#50 Power Play (31st Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: April 1991
Publisher: Archway Paperbacks (1991-2000)
Author: Rick Oliver
Other Hardy's by Author: #33 Collision Course, #40 Fright Wave, #45 In Self-Defense, #59 Open Season, #69 Mayhem In Motion, #76-77 Ring of Evil Trilogy Books 1 & 2, #85 Winner Take All, #88 Inferno of Fear, #93 Mission Mayhem, #98 Murder By Magic, #100 True Thriller.  Possible author of #78 Ring of Evil #3, #80 Dead of Night.

Plot:
Play with fire and you're sure to find danger in a flash!

Experiment In Terror

Bright Futures Development has announced the invention of a powerful new solar energy cell, and the Hardy boys have gone undercover to protect it from industrial spies. But the action proves too hot to handle: a company employee assigned to the solar cell lab has turned up dead!

Was it an inside job? or was it a rival company out to burn the competition? Frank and Joe follow a trail of deceit and double-dealing and discover that the truth behind the solar power source is much darker than they suspected. Plenty of high-energy action awaits them as they fly straight into a fiery web of danger!

Notes:  All printings of this book, even from 1995, contain a sample of Tom Swift #1 The Black Dragon.

[tomswift2002]

This is one book where I think the cover was better done in America, although the UK cover would have its American equivalent show up on #110 Bad Chemistry later.

http://hardyboys.co.uk/gallery/c050.php

[tomswift2002]

So Power Play seems to be like In Self-Defense where it takes place early in the Casefiles, like between #12 & 13. 

Also the Hardy's encounter their first solar powered car in this book.  Later in the series the Hardy's would drive the SUB in Hot Wheels.

[MacGyver]

So Power Play seems to be like In Self-Defense where it takes place early in the Casefiles, like between #12 & 13. 

Also the Hardy's encounter their first solar powered car in this book.  Later in the series the Hardy's would drive the SUB in Hot Wheels.

What in this book or #45 leads you to deduce that? Is it just because of the appearance of particular characters or the characterization or something?

[tomswift2002]

In both books, the Hardy's tend to act more like teenagers in high school, closer to how they acted in the first 15 books of the Casefiles, whereas in the rest of the series, sure there's the contractual thing for the authors to mention that the Hardy's are 17 & 18, but the authors and Mega-Books editors made major efforts to age the Hardy's.  Even in Best of Enemies the Hardy's acted older than they do in Power Play.

An interesting note, but it's interesting how both Power Play & Danger On Vampire Trail, #50 in the Mystery Stories, have mysteries about new technologies for the era.

Also, as of 2022, Power Play is the last numbered Hardy Boys book in any series to carry the #50.  All series since have been discontinued before #40 (or are not even close to #40).

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I loved this book, and Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thrillers. Now those were really good.

[MacGyver]

In both books, the Hardy's tend to act more like teenagers in high school, closer to how they acted in the first 15 books of the Casefiles, whereas in the rest of the series, sure there's the contractual thing for the authors to mention that the Hardy's are 17 & 18, but the authors and Mega-Books editors made major efforts to age the Hardy's.  Even in Best of Enemies the Hardy's acted older than they do in Power Play.

An interesting note, but it's interesting how both Power Play & Danger On Vampire Trail, #50 in the Mystery Stories, have mysteries about new technologies for the era.

Also, as of 2022, Power Play is the last numbered Hardy Boys book in any series to carry the #50.  All series since have been discontinued before #40 (or are not even close to #40).

Okay. Thanks for explaining your reasoning there. I appreciate that. There are alot of little nuances I might have missed in the books when I was younger.

[tomswift2002]

I finished the book last night.  Considering that this was Rick Oliver's 4th Casefiles, I found that he really didn't know Con Riley or Chief Collig or even Fenton Hardy.  In a way it felt like this was the prototype for the Hardy Boys Adventures, written decades before that series debuted. 

At a couple of different points Oliver had Fenton & Con treating Frank and Joe like 8 and 9 year olds.  Which is funny when you look at the cover and see a Frank who looks to be in his mid-twenties with a paunch. 

But in the end I was also trying to understand exactly why the criminal did the crime he did.  It sort of felt like Oliver had a partially formed explanation but never figured out the full explanation.

Also, Oliver didn't seem to know a lot about computer technology.  At one point he has Frank and Joe discover that the murdered guy had moved the "sticker" from one store bought CD onto a CD-R.  Uhhhhh—-store bought CD's never used stickers.  It's unprofessional and could possible fly off in your CD player and cause major issues.

Also the author had Frank taking screws out of a CD caddy in order to load a CD into the caddy!  While it's been years since I saw one, I never heard of or saw one's requiring screws—-instead they had little plastic tabs.

https://youtu.be/jxt5A0KJ9nw

While CD-R's were around in 1991, Oliver clearly had no idea at the storage capacity of a CD-R.  At one point he has Frank say that your standard 7-inch CD-R could only hold 300 MB.  Even in 1991 a 7-inch CD-R could hold 650MB.  (CD-RW's were not released until 1997.) But a 3-inch Mini-CD can only hold a maximum of 210MB.  So, clearly, Rick Oliver had very little computer knowledge.

Rating: 5.0 out of 10