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Thread: Zamonia
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2011-12-12, 09:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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Zamonia
Zamonia is a rather obscure fantasy world with a cult following, created by German author and cartoonist Walter Moers. It is the setting for such amazing novels as The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, and The City of Dreaming Books. The world is rather silly in the tradition of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, but its novels contain quite a bit of interesting philosophy and drama. They are charmingly illustrated with amusing cartoons, and yet are intended for an adult audience, which is awesome.
The only Zamonia book I have so far read is The City of Dreaming Books, in which an anthropomorphic dinosaur visits a city called Bookholm in search of a mysterious author. Bookholm's economy hinges almost entirely on the sale of books, and rests on top of a massive network of book-shelf-laden catacombs containing long-lost libraries and tome-laden tombs. Our hero is marooned in this cave network, and must outsmart deranged Lovecraftian monsters and amuzingly sadistic traps in order to survive.
Its a lot of fun.
Zamonia is awesome.
UPDATE: I am now reading Captain Bluebear.Last edited by Chainsaw Hobbit; 2011-12-25 at 09:57 PM.
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2011-12-13, 04:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Bookholm always reminds me a lot of Sigil. There would be no problem at al converting the entire story to Planescape.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2011-12-13, 04:49 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures is a a good one too, although similar to The City of Dreaming Books in terms of plot. There's some nice little overlaps between each of the stories but they don't form part of an ongoing series so you can read them in any order, I think.
It's been on my mind to attempt d20 stats for some of the Zamonian creatures (as a follow-up to my Dr. Who d20 series). I might have time to do it one day...The Lazy GM series. Lovingly crafted pre-gen monsters for Pathfinder and OGL d20 fantasy.
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2011-12-13, 04:54 AM (ISO 8601)
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2011-12-13, 01:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
You may want to look at my d20 Zamonia homebrew.
Well, the books have been translated (quite well) to English.
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2011-12-14, 05:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
in italian too..yay for zamonia
Spoilerand moers
Spoilerand having tales within tales
Spoilerwithin tales
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2011-12-15, 05:08 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
I guess, however, that the original children's TV show wasn't translated?
I pity you all for your sad, sad childhoods.Resident Vancian Apologist
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2011-12-15, 07:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Last edited by Yora; 2011-12-15 at 07:07 AM.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2011-12-15, 08:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Yora uses Nostalgia!
It is very effective!
Eldan is giggling loudly in the library, despite having the sound turned off!Resident Vancian Apologist
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2011-12-15, 12:22 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
I hadn't heard of these books before quite recently, until I ran across this fantastic picture:
http://culpeo-fox.deviantart.com/art...F4485743&qo=19
I am intrigued and ought to read them if I get the chance. So many things to read though.Last edited by Icewalker; 2011-12-15 at 12:23 PM.
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2011-12-15, 01:20 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
There was a TV show?
Why didn't I ever know about it until now?!
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2011-12-15, 01:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Oh you crazy foreigners adoring our childhood entertainment
Nah, I remember watching the show though it is not really tightly connected with the books.
But the books are pretty good (though I like them slightly less than like... all my friends, who love them) It's fun how German books actually get translated into English and are well received... I wonder how good the translation is but I guess Moers relies on puns and such much less than e.g. Pratchett.
There are quite a few by now, half a dozen or so, though I didn't read all (I think... four(?)...) As I said, they are pretty neat but some concepts are just kind of too childish to me to love them but fun enough anyway.
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2011-12-15, 02:05 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
It ran as the last segment of a weekly kids show that always had a rerun on Sunday Morning. Which apparently made it very popular with parents as well.
I got 54 episodes on cassette tape, but never got around to convert them to mp3.We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2011-12-15, 03:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Hm... seems to be enough up on youtube... sadly nobody seemed to care to make subbed episodes... I'm almost tempted to do so but I have other stuff I should be doing...
Well, you can always learn German.
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2011-12-15, 03:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
I remember, as a youth, passing by the thick blue spine of Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures time and time again. Once, I pulled it out, and thought to myself - no, this book will be entirely too silly. I had read silly fantasies before, and had not enjoyed them too much - no, this book would not do. But there was something about it that drew me again, and something about it that made me, every time, remove my curious hand and pass it by.
One day, thank heaven, my curiosity overcame me. I pulled out that big, thick book, with its silly dinosaurs and hounds and robots on the cover, and I decided that I might as well give it a try. And I sat down in a comfortable chair - well, to tell the truth, on a comfortable beanbag, you know, the kind that they toss on the floor for those people who would lounge about on the floor anyway - and I set to work.
By the time I had to leave the library, I had been introduced to Rumo, a most unusual hound, and a race of cannibal cyclopses, and Smyke, a creature that was something between a slug and a shark, who told stories of a most marvelous world, stories within stories, stories about dinosaurs who had survived in a mountain and were besieged by an army of clockwork soldiers who had the most unusual origin, having been created when a band of tinkers and a band of scientists and a band of blacksmiths and a band of clockmakers all happened to run into each other, all on their way to different conventions in this city or that, in the aftermath of a terrible battle-
I devoured that book. The rest of my day was simply devoted to that book. And so it was with the City of Dreaming Books, which is sitting on the floor next to me at this moment, that book which made me love foxes. And, soon, I hope to own yet another of his novels... but that's a story for another time.
So, yes, it could be said that I like Moers. It could be said that I like Moers a lot. That scene, the market-scene in Rumo, that went on for several chapters - it terrified me, not because of what happened, but because of how vividly his detailing brought the market to life! It was as if I was there, and I could see everything described, hear, smell, taste the magnificent market-day of the city of the Wolpertings... I once opened up Rumo, after deciding that this writing thing was something that I greatly desired to do professionally, and I had to put it down after only a chapter, overwhelmed by how rich Moers' writing is.
And any writer who makes me care for a dinosaur novelist and a young deer-wolf pugilist moving in a very fantastic, bizarre and alien world is a good writer indeed; any writer who can make me fear deeply a tick-tock general with a heart of pure evil, and at the same time be fascinated by him, is a good writer indeed. If he can make me accept that these undead yetis, the flesh stripped from their bones, now reawakened by thinking sand, provide a ferrying-service in the underdark, and are characters to care about - to the point where their heroic sacrifice is supremely tragic - where other writers could not make me believe in their mere, ordinary humans, then I would say that he is a very good writer indeed.
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2011-12-15, 06:29 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
I first picked up The City of Dreaming Books at a library. I didn't find the cover very appealing, thinking it childish and gaudy, but I had a long internet-less ferry ride ahead and I needed something to do. I liked it even less after reading the first chapter, considering it to be badly-translated over-glorified swill. I only actually started liking the book after the four-page description of Optimus's reaction to the mysterious manuscript.
I became truly fascinated when Optimus arrived in bookholm. I found the place so utterly enthralling, reading riveted as I kicked myself so not having thought of it myself. The book's pace was so slow and the descriptions were so long that the experience should have been painful. Yet, everything was so perfectly creative that the book was like a euphoric drug that injected the mind full of pure creative energy.Last edited by Chainsaw Hobbit; 2011-12-16 at 01:45 PM.
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2011-12-15, 08:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
And I still don't understand where they pulled the name Optimus from for the English version. I mean, I understand not using the German name, but Optimus?
Resident Vancian Apologist
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2011-12-16, 12:24 AM (ISO 8601)
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2011-12-16, 05:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2011-12-16, 07:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Has anyone else read his fairy tale, which I have no idea how to translate the name of into English? The parody of Hänsel and Gretel?
Its pretty funny. Written by the same Mr. Yarnspinner, in his crazy mess-with-critics phase. He often stops telling the actual story for a few pages to launch into a long rant about critics, and how he is so much better than anything else.Resident Vancian Apologist
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2011-12-16, 01:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
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2011-12-16, 02:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Wikipedia says no.
However, I advise anyone to very carefully consider actually learning german. It's easily as difficult as french, if not even more so, and will most likely only be of any use to read german literature. Which has a nasty habit of using really difficult german.
If you decide to learn a new language just for the fun of it, pick something else.We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2011-12-16, 04:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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2011-12-19, 08:07 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
I'm currently rereading City of Dreaming Books since its successor Labyrinth of Dreaming Books was recently published.
I noticed that I forgot quite a lot, for example the trumpone concert (I hope that's what they are called in english). I could have sworn that took place in Rumo.
And in case someone here didn't know about it:
Most of the names of authors and composers from Zamonia are anagrams of the names of authors from our world, for example Ohjann Golgo van Fontheweg isSpoilerJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
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2011-12-19, 08:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
Woski Ejstod and Orca de Wils are easier.
And Werma Tosler.Last edited by Yora; 2011-12-19 at 08:13 AM.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2011-12-20, 07:48 AM (ISO 8601)
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2011-12-20, 04:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
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2011-12-20, 05:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
*headdesk*
Okay. That was obvious.Resident Vancian Apologist
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2011-12-22, 05:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Zamonia
I'm so oblivious to the obvious that it never occurred to me that those names could be anagrams of actual writers.
and now I know I'm none the wiser because I'm also crap at anagrams
I'll have to check if those names have been translated somehow or if they've remained the same in the italian version I read...
..just because I'm clutching at straws for being stupid.
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2011-12-22, 12:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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