Product Description

Astonishingly inventive, amusing and engrossing, Rumo is a captivating story from the unique imagination of Walter Moers. Rumo is a little Wolperting who will one day become the greatest hero in the history of Zamonia. Armed with Dandelion, his talking sword, he fights his way across Overworld and Netherworld, two very different worlds chock-full of adventures, dangers, and unforgettable characters: including Rala, the beautiful girl Wolperting who cultivates a hazardous relationship with death; General Ticktock, the evil commander of the Copper Killers; Ushan DeLucca, the finest and most weather-sensitive swordsman in Zamonia; Professor Abdullah Nightingale, inventor of the Chest-of-Drawers Oracle; and, worse luck, the deadly Metal Maiden.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16788 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Review
"'Resembles a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Clive Barker with something of the yarn spinning facility of each' Guardian"

From the Publisher
'Resembles a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Clive Barker with something of the yarn spinning facility of each' Guardian

About the Author
Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He is the creator of the comic strips The Little Asshole and Adolf and the author of the cult bestseller The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear and A Wild Ride Through The Night. He lives in Hamburg.

Customer Reviews

Who needs Harry Potter?
I discovered Capt Bluebear back in 2000 but it has taken me until now to read Rumo. I was not dissapointed...once again Moers has created a world of undescribable wonders....full of fantastic creations. I would tell everybody to read this book but never quite know how to describe it...is it fantasy?, is it SF?, is it sureal humour? possibly a bit of each?
If you have yet to read Moers, start with Capt Bluebear but buy this at the same time...then you wont have to wait for the postman.

The silver thread
Comic artist/author Walter Moers created the lost continent of Zamonia -- and all its bizarre inhabitants -- in "The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear."

But he expands it further in the tightly-written adventure tale "Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures," the story of a little Wolperting and how he became the greatest warrior in Zamonia. Unlike its predecessor, this story has a solid central storyline about -- what else? -- seeking true love and one's own destiny.

On the day he learned to walk and speak, Wolperting pup Rumo (along with his owners) is kidnapped by evil omnivorous Demonocles. In the Roaming Rock prison, he's taught how to speak and fight by the shark-grub Smyke, who engineers an escape -- using Rumo's newfound fighting abilities to destroy the Demonocles and set everyone free. After some odd adventures, Smyke sends Rumo on his way, to follow the Silver Thread that leads him to his destiny.

Rumo finds his way to a city of Wolpertings, where he learns to fight, work, and falls in love with the beautiful Rala. But after leaving to get a gift for Rala, Rumo discovers that a mysterious black dome has swallowed all the Wolpertings in the city, dragging them down into the Netherworld -- where they are to be used as gladiators for monsters and the horrific Copper Killers. And Rala is in even more danger than the others, unless Rumo, Smyke and a Nocturnomath scientist can save her.

Moers' talent is in writing stories that are meant for adults, but which have the charm, imagination and complete lack of realism that we think of kids' books having. Minocentaurs, Yetis, unicornlets and savage metallic killers are only a few of the weird species that Moers populates Zamonia with -- and those are the ones with only one brain.

Though Moers devotes a lot of time to these weird creatures, he never loses sight of the plot. It sags a bit when Rumo arrives at Wolperting and tries to pursue Rala, but picks up as soon as the Netherworld attacks. And he has a delicious writing style. Never hurried or precious, but with plenty of description and some very detailed backstories, from a city of refined dinosaurs to the horrors of the Netherworld.

And it does get pretty horrific at tmes, with some nasty deaths, monsters, and the ultimate torture device, the Metal Maiden. But there's plenty of humor too, a lot of which comes from Rumo's magical knife Dandelion -- which isn't exactly the ideal weapon for a hero, since it tends to faint during fights and has a split personality.

Rumo himself is not quite an ideal hero -- he tends to be a bit too serious -- but his earnest love for Rala, and his pursuit of the Silver Thread, make him quite endearing. He's backed up by other mildly weird characters, including the mysterious Smyke, the malevolent robotic General Ticktock, a mad emperor, and the brainy Kolibri.

"Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures" has a bit of a dead zone in the middle, but Walter Moers' whimsical, adventurous story carries itself through to the end. Hail Rumo!

Silver threads
Comic artist/author Walter Moers created the lost continent of Zamonia -- and all its bizarre inhabitants -- in "The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear."

But he expands it further in the tightly-written adventure tale "Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures," the story of a little Wolperting and how he became the greatest warrior in Zamonia. Unlike its predecessor, this story has a solid central storyline about -- what else? -- seeking true love and one's own destiny.

On the day he learned to walk and speak, Wolperting pup Rumo (along with his owners) is kidnapped by evil omnivorous Demonocles. In the Roaming Rock prison, he's taught how to speak and fight by the shark-grub Smyke, who engineers an escape -- using Rumo's newfound fighting abilities to destroy the Demonocles and set everyone free. After some odd adventures, Smyke sends Rumo on his way, to follow the Silver Thread that leads him to his destiny.

Rumo finds his way to a city of Wolpertings, where he learns to fight, work, and falls in love with the beautiful Rala. But after leaving to get a gift for Rala, Rumo discovers that a mysterious black dome has swallowed all the Wolpertings in the city, dragging them down into the Netherworld -- where they are to be used as gladiators for monsters and the horrific Copper Killers. And Rala is in even more danger than the others, unless Rumo, Smyke and a Nocturnomath scientist can save her.

Moers' talent is in writing stories that are meant for adults, but which have the charm, imagination and complete lack of realism that we think of kids' books having. Minocentaurs, Yetis, unicornlets and savage metallic killers are only a few of the weird species that Moers populates Zamonia with -- and those are the ones with only one brain.

Though Moers devotes a lot of time to these weird creatures, he never loses sight of the plot. It sags a bit when Rumo arrives at Wolperting and tries to pursue Rala, but picks up as soon as the Netherworld attacks. And he has a delicious writing style. Never hurried or precious, but with plenty of description and some very detailed backstories, from a city of refined dinosaurs to the horrors of the Netherworld.

And it does get pretty horrific at tmes, with some nasty deaths, monsters, and the ultimate torture device, the Metal Maiden. But there's plenty of humor too, a lot of which comes from Rumo's magical knife Dandelion -- which isn't exactly the ideal weapon for a hero, since it tends to faint during fights and has a split personality.

Rumo himself is not quite an ideal hero -- he tends to be a bit too serious -- but his earnest love for Rala, and his pursuit of the Silver Thread, make him quite endearing. He's backed up by other mildly weird characters, including the mysterious Smyke, the malevolent robotic General Ticktock, a mad emperor, and the brainy Kolibri.

"Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures" has a bit of a dead zone in the middle, but Walter Moers' whimsical, adventurous story carries itself through to the end. Hail Rumo!