Series ✦ Penny’s Take
The Black Dragon
Victor Appleton · 1991
60/100
👍 Worth It
The first book of the 1991 Tom Swift revival moves briskly, with an eighteen-year-old inventor using skyboards, robots, and lasers to rescue a kidnapped friend — exactly what the target reader wants. The ghostwritten quality is serviceable rather than sharp, the romance subplot feels forced, and the plot occasionally ties itself in knots, but the brain-over-brawn hero and fast science-adventure pacing earn it a pass for the right age group. Solid genre entertainment with modest ambitions.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety76
Substance / usefulness58
Craft & writing62
Originality42
Evidence & accuracy75
Hype vs delivers71
Age-fit70
👁 Human-eye gut-check66
Penny’s verdict60
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