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The Xanadu Adventure (Vesper Holly #6)

by Lloyd Alexander

3.75 · rating details · 193 ratings · 9 reviews

Vesper and her friends are sailing off to the newly discovered archeological site of Troy. But danger is close behindand the party is tricked and imprisoned in a fabulous palace called Xanadu. Xanadus master is none other than Vespers archenemy, Dr. Helvitius, who has a diabolical scheme to dominate the world. His first goal is to destroy Vesper, who has thwarted him on...more

Paperback, 160 pages

Published February 15th 2007 by Puffin (first published 2005)

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Aug 13, 2011

Catherine Mustread rated it

Shelves: historical, 1870s, childrens

Final book (#6) in the Vesper Holly series and although I enjoyed the world-spanning adventures of the Indiana Jones type, I still feel disappointed they weren't rooted a bit more in history, taking place in the 1870s. Many topics of the day are mentioned including a canal in Central America, flying machines, bombs, electricity, engines, and more. Certainly could be tied in to a number of other subjects if the reader and/or the teacher so desired.

This concludes my reading of Lloyd ...more

· see review

May 17, 2008

Alana rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008_05_may, reviewed

It's funny, but I feel like a great deal of my childhood reading was wrapped up in Lloyd Alexander (this is no understatement if you wikipedia this guy and see just how prolific he was). I may have loved The Chronicles of Prydain but I really fell in love with Vesper Holly. To this day, "Vesper" is still in the running for baby names if I should ever have a little girl.
So a few weeks ago, I discovered the "Never-Ending Book Quiz" here on Goodreads and I started think...moreIt's funny, but I feel like a great deal of my childhood reading was wrapped up in Lloyd Alexander (this is no understatement if you wikipedia this guy and see just how prolific he was). I may have loved The Chronicles of Prydain but I really fell in love with Vesper Holly. To this day, "Vesper" is still in the running for baby names if I should ever have a little girl.
So a few weeks ago, I discovered the "Never-Ending Book Quiz" here on Goodreads and I started thinking about all the good books that deserved trivia questions. And naturally, I thought of Vesper. So I went online to remember all the exact titles and there on the list was a book I had never read before... The Xanadu Adventure published in 2005. I was graduating college in 2005, so I suppose it isn't surprising that I wasn't searching the young readers' section for unread gems, but I was still surprised that I had not yet heard of this sixth Vesper Holly book, printed fifteen years after the fifth. I ordered it immediately from an amazon seller and a few days ago, it arrived.

In The Xanadu Adventure, you find all the little touches that have come to characterize Vesper Holly books for me... the random expedition to an exotic locale, the cliffhanger endings to the short chapters, the narrator Brinnie's tendency to jump to conclusions, Vesper's cool-headed sense of reason, and, of course, our arch-nemesis Dr. Helvitius. In this adventure, we set off in search of Troy, but instead, we find an artificial Xanadu created by the wealthy and ridiculous Dr. Helvitius(all the truly great villains are wealthy and ridiculous, you know). Oh, and we also find a whole civilization of people (amazingly enough, an undiscovered people who are clearly the descendants of escaped Trojans) that possess the key to deciphering the language the Weed is studying, which sent us off on this adventure in the first place.
As we've gone along in the Vesper Holly books, we've acquired a few characters that we can't seem to shake. In the beginning, it was just Vesper and her guardian Brinnie running from place to place. Then we found Smiler and Slider, handy twins that are characterized by their mechanical know-how (particularly when it comes to boats that are of questionable sea-worthiness) and brute strength. There's Aunt Mary, Brinnie's wife who is surprisingly resourceful and nimble, much to her husband's surprise. And let us not forget "the Weed," a young man with academic pursuits who stumbled into our story and Vesper's heart. I can't say that I don't enjoy the side-characters, but there was something a little less complicated about Vesper and Brinnie on their own in foreign countries. The more characters we acquired, the closer I knew we were coming to an eventual end of the stories. We were weighted down with people and soon it would be too much for such a troupe to wander into adventure.
And even while Vesper was always a bright and energetic young woman, it's in this book more than any other that you realize time has passed and we're not dealing with static characters whose ages do not change. There's always something a little melancholy about watching a character you love grow up. It's not like Vesper's an old woman or anything, but even the idea of her actually getting married and having a child is a bit much for me. I suppose it was good of Alexander to let us know that she's taken care-of and that even in marital bliss, she won't be losing her spunkiness... but I don't know if I needed assurance on that front.

Alexander, however, might have... I hadn't known this before today, but apparently Alexander had a step-daughter (his wife's daughter, whom he adopted) who passed away in 1990 - the same year the last Vesper Holly book was published. I won't speculate more on that, but it does add a note of melancholy as to why it might have taken fifteen years to see Vesper's final adventure in print. I wrote the line about wikipedia-ing Lloyd Alexander, then realized I had never done this, despite how many of his books I have read. So I went ahead and looked him up in Wikipedia and apparently he died exactly a year ago today.

In any case, The Xanadu Adventure is certainly a worthy Vesper Holly send-off and for a short while, it made me smile to find myself in the crowded company of the characters I knew and loved... particularly that of Brinnie and Vesper. I hope that more children will come to love them, too, as Alexander's work should delight children for generations to come.(less)

· see review

Apr 05, 2010

Linda rated it

Vesper Holly, the star of this series, is a female Indiana Jones type. This is toted as the final book of the series and perhaps it does put an end to her archenemy, The Count, once and for all. My only complaint about the whole series is that it's written in first person by the voice of her guardian, Brinny, not Vesper, and that is confusing.

· see review

May 13, 2010

Gabriela rated it

3.75

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Jun 02, 2009

Nicole rated it

A satisfying conclusion to some fun adventures.

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Jun 30, 2007

Joy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, adventure, teen, american, 21c

This has the same strengths and weaknesses as other entries in the Vesper Holly series. On the plus side, Alexander's wit and prose is always a job. On the minus side, Vesper's characterization remains mostly flat, and the ending feels overly drawn out.

· see review

Oct 05, 2009

Gewbook rated it

Shelves: great-ya-reading

A great wrap up to the Vesper Holly books. They hold a special place in my heart from childhood and this book fits right into their formula and voice. Not a complicated plot but very satisfying for those of us attached to Vesper and her companions!

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Sep 26, 2007

Debra rated it

the female Indiana Jones .. probably where i got my first obsession to dig up the front yard
two stars if you are around 10.

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Nov 02, 2008

Amelie rated it

A delight.

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Mel rated it

Shelves: adventure, r-d

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Jan 03, 2012

C. rated it

Shelves: borrowed

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Meredith rated it

Dec 30, 2011

Rebecca added it · review of another edition

Dec 28, 2011

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Dec 27, 2011

Rebecca rated it

Jan 01, 2012

Debbie Cranberry Fries rated it

Shelves: read-in-2011

Dec 26, 2011

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About Lloyd Alexander

Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924 - May 17, 2007) was an influential American author of more than forty books, mostly fantasy novels for children and adolescents, as well as several adult books. His most famous contribution to the field of children's literature is the fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain. The concluding book of the series, The High King, was awarded the Newbery Medal i...more

More about Lloyd Alexander...

Books by Lloyd Alexander

The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain, #1)

The Black Cauldron (The Chronicles of Prydain, #2)

The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain, #5)

Taran Wanderer (The Chronicles of Prydain, #4)

The Castle of Llyr (The Chronicles of Prydain, #3)

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The Xanadu Adventure (Vesper Holly #6)

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