Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures [Paperback]

Walter Moers (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 28, 2007

Set in the land of Zamonia, this exuberant, highly original fantasy from Walter Moers features an unlikely hero. Rumo is a little Wolperting - a domesticated creature somewhere between a deer and a dog - who will one day become the greatest hero in the history of Zamonia. Armed with Dandelion, his talking sword, he fights his way through the Overworld and the Netherworld. He meets Rala, a beautiful Wolperting female; Urs of the Snows, who thinks more of cooking than of fighting; Gornab the Ninety-Ninth, the demented king of Netherworld; Professor Ostafan Kolibri, who goes in search of the Non-Existent Teenies; Professor Abdullah Nightingale, inventor of the Chest-of-Drawers Oracle; and, worst luck, the deadly Metal Maiden.

Astonishingly inventive, amusing, and engrossing, Rumo is a captivating story from the unique imagination of Walter Moers. Illustrated with the author's own line drawings and filled with humor, this rambunctious novel will delight fans tired of the usual epic fantasy. The comparisons are many - Douglas Adams, Lewis Carrol, J.K. Rowling, Dr. Seuss, R. Crumb - but Moers is clearly an original. Long live Zamonia!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in the land of Zamonia, this exuberant, highly original fantasy from German writer and cartoonist Moers (The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear) features an unlikely hero, Rumo, a little horned puppy (or Wolperting) who lives on a farm with a family of seven dwarfs. Rumo's rise to greatness begins when he's kidnapped by a Demonocle, "a vicious type of one-eyed giant," who takes him to Roaming Rock, a floating island. There Rumo befriends Volzotan Smyke, a Shark Grub, who can live on land or in water but "thought it wiser to convey the impression he was a sea creature pure and simple." Innumerable picaresque adventures follow, one of the funniest involving gambling and the hazards of winning. Illustrated with the author's appealing line drawings and full of sly humor, this rambunctious novel will appeal to fans tired of the usual epic fantasy, though they should be prepared for some violence in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Another grand tale of Zamonia, first visited in The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (2002), relays the adventures of half-deer, half-wolf Rumo the Wolperting, who's very good at fighting. In the beginning, all he knows is that he's teething, and his Hackonian keepers are being stuffed into bags and taken somewhere. Taken, too, he becomes a prisoner of the Demonocles on Roaming Rock. Thanks to gambling-shark grub Volztan Smyke, he gets a name, hears fantastic stories, and eventually fights free of the Demonocles. Thereafter, he goes to many fantastic places, ending up in the city of Wolperting, where he wins the double-bladed sword Dandelion and the beautiful Rala. In the forest to get wood for a gift for Rala, he encounters a talkative tree, and when he returns to Wolperting, everyone is missing. So it's off to the near-mythical Netherworld, where he takes on Gornab the Ninety-Ninth, mad king of Hel, and General Tick-Tock and his Copper Killers, a clockwork army. A brilliantly imagined, well-executed jaunt through strange lands full of wild characters. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 684 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP; Tra Rep edition (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585679364
• ISBN-13: 978-1585679362
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Even Better than "13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear" August 14, 2007

By Mike

Format:Hardcover

This is an outstanding novel by the author of "The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear." RUMO is actually more satisfying as a novel because Moers takes more time to develop one cohesive story rather than a series of short-stories as he did in "13 1/2 Lives." But his incredible inventiveness still shines through. Be sure to read Captain Bluebear first though, because that's where Moers introduces the world of Zamonia and some of the important characters in RUMO.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars rumo - not just a card game January 16, 2006

By Lucas Thorn

Format:Paperback

i work in a bookstore. have done for quite some time. in that time, i've browsed pretty much the entire store in search of a good next book. and, considering the rate at which i read (a hundred and twenty odd pages an hour), it pretty much means not only that it's hard to find a good next book, but that my library is guaranteed to grow almost as fast as a weed garden.

now, a long time ago (not in a galaxy far, far away, but i wish it was), i saw a copy of moer's 13 1/2 lives of captain bluebear and really meant to pick it up, but never quite got around to it. then rumo: the miraculous adventures popped into the store, and the same thing happened.

finally, it was released in the paperback size, and we got more than usual in, so i picked on up and gave it a bit of a small browse. then took it to lunch with me where i shared a vegemite and cheese roll with it and found it rather tasty. the book, not the roll. although the roll was quite tasty in its own way.

moer is an awesome storyteller. he is darkly comic, and deeply disturbing while at the same way he can make you giggle so hard you'd think you were reading hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy for the first time all over again. i've seen him compared to terry pratchett, but really i think that's just an awful marketing ploy, because i'm not a pratchett fan, and find moer much more to my taste. moer's got more of an edge to his stories, and just a whole lot more gold for your dollar.

basically, rumo: the miraculous adventures is just that. the miraculous adventures of rumo, born of a warrior race and destined to greatness from his very beginning. following his nose, he finds the girl he loves and in a desperate attempt to impress her, goes off to get some wood from a spooky forest no sane creature would dare to enter. returning, he finds she, and his entire race, have been kidnapped by the denizens of hel. determined to rescue her, rumo embarks on his most miraculous adventure yet, culminating in a truly spectacular finale of death and destruction!

during my reading, i was struck by a similarity with the story of rumo and the books by michael de larabeiti - the borribles series. not so much in the plot, or in the style, but more in a very subtle tone of darkness and the futility but necessity of violence, combined with true heroics and self-sacrifice.

i truly enjoyed this novel on so many levels and the comic highlight for me were the small adventures of smyke and the non-existent teenies, who were just hilarious.

i don't think you can go past this book. it's frightfully funny, and deliciously good. eat it with a side of curry and coke on a nice hot summer night and you'll be just fine.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Entry into Zamonia April 7, 2007

By Jay Young

Format:Hardcover

I read and thoroughly enjoyed Walter Moers' 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. So when I saw Moers' new book "Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures" at Barnes & Noble, I was very much looking forward to reading it. It doesn't quite rise to the level of "Bluebear," unfortunately.

We follow the title character "Rumo" from his being raised as a puppy by a kindly breed of creatures named Hackonian Dwarves. Rumo can visualize his smells as colored threads- and there's a thread that's constantly hanging above him- a silver thread. He doesn't know why, but he knows he must follow it. Unfortunately, all of the Hackonian Dwarves and Rumo are kidnapped by the Demonocles, a breed of giant Demons that delight in eating living things alive. While in the Demonocles' prison, Rumo meets and is befriended by the Shark Grub Volvotan Smyke, a prominent character in "Bluebear." Smyke teaches him how to speak, and watches as he grows into a Wolperting- a strong canine creature with horns. They eventually devise a plan to escape the Demonocles' clutches, which is successful. Rumo and Smyke have some adventures together, but eventually they decide to go their separate ways, since Smyke wants to find civilization, and Rumo wants to follow the mysterious silver thread. After some stumbling around, Rumo follows the silver thread to a city called Wolperting, full of Wolpertings just like him. Rumo finds the source of the silver thread- a beautiful girl named Rala. One day Rumo arrives in Wolperting, back from a trip to get a present for Rala, only to find the entire city is deserted. The only clue is a huge hole in the ground, which as it turns out, leads to the underground kingdom of Hel. Rumo must rescue Rala and the residents of Wolperting from the clutches of Gornab the 99th, Ruler of Hel, and the evil General Tic-Toc.

I don't think that "Rumo" is as good as "The 13 ˝ Lives of Captain Bluebear." For one thing, many parts of the book tend to meander, particularly when the history of a particular place such as Hel is explained. Of course that happens to a certain extent in "Bluebear," but it does so through Nightingale's Encyclopedia, which works literarily within the story. But when engaging in tangents in the form of straight prose narrative, it gets dry. Another shortcoming is that "Rumo" is not as copiously illustrated as "Bluebear." That's part of what made "Bluebear" so fun to read- Moers' fanciful illustrations which seemed to pop up every other page. In "Rumo," on the other hand, we only see one illustration of the title character when he's full-grown, and a couple when he's a pup. Illustrations of the other characters are similarly few. That said, fans of "Bluebear" (and fantasy fans in general) will likely enjoy "Rumo." It has a similar sense of captivating fantasy and adventure, and takes place in the same fictional world of Zamonia. And even with the shortcomings I feel the book has, Moers' imagination never fails to shine through. In addition, several characters from "Bluebear" show up here, including of course Rumo, Smyke, and Professor Nightingale; Bluebear does not make an appearance. In addition, the living, insane chemical element Zamonium, which played an important part in "Bluebear," also is part of "Rumo." Read the book to find out how.