Review of "Sea Gold: A Rick Brant Electronic Adventure," by John Blaine

Review of

Sea Gold: A Rick Brant Electronic Adventure, by John Blaine

Four out of five stars

 There is a long history of adventure stories for boys that feature young adults/boys that the target readership can identify with. This book is another in the series about young scientist/inventor Rick Brant. In this story, a new manufacturing facility is starting up on the east coast of the United States and it is designed to extract mineral wealth, including gold, from seawater.

 The Brant’s have no part in the invention of the process, Rick and his friend Scotty hear about the venture and are interested in working there over the summer. However, there is a lot of local opposition, fueled by misinformation and fear that the ocean will be poisoned.

 There is some very dangerous sabotage at the plant, nearly costing Rick and Scotty their lives and severely damaging the facility, leading to the possibility that the plant will close due to lack of funds. The two heroes pursue the villains, reason through the difficulties and once again face an old and ruthless nemesis.

 While there is some science here, that is generally an insignificant backdrop to what is a classic adolescent adventure book. There are fisticuffs, bomb throwing, standard shadowing of the bad guys and the heroes being put in grave danger, only to emerge victorious at the end. In general, this is a well-written but standard adventure for adolescent readers.