Paul

At first I'd like to mention that all of Walter Moers books are kind of either you love them or you don't like them - I don't think there's much inbetween. However - if you like humorous, fantastic and intelligently written stories I strongly recommend to either read or listen to one of his books, because chances are high you'll like them.

Some words to the Zamonia novels in general:
Walter Moers is a German author and I read all his Zamonia novels in German first (I'm German too) and listened to two in German (Alchemasters Apprentice and City of Dreaming Books). I think I can say that Zamonia books together are my favorite books.
Nevertheless, I had my doubts, if it would be possible to translate these books accordingly, because Moers created so many new, fantastic words, creatures, locations, sciences etc. in his novels. But I have to admit, after listening the first four hours of Captain Bluebear, that the English version is nearly as good as the German one, even if I as a .

In my opinion, Captain Bluebear is the "least good" (because worst wouldn't be the right expression) of the Zamonia novels, but if you haven't read or listened to any of them yet, I would still recommend you to start with this book, because it gives you the best overview over the Zamonian world. Rumo, the City of Dreaming Books and to some extend the Alchemasters Apprentice sometimes reference to small sections of Captain Bluebear (you would still understand the story without knowing the Bluebear, but it's even more fun, if you recognize some parts from other books again).

There's one big disadvantage that comes with listening to the audio version instead of reading the actual book: You don't get see Moers drawings, which often give you a good picture of what kind of creature Moers is talking about in the respective section.
But this disadvantage is nearly offset by the great way the book is read by Mr. Pinchot. He reads very entertaining and does a great job with the voices!