There are a lot of things to love about this book. It has a complex plot, frolicking adventure, fantastic characters, and surprise endings. For the right child, it would be a great journey of the imagination. For me, though, it was lacking in some key areas. 
 I loved the concept behind the Fantastic Eyes. Having a blind hero led to some interesting narrative devices and an unusual perspective for the main character. The imagery was necessarily rich, and certainly unique. Sometimes it was near unbelievable the world was so...exotic. But it was always fun. 
 The characters were, by and large, pretty flat. Peter is well-developed and undergoes an important transformation over the course of the book. But all of the secondary characters are basically archetypes, even Sir Tode the bizarre sidekick. 
 It has the style of Lemony Snicket, with periodic author asides and fun jabs at popular culture. Auxier makes it a point to carry his theme of the superiority of children throughout the story, repeatedly making adults look silly (very believably so). It's thick with little pieces of humor and strange creatures and new animals. It's fun, just plain old romping fun. But that's about it.