Review: The Xanadu Adventure by Lloyd Alexander

by Chriss Cornish published: May 24, 2010 No Comments

X is for Xanadu Adventure, The

This Book Is About

“Miss Vesper Holly leads an active life. In the half-dozen years since my wife, Mary, and I, Professor Brinton Garrett, have been her guardians, I have seen her deal calmly and efficiently with erupting volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, exploding sausages, and other stressful events. The dear girl likes to keep busy.”

Lloyd Alexander’s beloved Indiana Jones-style heroine, Vesper Holly, is back for one last adventure. Delving into the mystery of the origins of Western civilization, Vesper and her friends set out for the site of the legendary Troy, only to fall into a trap laid by the despicable Dr. Helvitius.

My Thoughts On This Book

The Xanadu Adventure is set in 1867, shortly after amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann’s announcement that he’d discovered the site of Troy. Vesper Holly’s friend Toby (nicknamed “The Weed” for his tendency to be everywhere and get into everything) has translated some ancient inscriptions that lead him to believe western civilization began in Crete and developed outwards to Greece via Troy.

Excited to prove this incredible theory, the two young scholars enlist Vesper’s guardians and their twin handymen, Smiler and Slider, in an expedition to Schliemann’s dig at Hissarlick so Toby can study the Trojan inscriptions there. But the boat they hire takes them instead to a dig at Vissarlick. What appears to be a frustrating mistake turns into a sinister plot against Vesper and her loved ones by her arch-nemesis Doctor Helvitius, who imprisons the whole party in Xanadu (his recreation of the palace in Coleridge’s famous poem).

Lloyd Alexander, the author of The Xanadu Adventure, also wrote the Black Cauldron and the rest of the famous young adult (YA) fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain. So, yes, this historical fiction adventure novel is also written for a YA audience.

But this isn’t a tale of kids adventuring on their own with the adults all off taking a coffee break when the Dark Lord attacks. Unlike so many children’s books, the adults in this YA novel are part of the adventure and they’re as smart and active in the story as the teenagers. Also, in this last book in the Vesper Holly series, both Vesper and her friend Toby are 18.

What I found most interesting, is that the narrator telling the story in The Xanadu Adventure isn’t the main character, Vesper Holly. Instead, the narrator for this tale is Dr. Brinnie, Vesper’s guardian/foster father who adventured with her late father before he started exploring with her.

At first I wasn’t sure what to think about the author taking his main character, Vesper, ‘offstage’ so to speak by making her male guardian the ‘camera’. Than I realized that the flow and suspense of the story is totally different and less go-go-go when the narrator isn’t the one solving the problems and saving the day; the reader really has no idea what’s going to happen next.

It’s like the difference between watching a movie and playing a first-person shooter video game.

Also, since the book is set in 1867, having a male narrator helps with the Victorian feel.

The Xanadu Adventure is a quick, yet fun, read. It follows the boiler plate of your standard action adventure movie to some degree (complete with chase across a moving train), with a brief side trip for two of the characters to get married. I would have really liked the book when I was a young adult, since I haven’t been one for some time but enjoyed the story all the same.