Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures

A Novel in Two Books

By: Walter Moers

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 24 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

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. Filled with humor, this novel puts a new spin on the usual epic fantasy. The comparisons are many—Douglas Adams, Lewis Carrol, J. K. Rowling, Dr. Seuss, and R. Crumb—but Moers is clearly an original. Long live Zamonia!

©2003 Piper Verlag GmbH, München; translation 2004 by John Brownjohn (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Equal parts J. K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, and Shel Silverstein…a work of monumental silliness.” ( Washington Post)

“Exuberant…Full of sly humor, this rambunctious novel will appeal to fans tired of the usual epic fantasy.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“A brilliantly imagined, well-executed jaunt through strange lands full of wild characters.” ( Booklist)

Hard to Listen to in Spots

The story is quite good, and even though this is apparently part of a series, I feel that the story stands by itself. The narration, however, varied from exceptionally good to exceptionally bad. The characters of Dandelion & Gornab were almost impossible for me to listen to. They were read in such a screeching voice that I often had to turn the volume down so far that I missed subsequent lines by characters who were read in almost a whisper.

Headphones NOT recommended!

Any additional comments?

First of all, let me say I never write reviews, but have been driven to do so by the sheer awfulness of this book's sound-editing.

This was the usual Moers' listen. The story is full of tangents and is completely zany, but really a blast once you get in the groove. And quite a bit of Pinchot's narration is really quite good - the voices are definitely distinct characters and he paces things well.

HOWEVER. Whoever did the sound editing on this should be shot in both knees...twice. I was using earbuds when the character Dandelion was introduced, and I think my hearing has been permanently damaged. Whatever computer effects have been used on that voice are absolutely terrible: it sounds like a shrill, sing-song chipmunk on helium and is, if you're using any type of headphone, quite literally painful. I've switched to external speakers to finish the book to prevent hearing loss, but am now at risk of boyfriend loss as he's threatening to leave me if I don't make the "chipmunk from hell" stop.

So. Great book, but I think I'll finish it in print.

Read it

be warned if alvin and the chipmunk specials make your ears ache, this reading is not for you. The writing is clever and inventive, the reading well done but the voice characterizations are weak and the electronic voice manipulation just oh so grating. A book to be read.

A book for Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams Fans

A whacky witty read. Not for those with irony poor blood. The narration and performance were well suited to this story.

My ears are bleeding

A fantastic story but the narration was unbearable. The squeaking and harsh voices used to make this book a disappointment.

Miraculous Indeed

It took me a couple hours of listening to get into it, but once I did I was hooked. It reminded me of a show on cartoon network "ADVENTURE TIME!" If after you read this book, and you dearly love it. You should truely look up this program. Anyways, The characters were inventive and animated. The narration should win an award for sure. The voices portrayed fit the characters like a glove. The book was 24hrs long; but when it was over, it felt too short.

Love but poor Dandelion’s voice ruins the story

I adore reading Walter Moers & Rumo is my absolute favorite book. Moers is fantastically creative & diving into all the details of the imaginative world of Zamonia is an immersive experience. There is a lot of explanation for characters backstories that go into great detail that may feel tedious to read at first, but I promise you they will all tie together. And if you’re someone like me who enjoys re-reading books to pick up on more foreshadowing: this is the book for you. Rumo is packed with adventure & is ultimately a love story so it appeals to a wide audience. My only issue with this audible version is the voice actor’s choice to do some characters at a very high & super annoying pitch. Some characters that this tragedy effects only have a couple of lines so it’s tolerable. Then, there is Dandelion. I’m not sure why this horrible high voice was chosen for this troll. In my mind a troll would have a deep voice, but that’s my opinion. This voice RUINS the experience of this book from chapter 13 on. Not only that but the inflection used doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t follow normal speaking patterns & spikes to the highest pitches randomly which is nonsensical, unhelpful, & incredibly off-putting . For some reason the actor, Pinchot, chose to frequently shout with this awful voice, which if you’re wearing headphones with will repeatedly cause you to quickly remove them from your now damaged ears & continuously curse him out. I really enjoy putting this book on for an hour to go to sleep but sadly cannot listen to the entire book because of this terrible voice. I’m not sure what it would take to have Dandelion’s voice to be re-recorded but, please for the love of Zamonia, do so. To Pinchot’s credit, he does a wonderful job with most of the story & character’s voices. For example, Smyke & adult Rumo make perfect sense. Please please please re-record Dandelion’s voice.

Great story and we'll produced but...

Really enjoyed another great Walter Moers book. The story was full of great moments and rich universe of zamonia. The production was well done with voice altering and other effects to bring the characters to life. But there were many moments when the high pitch altered narrator stung my ears through my cars audio system. Not as bad when listening with a pair of headphones or just on my phones normal speaker. My wife stopped listening with me in road trips because of the annoying voices.

A Grown Up Fantasy Adventure

Another windfall from Walter Moers, brilliantly read by Bronson Pinchot. This book is tied to Blue Bear's saga, but is independent of it.
That said, though, in my opinion it's NOT for children like Blue Bear. Rumo's story is darker, bloodier, and not every hero has a happy ending.
I hold to my high rating, though. It's a book that you yearn to return to whenever possible.

loved this fun book & the reader was awesome!

This is a funny, creative and exciting adventure story - the author's drawings are an important part of the book (mainly portraits of the characters and a couple of maps), so it helps to have a hard copy of the book - my husband and son (11) both read it previously and loved it, so I referred to the book occasionally to see what the author imagined his wild and crazy characters looked like. There are also different fonts to express how the different voices sound, and here the reader did an incredible job. In fact, I mainly wanted to write a review to say that Bronson Pinchot now tops my list of amazing readers. He literally created a vastly different voice for each character (and this is a whole world of crazy personalities). And his own (narrator voice) is so normal and soothing. He should definitely win an award for his narration. I am eager to hear more of both this author and narrator! My son listened occasionally and though he had read the book already, he was completely taken with Bronson's voices. Not always the voices he imagined - often way better. We especially loved Dandelion and the Non-Existent Teeeeeee---nies!