#118 Danger In The Fourth Dimension (29th Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: February 1993
Publisher: Minstrel Books (1993-1998)
Author:  Unknown as of July 2022

Plot: Frank and Joe have a close encounter of the most sinister kind!

A call to action leads the Hardy boys on a roller coaster ride of terror!

Frank and Joe have received an urgent message from their father: He needs their help on a case at the South Carolina sci-fi theme park, The Fourth Dimension. Soon after their arrival, however, the case takes a dark and shocking turn. Before the boys can even learn the details of their father's investigation, they learn that he's been kidnapped!

But the Hardys enter The Fourth Dimension at their own risk. The search for their missing father draws them into a fight against an elusive enemy armed with rampaging robots, hurtling hovercraft, and deadly laser guns. Their only chance to solve the mystery is to execute a far-out, futuristic battle plan of their own!

Review:  I first read this one in 1997 or 1998 and I remember to this day that the cover art really grabbed my attention at the library.  This is easily one of the best covers of the Simon & Schuster era.  The black and red really pop and S&S never did another black cover.  When I think back to even the cover variants that S&S did for Night of the Werewolf through to Tricky Business they never used black!  The used shades of blue, red, green—-the primary colors!  Even in a few books, The Mystery in the Old Mine, that would be the only book to use a white cover.  Also with Dimension, it is as close to an actual science-fiction cover that you are going to get with the Hardy Boys, with Frank and Joe grappling with the alien in what looks like a Jetsons car, and the background is so far that you really can't tell what's in the background, except the moon.

But aside from the cover, I've only read this book maybe once since 97/98 and it's completely left my mind. 

[MacGyver]

I don't remember much about this book but I do agree that the cover art is way cool!
      

[tomswift2002]

Well this one calls back to one of the classic plot devices of the G&D books, and even the Casefiles: Fenton Hardy gets kidnapped and Frank and Joe need to find him!  It's a plot device we saw as far back as the 1927 edition of The House On The Cliff and in the Casefiles in Edge of Destruction.

[tomswift2002]

I'm just getting back to this book.  I'm finding it's one of those books where, even though there are action scenes, overall the book is just not that interesting. 

[tomswift2002]

I finished the book last night.  While it did have action scenes, I found it was lacking that punch that other Hardy's seem to have when the action gets going. 

Also I didn't like how the author cheated and had the guy who hired the Hardy's be the ringleader (although, at least the book didn't cross in UB territory with a gang of one, but had 3 criminals working together).

Rating: 3.5/10 (and that's mostly for the cover!)