Wow (not a good wow). This book was a slog. But I made it. Finally.

Don't get me wrong, fair play to Walter Moers - it's abundantly clear this is a labour of love and that he revelled in losing himself within this magical, imaginative world of his, with his plucky blue narrator; and if that's not what life's about, then I don't know what is. But as a reader, journeying through this tale was akin to traipsing through the dastardly quicksand near that volcano in the story (Forgive me for not being precise; I cannot bear (no pun intended) to reopen that yellow brick to find its proper name because that in essence is my entire problem with it all: gah! it's too made up!)

I know, I know. It's not ol' Walter's fault it's mine and I get that, but I also think a good work of writing captures the reader, so they lose themselves in the book, like a spell. I just thought Bluebear was incredibly transparent - I could sense lists of words coming a mile off; nouns stacked behind nouns separated with countless commas or semi colons of endless, relentless, meaningless, soul defeating lists of things - I imagine he was having a whale of a time thinking of synonyms or other imaginative phrasing but it just left me thinking the same things I think about dreams: if anything is possible, where is the measure of quality of idea? For me it should be in the selection process - what you chose and chose not to include - which I feel was lacking from the onset. Another reviewer asserted the book could've been 400 pages shorter and I high-five that assessment. There was just too much of stuff and I think it lacked a little skill in the editing department. And when the congladitorial duel came up, I thought I was done for. It was literally a tall tale telling tale after tall tale for pages on end. A little bit of me died at that point.

To sum up then: wonderfully imaginative and clever (especially the broad vocabulary and subject matter and hat tips to our own world) but ultimately massively too long and stylistically a bit drab, not for me, sorry! ( )

This book was a lot! It is a work of non-stop imagination and was very entertaining. I did a combination of print and audio for this book which was the best of both worlds as the audio was spectacular and the print is full of wonderful illustrations that really add to the text. Using both formats gave me a full, rich experience. A wonderful book, although a bit exhausting. ( )

I liked it okay, but lost interest around the 150 page zone. Reading in German is hard work for me, so the story needs to be really gripping in order to keep me motivated; the grip of the story slowly weakened and stopped being worth the extra effort. ( )

Y'all! It's just funny. Had me laughing out loud; cackling even. So clever, so fun, so so so funny.

The vocabulary - impeccable. The writing - pristine. There were no grammatical or syntax errors snagging my brain, taking away from the story. Just a fun, hilarious, refreshing, and exciting read.

There's nothing out there like it, and I wouldn't change a thing about it! FIVE STARS are not enough! ( )

This is a children’s absurdist fantasy tale of a big blue bear and his adventures through the stages of his life thus far. The author has built an extraordinary world, Zamonia in which anthropomorphic animals, inter-dimensional aliens and, even a few humans roam! Pen & black ink drawings pepper the pages and underscore the detailed descriptions of people and places. This tall tale is as elaborate as it is long: 700+ pages filled with lists and encyclopedia entries and, admittedly it sometimes gets a bit tedious. One can imagine this as more of a story that a parent might read to their children at bedtime, a little section at a time—for months on end! (As an adult, I might appreciate it more if it were read to me!) Bronson Pinchot narrates this first-in-series as well as a couple of the sequels. His ability to handle this type of material (cf The League of Princes series by Christopher Healy) are persuasive arguments in favor of listening to this and the next book in the series, ‘Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures’ in audio. ( )