Customer Reviews

The Alchemaster's Apprentice: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Accompanied by dozens of illustrations by Moers The Alchemaster's Apprentice is the fourth Zamonia novel after The City of Dreaming Books ,which keeps to the same high quality as previous books. The series to this point has been far sweeping stories that explore the lost continent whether it be across the land or under it, however the latest entrant breaks from that mold as it stays in the just one place, which is the unhealthiest city in Zamonia, Malaisea, where the resident Alchemaster Ghoolian reigns over the sickly populace. The Alchemaster's Apprentice is the most intimate and shortest tale to date, but is no less entertaining for its brevity. As with all Moers books it centers on one character's life story, in this case Echo the Crat. A Crat looks like a cat but has the special ability of being able to speak to any creature and retain any knowledge told.

We meet Echo as he is starving on the streets of Malaisea since his former owner passed away. Ghoolian comes across the begging Echo and strikes a bargain to feed him for a month with the most sumptuous food from all over Zamonia. At the end of the month the Crat will give up his life in order for his fat to be rendered for the Alchemaster to use in his experiments. At the time it seems like a good bargain for the slowly expiring Crat, but he quickly changes his mind. In one sense The Alchemaster's Apprentice is still a tour Zamonia only it focuses on the culinary and magical sides of the world, which Ghoolian has been amassing for decades in his home. Ghoolian houses Echo in his ancient castle that holds as many wonders as the rest of Zamonia, many of which can no longer be found elsewhere.

This is not the bloodiest Zamonia tale, which was Rumo, but it is the most morbid of the lot as Ghoolian likes to perform taxidermy of myriad creatures and he is all about boiling creatures down to balls of fat along with having a deep disdain for most living creatures. Moers plays with the Ghoolian character trying to give him many sides to his dark face to keep Echo guessing what is truly inside him which works fairly well and leads to some good surprises towards the end. Echo explores the castle as well as the town where we get to meet a marvelous yet small supporting cast of odd creatures including a friendly ghost, a lonely toad, and a great Uggly Witch. I don't say Uggly to deride the character's looks, which while atrocious is actually her species name.

The Alchemaster's Apprentice is a dark fairy tale for adults that keeps you laughing even through the most gruesome of parts. The ending was a bit expected, but the journey to get there what the fun is all about. I give The Alchemaster's Apprentice 9 out of 10 Hats. I'd recommend reading at least The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Blue Bear before this one; although all the Zamonia books are written as standalones with no main character reappearing yet having read previous volumes does help with knowing many of the references to different places and species. Moers shows that he is in nowhere near running out of stories for Zamonia and nor should he. I for one hope he can turn out as many novels as Pratchett has done with Discworld.

First, my hearty thanks to the translator. I saw Walter Moers's previous novel, The City of Dreaming Books, in the Berlin Airport in German. As a German linguist, I can't imagine how difficult it must be to translate prose like this. Simply amazing.

Moers takes us back into the world of Zamonia, but this time to a completely different city and with all-new characters. You don't really need to have read the first book because he takes time to re-establish your knowledge as the story flows. The Alchemaster's Apprentice is really a wonderful, if slightly darker, addition to the Zamonian world. Moers weaves a deft plot that is full of interesting, heavily detailed sidelights that really make for a wonderful read.

Our hero, Echo, is a Crat, which is much like a cat only with special abilities. Echo is swept into the life of an incredibly talented (but equally demented) Alchemaster, Ghoolian. An Alchemaster is something between a magician and an alchemist, combining equal parts artistic madness and scientific rigor. In the City of Malaisea, a wonderfully interesting relationship between Echo and Ghoolian takes us on a month-long journey and a roller-coaster ride of a story.

Moers once again plays with many different concepts and cobbles together a comprehensive picture of each character. His ability to turn concepts like alchemy on their ear, and to invent whimsical combinations of science and nonsense that make sense within the story, is truly remarkable. Moers has a lot of fun ideas about how to make certain alchemical processes work, and draws a comparison between alchemy and culinary mastery. Even when the story grows darker, it is written with a joy that keeps the grimmer aspects from putting off the reader.

I enthusiastically endorse The Alchemaster's Apprentice for young adults and adults alike. Walter Moers's talent for taking the mundane and making it magical is reminiscent of some of the early XANTH books by Piers Anthony, but Moers doesn't have to rely on puns and other cheap humor in order to entertain. He simply creates something sublimely interesting from what might seem like an overused subject in the hands of a less-skilled author.

Got this on a whim because of the cover and reading through a few pages and don't regret it a bit.

How do you describe this book? It's a little bit of fantasy, comedy, haute cuisine and horror. I've never read anything quite like it and such books are not usually my type, but I got reeled in by the few sample pages I read.

It's about a crat (a talking cat) who makes a deal with the Alchemaster and his time with him. I won't spoil the story but you can read more if you want from the description and the other reviews.

There are a lot of fantastic creatures (top marks for author's imagination), nice comedic touches, and some horror. What is really good about this book is that the original was written in German and the translator has done a top notch job in translating not only the words but the nuances and the humor. They say that it's hard to translate humor across languages but the translator did just fine. After I finished this one I went back and read his older books and find that this book (his newest) is a much quicker read, and a better read. His older books meandered around a little (Rumo is 687 pages long) and sometimes took too long to get to a point or went off course. This new book is perfect, it kept my attention much better and I would say the writing (or translation) is much better too.

If you like cats, this book is perfect. What is also perfect is how he captures each creatures personality. Each creature's personality is described and written very well. You feel for, or against the creature, definitely. And great story lines inside the book, the crat (and you) get to meet different creatures, go to different parts of the castle that the Alchemaster lives in and experience all the wonderful and wonderfully terrifying events. The best part? The wonderful drawings which are spaced throughout the book showing the many creatures.

So if you want something different, like fantasy (but not the heroic kind), like cats, humor and cuisine, this one is definitely for you.

I like Walter Moers' creativity, sense of humor, and his drawings. I like visiting Zamonia, his imagined world/continent. I like animals that can talk and magic and the lack of technology. I don't think I'd ever give him less than 4 stars, because I do enjoy his stories so much. But...

I have to admit that Moers seems to be getting more into the creation of Zamonia than into character and plot development. This book was often slowed down by (in my opinion) too much description that seemed to be there only for description's sake - not to further the plot or expand upon the characters. For instance, there's a scene were Echo (the main character of this novel) is in someone's garden, and the owner of the garden describes each and every (Zamonian) plant. This goes on for pages. To be completely blunt, I just don't care. I want a good story, not a botany book. In another scene, Echo is watching a bunch of Zamonia monsters/demons. All of these are also described in great detail. Again, not interested. If it doesn't add to the plot or characters, I don't want to read it. Which was actually what I started to do - not read it. I'd see a list of descriptions and just skip from one paragraph - or even page - to the next until the novel picked up the plot again.

I bring this point up because, as I said above, Moers seems to be losing interest in plot and character. I know that this genre is almost in the realm of folklore and fairy tales, where clear motivations aren't entirely necessary. Why is Cinderella's step-mother wicked? Who cares? She just is. We buy it; we don't question it; it's part of the story. But when you're getting into something of novel length, these details really make a difference - make the story even. Without giving too much away, in *The Alchemaster's Apprentice,* two female characters are in love with a truly evil man. Why? It just doesn't make any sense. We, the readers, are just expected to buy it. The love of one of the female characters is particularly important to the plot. Another major issue is the ending, as far as I'm concerned. Again, I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that I liked the ending, but I don't know how it's justified.

Well, I've written at length about the negatives, so I'll go back to the positives. Good story, good prose. It took me about halfway through the book to really get into it, but then I was hooked and raced to the end. Echo, the main character is a Crat, which is basically cat that has a photographic memory and can speak every language, including all animal languages. Moers does a very good job creating all of his cat-like personality. I had no problem envisioning Echo as he moved around, interacted, and reacted with the world around him.

If you like the Zamonia series, give this one a try. I don't think there is any overlapping of characters from the first books (I believe the other three books had some overlap of minor characters), although "Optimus Yarnspinner" is the fictional author. If you haven't read any of Moers' books of Zamonia, I recommend starting at the beginning with *The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear,* which remains my favorite.

Let me start by saying that I really, really like Moers' other books.

Here are the basics: Each of Moers' works (except A Wild Ride Through the Night) are set in Zamonia, which is a fantasy world of Moers' creation. Though the later books reference the earlier ones in minor ways, all the books stand alone and can be read in any order. This book is the 4th set in Zamonia. The first (which is excellent) was 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear.

My favourite of Moers' books, and the third, is The City of Dreaming Books. It, like all the others (including this one) takes an individual from one peculiar race of creatures on Zamonia and explores excellence and insanity in pursuit of an ideal with some of the zaniest and most bizarre adventures it has ever been my pleasure to read. I never knew Germans could be so funny.

The problem with this book is not the lack of inventiveness. It contains creative flair, though much of it is derivative of Moers' earlier works. It also contains its fair share of humour. What it lacks is the roller-coaster, ever inventive, ever changing atmosphere of almost orgasmic imaginative creation. Compared to his previous books, this one is staid and a little dull.

I fully recommend diving into Moers' work, especially if you enjoyed Terry Pratchett's Discworld or Douglas Adams' work, but I recommend starting with a different Zamonian work.

I have to say that this is a book FAR better than plenty of other books but I think that he has not quite done as well as my favorite book by him, Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures.

This was my second Walter Moers book, the first being The City of Dreaming Books. He's the MOST imaginative writer I've come across in a while, and I'll definitely be reading the rest of his books. But not only am I amazed at the creativity of Moers, I'm stunned by the translation into English. (Wish I had the translator's name here, but I don't.) The original German prose is filled with made-up words, and the English translation SOMEHOW manages to retain the author's intended impressions (at least I presume). It's very hard to explain what I mean by this, but just read a few pages of any of his books and you'll begin to understand.

I almost wish I could read this in its original German. Almost.

I should add that I'm reading his books in paperback rather than on the Kindle because of the wonderful illustrations that add so much to the story.

And by the way, it apparently doesn't matter if you read the Zamonia series in order. I started with #3, then #4...maybe I'll go to #1 next.

This is the second book I've read my Moers. I picked up The City of Dreaming Books after seeing the awesome cover and liked it so much I found this one!

In this book, an animal called a Crat (which is very much like a cat except for it can speak every language possible) lives in a city called Malasia, where disease is a part of everyday life. This Crat, Echo, finds himself homeless and starving in the beginning of the book. He's forced to make a deal with Malasia's dangerous Alchemaster Ghoolion to survive. The Alchemaster will feed him and take care of him for a full month in exchange for Echo's life. At the full moon, he'll use Echo's fat to bring himself immortality. The book is about Echo's adventures with Ghoolion and his quest to find a way out of their contract.

Like Dreaming Books, this book moves slowly. It took me about a month to finish it, even though it was probably in about five or six readings. I think that's just his style. It's not a "I-can't put this book down, it's so addicting" type of read, but it's the type of book where I can just get lost in the world. There are so many creative inventions. How does he come up with so many different creatures and ideas? I want to know what goes through this guys' head as he's walking around grocery shopping and stuff. I can just picture him picking up a nut and being like, "Hmm, this could be the food that imparts visions and knowledge to Echo in my book!"

So, yes, a very enjoyable read. I get lost in Zamonia and I love reading about Moers' crazy inventions. I think it'd be cool to have them on e-readers, but then we'd be without his cool illustrations.

Echo is a unique creature; on the surface, he seems to be a talking cat. But, there's more to him than just the ability to talk. Echo can feel, think, plot, and, best of all, survive. When his mistress dies, leaving him starving in the cold, the alchemist-in-chief of Malaisea takes Echo in on one condition. Unfortunately for Echo, that condition means he will die. Ghoolian, the Alchemaster, is too self-involved to notice, however, that Echo is not going to lie down and die without a fight.

This quirky story takes readers through the bizarre city of Malaisea, an extremely unhealthy place where sickness of both mind and body is common and the strangest collection of creatures lives side-by-side. As alchemaster, Ghoolian is feared and hated by the inhabitants of the town that he rules. His experiments are horrible and often result in death or disfigurement.

Little does this renowned expert realize what he will do to his own lifestyle when he attempts to create an elixir of immortality with the fat collected from a crat (the unfortunate Echo being his targeted crat).

Echo and his friends will delight readers as they meander through the streets of this sick, strange little town. Their stories and plots evoke laughter, tears, and outright disbelief as Walter Moers weaves this outrageously dark tale of survival and friendship.

This is Moers' fourth book set in Zamonia. Readers who enjoyed THE CITY OF DREAMING BOOKS (2008), RUMO: AND HIS MIRACULOUS ADVENTURES (2007), and THE 13 1/2 LIVES OF CAPTAIN BLUEBEAR (2006) will get a kick out of this fourth individual book about Moers' creative world.

Reviewed by: Theresa L. Stowell

Moers loves life. Since The "City of Dreaming Books" we know that he loves books and since now we know he must be a great fan of food.. and cats :)
i read this one after bluebear, ensel and rumo.. and before city of dreaming books. except ensel, i would give 5 stars to all of them, if i had 6, i would give them to this one