardy Boys are allowed more interesting experiences than Nancy Drew. The Hardy Boys can be volunteer firefighters or police recruits, and Nancy Drew is never allowed to partake in those kinds of activities. Simon and Schuster's creative staff has allowed Nancy Drew's gender to hold her back.
That aside, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series are about equally good. Some readers say that the Hardy Boys series is more of an adventure series than a mystery series, which is why they prefer Nancy Drew. I don't really agree with that assessment. The Hardy Boys series is a mystery series, but the difference is the amount of action. The Hardy Boys plots involve physical action as they try to apprehend criminals. For obvious reasons, Nancy Drew doesn't do that. The action scenes in the Hardy Boys books, which involve lots of running, punching, and kicking, can last for three to five pages and are boring, at least to me. I skimmed most of those scenes.
The fight scenes with the culprits always play out in one of two ways. If the fight scene is in the middle of the book, the culprit gets away. If the fight scene is at the end of the book, the culprit is apprehended. See? There's no reason to read the fight scenes unless you love reading about fighting.
To me, the difference between Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys is mainly that the Hardy Boys get into rough fights with the culprits. They also get to do more exciting activities, since they are boys.
I overall greatly enjoyed my reading of the Hardy Boys Digest series. I had less trouble getting through the Hardy Boys Digest books than I did the original 58. Yes, I do mean that. I struggled through parts of the original 58 books. As strange as it might sound, I overall prefer the Hardy Boys Digest books. This is should not be a surprise, since all along, my opinions have been different from the majority of Hardy Boys enthusiasts.
1 comment:
I find many of the Digest stories preferable to those in the Canon, particularly some of the revisions.
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