A Wild Ride Through the Night

by Walter Moers
182 pgs

I've read each of Walter Moers' quirky fantasy books that take place on Zamonia, and while the last one fell pretty far short of my expectations, they've all been highly imaginative and I'm looking forward to his next one. A Wild Ride Through the Night is not part of the series, but is instead a story crafted using as its framework 21 wood engravings by French artist Gustave Doré. Doré was a highly successful painter, illustrator, and engraver whose subject matter often included angels, dragons, and other fantastical images.

Moers uses a 12-year-old Gustave as his main character. The book begins with Gustave captaining a ship that runs into a deadly Siamese Twins Tornado. His crew is killed and Gustave comes face to face with Death and his crazy sister Dementia. In order to escape the grasp of both of them, Gustave is given six seemingly impossible tasks that he has to perform in a single night. Among them are rescuing a damsel in distress from a dragon, facing six giants and guessing their names, encountering the Most Monstrous of Monsters, and meeting himself.

Moers includes the 21 engravings throughout the book and ties them all together with a clever and entertaining story. The story isn't as good as most of his Zamonian tales, but it's short and fun and worth the time to read.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books

by Walter Moers

I truly believe that German author Walter Moers is one of the most creative literary minds writing today. Rumo and The 13½ Lives of Captain Blue Bear were both good books, but then he really got going and solidified em as a fan of his writing with The Alchamaster's Apprentice and The City of Dreaming Books, which were both fantastic. So I was very surprised and not a little bit disappointed with The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books. It's a direct sequel to The City of Dreaming Books but it's definitely not its equal.

In The City of Dreaming Books Optimus Yarspinner, the narrator, tells of his journey to Bookholm, the legendary City of Dreaming Books and his quest to track down the anonymous author of the greatest piece of literature in all of Zamonia. On his journey he met a host of creative characters and was eventually lured into and abandoned in the fantastic and dangerous tunnels below the city. He's ultimately able to escape, but not until his climactic encounter with the King of Shadows.

The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books begins 200 years later. Optimus is on vacation in Lindworm Castle when he receives a mysterious note. A note that leads him to believe the King of Shadows has returned and compels him to return to Bookholm. Unfortunately the majority of the book that proceeds from that point is a review of the events of the last book, as Optimus once again crosses paths with many of the the same characters he met on his first journey and retells his story. When I read a sequel, I want a new and hopefully equally engaging storyline featuring the characters I already know and care about. Not a character reminiscing about the story I've already been told.

The book does end on a high note though, promising more to come. Hopefully the next story, which Moers spent a whole book setting the stage for will be worth the wait. I'm optimistic and hope he delivers.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Rumo: & His Miraculous Adventures

Rumo: & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers

Reading a book by Walter Moers is kind of like taking a cross-country trip to the Grand Canyon - via every scenic byway, world's largest whatever, and every other point of interest along the way. In Rumo, Moers returns to the land of Zamonia, which he first introduced in The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear.

Rumo is a wolperting, an animal that closely resembles a dog, but with small horns and a tremendous aptitude for fighting using swords, crossbows, and pretty much every other means of warfare. Rumo's adventures begin as a small abandoned puppy who is raised by dwarfs, kidnapped by giant demons, and later escapes with the help of a 14-handed shark grub.

Throughout his life, Rumo is constantly following a thread that only he can see above him. It's a silver thread and it ultimately leads him to a female wolperting named Rala. Rumo decides that the best way to get noticed by Rala is to give her a gift, a gift that requires a tremendous act of bravery to acquire. When he returns from his quest, he finds a giant hole where the city of Wolperting had previously stood. The city, along with all of its inhabitants are gone.

The book is an account of his adventures to save Rala and the entire city he now calls home. Each character Rumo meets during his journey has its own story which Moers tells. And just like the side trips to see the various sights en route to the Grand Canyon, the side stories in Rumo are half the fun of the book as a whole.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The 13½ Lives of Captain Blue Bear

by Walter Moers

Anyone who has read a book by Moers knows that his books are nearly impossible to describe, so I'll provide an excerpt instead. This is taken from "The Encyclopedia of Marvels, Life Forms, and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs" which is frequently quoted throughout the book:

Multidimensional Space - It is really quite easy to picture a square yard of multidimensional space - provided you have seven brains. Simply picture a train travelling through a black hole with a candle on its roof while you yourself, with a candle on your head, are standing on Mars and winding a clock precisely one yard in diameter, and while an owl, which also has a candle on its head and is travelling in the opposite direction to the train at the speed of light, is flying through a tunnel in the process of being swallowed by another black hole which likewise has a candle on its head [if you can imagine a black hole with a candle on its head, though for that you will require at least four brains]. Join up the four points at which the candles are burning, using a coloured pencil, and you'll have one square yard of multidimensional space. You will also, coincidentally, be able to tell the time on mars by the clock, even in the dark, because - of course - you've got a candle on your head.


When I first saw this book at the bookstore, I assumed it was a children's book because of the cover, so I didn't buy it. Years later I came across a review of his third book in the series: The City of Dreaming Books, and realized that his books were for adults. I read that one and really enjoyed it. Later I read the fourth book in the series: The Alchemaster's Apprentice, and enjoyed it even more. I finally got around to reading this one, which is the first in the series, and while it was as imaginative and creative as the other books, I felt like it was missing something. This book is more of a travel history of Bluebear. It's not one long adventure like the others were. Instead, it's a series of mini adventures and so I personally didn't enjoy it as much.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆