Tom Swift Inventors' Academy, Book 6 - Augmented Reality

Technological whiz-kids meet reality television in the latest Tom Swift adventure.  Sure, this latest incarnation of Tom Swift may not be on part with the original series from the early 20th century, or even the second series of the '50s and on, but I do have to say, the stories are rather fun in their own way.  And with the series set in a school of advanced young minds who are always creating new inventions or coming up with ways to improve on existing ones, there is definitely plenty of material for stories. Now, with the seventh book already published and the eighth book solicited, this series has already outlasted the last one - now I'm holding my breath to see if it outlasts the prior two series before that (which had 13 and 11, respectively).

 

Now, back to this series and book six - Augmented Reality.  With technology advancing as quickly as it does these days, this series has to stay on top of the ball with keeping up with the current trends and tech.  This sixth book deals with an app created by Tom's friend Noah, which allows his fellow students to collect cartoonish food by using their cell phones and hoping to collect enough as a group to feed the hungry giant reptilian monster and satisfy it before it attacks the school (virtually, of course - not in the real world!).  It seems like a fun and inventive way to get the students at Swift Academy to work together for a common goal, and the principal couldn't be more thrilled.  Of course, part of that may have to do with the fact that a television crew has caught wind of this invention and would like to film an episode of their reality TV show at the school!

The mystery this time centers around the fact that all of the students are getting into arguments, accusing one another of backstabbing, lying, and outright sabotaging their reputation and their skills - and it seems the only one benefiting from all of the drama is the reality show crew!  Tom begins to have his suspicions, but when he is shown footage of Noah - his best friend! - criticizing him and calling him out for being the son of the man who owns the school, Tom forgets about his suspicions and makes his own thoughts known about Noah and his projects.  The next thing you know, these best friends are at odds with one another just like everyone else at the school.  And when Swift Enterprises' new P.R.woman convinces the students to share with her their personal ideas and sketchbooks/notebooks for their projects so that they can be animated for the upcoming reality show, things only go downhill from there.

Although the resolution of the mystery comes as no big surprise, the fun comes in watching Tom, Noah, Sam, and Amy work their way through all of the drama to not only figure out what is going on, but who is causing it and how to stop it.  Plus, for this book anyway, it was nice to see the behind-the-scenes of reality show filming. I've always said that there is no "reality" in reality television, and while this book is a work of fiction, I have no doubt there is a lot of truth to the idea that these reality shows everyone watches are edited in such a way so as to convince viewers that there is considerably more drama going on that what really is!  And kudos to whomever came up with the name for this book - Augmented Reality.  The title not only refers to Noah's app, which creates faux food items for people to collect in the real world and feed them to a faux monster to stop him from destroying the school; but, it also refers to the television crew and the reality show being filmed, since it is supposed to be filming the reality at the school, but by the director's actions and the editing of the footage, it "augmented" the reality of what was truly going on at Swift Academy!

Thus far, this series has produced some very fast-paced stories - and with 150 pages or less in each book, it's no wonder the writer has to keep it moving quickly to reach resolution.  While the Nancy Drew Diaries series has expanded the length of their stories, both the Hardy Boys Adventures and the Tom Swift Investors' Academy seem to keep their books on the shorter side.  I'd love to see these series expand their page count as well, to allow the author to start to really develop the main characters more, so that we know more about Tom and his father's home life; Noah's, Sam's, and Amy's home lives (as we have pretty much seen next to nothing of them outside of the school setting), as well as more about Swift Enterprises.  While we have been fortunate thus far with this latest Tom Swift series with some pretty good stories, I just think some more depth to the characters, setting, and stories could result in more readers - and, of course, some marketing would help, too!  (I mean, let's face it - this series had absolutely no marketing whatsoever when it first hit the shelves, so I'm actually surprised that it has managed to hold on this long!  Perhaps with the upcoming TV show on the CW, we might see some marketing....)

RATING:  9 cartoon pork chops out of 10 for providing some proof that "reality" television is not actually "reality" after all - it is merely an "augmented" version of reality!