This book has been a long time in coming. Back when I first began my Clive Cussler phase, I had just left the Army, my wife was pregnant, and both of us were in grad school. When the baby came and I had to rock him to sleep, I did so some nights with a Clive Cussler book in one hand and a car carrier in the other. I read half those early books aloud, I bet, trying to sooth the baby to sleep.

I was starting to build up my Cussler collection during those years, and one set of books that especially excited me were his adventure novels for kids, The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy, and this one, The Adventures of Vin Fiz. I wanted to delay reading them myself until my kids were old enough for me to read them aloud, and they finally are. I wish I could say that the wait was worth it…but it definitely wasn’t.

Now, I’ve all but outgrown Cussler’s fiction (good timing, I guess, since he passed away 2 years ago and I’ve read almost everything he wrote). The books I’d tried most recently were just so over-the-top or otherwise ludicrous that I finally lost patience with them. I’m finding that adventure-novel writers like Alistair MacLean and Clive Cussler are like cheeses—not that they get better with age but that the longer they’re around, the more they stink (sorry, I forget to release the “Dad Joke alert!” in time).

This book was a letdown on many levels. I’m keeping most of my reasons close to the chest, since my kids (11, 9) seem to have enjoyed it, but I’ll share a few.

First off, I can’t stand that the plane is magic and with a personality and a will of its own. What I especially didn’t like is that this magic and personality was something we were eased into. For example, by the end of the book, the plane dances and dips its wings like it’s a dog, yet there was no inkling of its being such a character until like half-way through. Had the story begun magically and with major signposts put up early, I’d have noticed it less. But its mixture of real-world and magic was poorly done. Magic is certainly not Cussler’s forte.

Second, the fact that a magical airplane is taking the kids across the country (from Castroville, CA, to NYC) is interesting, but Cussler skips a whole lot of country for 4-5 close-scrape “adventures” that leave much to be desired. The first adventure in the goldmines was the worst, because everything was just so sudden with no lead-up to the characters or the possibility of such a scrape. It was unexpected and random—and not in a fun way.

Third, I felt the book was very inconsistent on a number of levels. Sometimes the story was goofy with silly names and characters, and then a bandit quite realistically threatens to blow himself up and kill their dog, Floopy. I also can’t peg when this story is supposed to take place, because at one point they’re flying a Wright-brothers bi-plane and riding horses, and then suddenly there’s buses and telephones. I was confused and a bit annoyed by the fickle settings throughout the book.

Finally, I really wasn’t a fan of the perpetual deus ex machina, the plane always getting the kids out of scrapes they otherwise wouldn’t have survived. The kids don’t do much on their own in this book (other than lie to their parents and essentially run away from home), so there’s nothing we can learn from them besides “dare to dream”—which is a stupid lesson to emphasize. It’s like saying, “Courageously think thoughts.” Yeah, thanks, Gandhi.

I wasn’t a fan of this book, but then again, the book wasn’t written for me. It was written for the kids, and so they get the final vote. My kids enjoyed it, and I could tell that they were enthralled by the adventures and the suspense as it built up—so I guess that’s a win for Cussler, and he can’t hope for much better than that. I’d decline to comment, but…I think that ship has sailed.

©2022 E.T.

Read More from Clive Cussler: