This has been done with the Bluespines, so why not the casefiles?
#1-10
Considered by many fans to be some of the best, the first few Casefiles were totaly different from the digests, and could be compared to an action movie.
#11-20
Brother Against Brother, one of the most sought after books, (And it has one of the worst ending of a casefile) comes from this range. These books were not very different from the first few Casefiles in style.
#21-30
Some of these books did focus on the mystery more then the action. Had quite a few classics, including Double Exposure and The Deadliest Dare.
#31-40
These books are considered by some to be the golden area of the Casefiles. With mystery and action, it's no surprize books like Danger Zone are thought to be some of the best writen Casefiles.
#41-50
Rock N' Revenge is one of the hardest Casefiles to get, and Flight into Danger is a favorite of most who have read it. It also has two British books in a row. Need I say anymore?
#51-60
Most of the book in this range I have got my hands on were so and so. Terror On Track and Beyond The Law are fan favorites.
More tomorrow!
Yeah, the edition of Rock 'N' Revenge printed in 1990 is very hard to locate on its own, although the story itself does appear quite a bit in the Hardy Boys Casefiles Collector's Edition #2 in used book stores.
#61-70
As the much loved OP trilogy take up a big part in this range, so you eather like or hate the other ones in the range. In my opion, these were so and so. The last one, Rigged for Revenge is a personal favorite.
#71-80
The so and so (haven't read these, so I'm just saying what other fans think) Ring Of Evil trilogy takes up three books. The others seemed to be quite good. I have only read Bad Rap, which was somewhat like the earlyer casefiles. Dead Of Night is a fan favorite.
#81-90
The series almost jumped the shark here, with plots that read more like Digests. However, at least they showed more of the Hardy's school life, and added some romance. False Alarm and Deadly Engagement are really the only ones I like, Dead Man In Deadwood being considered one of the Worst Casefiles ever.
#91-100
Mission: Myhem was a digest in disquse. Most books here are are so and so, with Hot Wheels and True Thriller being the only fan favorites.
#101-110
Frank and Joe into fights in at least two of the books (which were otherwise very good), Shock reminded me part of the plot of the Nancy Drew File Hotline to Danger....
What do I mean? Murder, gang is supected, heros have rough encounter with Gang (Nancy however has an easyer time getting info), gang is proven inocent. (In Shock Jock the gang is arested for trying to blow a building, which unfortnely is stopped quite easily. :-\)
...Law Of The Jungle no one can remember, it does not take a detective to tell that the series was going downhill.
#111-120
The books were eather Awsome, or they totaly sucked. Cliff-hanger, Survival Of The Fittest, and Cave Trap are considered to be the worst Casefiles ever.
#121-127
The books got better, but it was too late. However, as long as fans keep on writing fanfiction, the series' legacy will live on.
Note: I do like Hotline To Danger, in fact it is one of my Fav. Files.
Quote from: Dinosaur Dan on April 30, 2009, 12:53:11 PM
#61-70
As the much loved OP trilogy take up a big part in this range, so you eather like or hate the other ones in the range. In my opion, these were so and so. The last one, Rigged for Revenge is a personal favorite.
Yeah, the
Operation: Phoenix books are the top books of this section. But there are still other good books in this section, such as
Final Gambit,
Cold Sweat and
Lethal Cargo.
Quote
#71-80
The so and so (haven't read these, so I'm just saying what other fans think) Ring Of Evil trilogy takes up three books. The others seemed to be quite good. I have only read Bad Rap, which was somewhat like the earlyer casefiles. Dead Of Night is a fan favorite.
Actually, the
Ring Of Evil story arc takes up 4 books, if you consider
Dead Of Night as an epilogue to the trilogy. But otherwise, aside from
Danger Unlimited and
Dead of Night, most of the books were mediocre at best.
Quote
#81-90
The series almost jumped the shark here, with plots that read more like Digests. However, at least they showed more of the Hardy's school life, and added some romance. False Alarm and Deadly Engagement are really the only ones I like, Dead Man In Deadwood being considered one of the Worst Casefiles ever.
I think
Sheer Terror was the book that made the Casefiles almost "jump the shark", but then there were better books in this group than in the previous group.
False Alarm, Winner Take All, Virtual Villainy & Darkness Falls provided a more "meatier" treat than books like
Bad Rap & Road Pirates.
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#91-100
Mission: Myhem was a digest in disquse. Most books here are are so and so, with Hot Wheels and True Thriller being the only fan favorites.
While
Hot Wheels & True Thriller are some of the top books of the series, most of these titles are, unfortunately, mediocre, with books such as
Mission: Mayhem & Taste For Terror making up a very weak duology, with some weak stories in
Sabotage at Sea, Illegal Procedure & Murder By Magic.
Quote
#101-110
Frank and Joe into fights in at least two of the books (which were otherwise very good), Shock reminded me part of the plot of the Nancy Drew File Hotline to Danger....
What do I mean? Murder, gang is supected, heros have rough encounter with Gang (Nancy however has an easyer time getting info), gang is proven inocent. (In Shock Jock the gang is arested for trying to blow a building, which unfortnely is stopped quite easily. :-\)
...Law Of The Jungle no one can remember, it does not take a detective to tell that the series was going downhill.
Some of the titles that really stand-out as good books in this batch are:
Shock Jock, Campaign Of Crime, Wrong Side of The Law & Blown Away. Of course
Peak of Danger, Wild Wheels & Bad Chemistry are mediocre, with
Law of The Jungle, Fast Break & Moment of Truth being the worst of the batch.
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#111-120
The books were eather Awsome, or they totaly sucked. Cliff-hanger, Survival Of The Fittest, and Cave Trap are considered to be the worst Casefiles ever.
This section has got to feature the most "Worst of the Casefiles" books, since
Competitive Edge, Cliff-Hanger, Sky High, Cave Trap, Blood Sport, The Last Leap & Survival of the Fittest have got to have the worst plots of the series. And while
Clean Sweep, Acting Up & The Emperor's Shield have better stories than the other books, they are nothing more than mediocre tales.
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#121-127
The books got better, but it was too late. However, as long as fans keep on writing fanfiction, the series' legacy will live on.
Unfortunately, while the books were getting a little better, no one bothered to add in the explosive mix of gun-runners and smugglers that were seen in the earlier books of the series. With
Stress Point & Fire In The Sky being the highlights of this section, and
Highwire Act being the worst of the last 7 books, the series ended on a so-so note, after an explosive beginning. Thankfully, we were able to see the Hardy Boys from this universe in 2 more adventures before this series faded away. But, unfortunately, even in the cross-over universe of this series, the crossover books went from very explosive to being very mediocre.
In the libary I got it from, Cold Sweat was not even labeled as a Casefile I had to search the athor's name to find it on the system. Seems that whoever put the book in the system agreed with me that Cold Sweat was not a good Casefile. Final Gambit was good in my opion. Have not read lethal cargo.
Quote from: Dinosaur Dan on May 01, 2009, 09:53:12 AM
In the libary I got it from, Cold Sweat was not even labeled as a Casefile I had to search the athor's name to find it on the system. Seems that whoever put the book in the system agreed with me that Cold Sweat was not a good Casefile. Final Gambit was good in my opion. Have not read lethal cargo.
I remember that back in the 1990's (at the time I was a pre-teen), the Public library where I live had 3 books from the Tom Swift (Archway) series:
The Negative Zone, The Microbots & A Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thriller: Time Bomb and whoever had filed them away had put
The Microbots & Time Bomb in the children's department of the library, but
The Negative Zone was in the Adult section of the library, and only available for Adults to check-out.
Weird.
Nzone's not that bad is it?
Quote from: tomswift2002 on May 02, 2009, 07:16:09 PM
I remember that back in the 1990's (at the time I was a pre-teen), the Public library where I live had 3 books from the Tom Swift (Archway) series: The Negative Zone, The Microbots & A Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thriller: Time Bomb and whoever had filed them away had put The Microbots & Time Bomb in the children's department of the library, but The Negative Zone was in the Adult section of the library, and only available for Adults to check-out.
Weird.
Cold Sweat wasn't even labeled as a Hardy Boys book, which in my mind was very odd. I've also seen Mission: Myhem in the kids section, mainly because there was no reason to put it in the teen setion.