A review by calimero747
The Alchemaster's Apprentice by Walter Moers
5.0
This is a must read for all the fantasy fans out there! Walter Moers is a genius. It's magical, it's creepy, it's intelligent, it's funny and it's just fantastic. Read it!
Well, this book is a part of series, but it really doesn't matter where you start because the stories aren't connected. Aside from the fact that it's happening in the same world: Zamonia.
Echo is a crat, which is a very similar being as a cat except that he has two livers and can talk. Crats are also so clever, that they speak every language, including the animal ones.
After his mistress dies, Echo is left to live on streets of the most ill city in Zamonia. Everyone is sick there. Their main priorities aren't food or water, but medicine. Everyone only cares about themselves and their health. Why is that, you might wonder. It's all the Alchemaster's fault. Alchemaster Ghoolion governs the city, everyone is afraid of him and his sick mind. Besides, he has magic, so they have a reason to be afraid.
Ghoolion is repeatedly poisoning the air with various diseases, so everyone'd get ill, but no one can say anything, because they're basically zombies by this point and because he'd just curse them with something and they'd die a slow and painful death.
In this horrible city of illness and death, who would care about a hungry crat? Echo almost dies of starvation, and that's how the Alchemaster finds him. What a coincidence! Ghoolion needs a crat's fat, to finish a twisted experiment of his, an immortality potion. He offers Echo a safe home with lots of food and entertainment until the next full moon. And then he'd kill him. Echo signs the contract. After all, the full moon seems so far away and Echo thinks that it's better dying satisfied, full and happy, than on the street, hungry and in pain.
However, after weeks of the Alchemaster caring for him, feeding him the most delicious food he can think of, showing him all of his experiments and magic tricks, teaching him everything he knows about alchemy... Echo starts to realize that he's not prepared to die yet.
I love everything about this book. From the writing style, to the descriptions the writer literally paints into your head, to the creepiness, to the magical story. The parts where Ghoolion teaches Echo about alchemy is amazing. And how Moers describes scenes... breathtaking, I tell you! And Fjodor F. Fjodor (the middle F. probably stands for another Fjodor) is the best. His grammatical issues are really fun to read. I even care about Ghoolion. I mean, sure, he's nuts and horrible and his ideas are totally sick, but his tragical story makes us feel sorry for him. And I think that if he didn't go crazy, he'd be a pretty decent person. He doesn't want immortality potion for himself after all... I especially love the bond that forms between Ghoolion and Echo. Not just in the teacher-student kind of way. They literally become friends. Ghoolion himself states that he thinks Echo has a good influence on him, making him more sane, more down to earth. It's a shame that the Ghoolion's love towards a certain someone overpowers their friendship.
I loved the book and you're probably going to like it too. If you don't, well, I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea. But give it a try. I'm soooo glad that I did.
Well, this book is a part of series, but it really doesn't matter where you start because the stories aren't connected. Aside from the fact that it's happening in the same world: Zamonia.
Echo is a crat, which is a very similar being as a cat except that he has two livers and can talk. Crats are also so clever, that they speak every language, including the animal ones.
After his mistress dies, Echo is left to live on streets of the most ill city in Zamonia. Everyone is sick there. Their main priorities aren't food or water, but medicine. Everyone only cares about themselves and their health. Why is that, you might wonder. It's all the Alchemaster's fault. Alchemaster Ghoolion governs the city, everyone is afraid of him and his sick mind. Besides, he has magic, so they have a reason to be afraid.
Ghoolion is repeatedly poisoning the air with various diseases, so everyone'd get ill, but no one can say anything, because they're basically zombies by this point and because he'd just curse them with something and they'd die a slow and painful death.
In this horrible city of illness and death, who would care about a hungry crat? Echo almost dies of starvation, and that's how the Alchemaster finds him. What a coincidence! Ghoolion needs a crat's fat, to finish a twisted experiment of his, an immortality potion. He offers Echo a safe home with lots of food and entertainment until the next full moon. And then he'd kill him. Echo signs the contract. After all, the full moon seems so far away and Echo thinks that it's better dying satisfied, full and happy, than on the street, hungry and in pain.
However, after weeks of the Alchemaster caring for him, feeding him the most delicious food he can think of, showing him all of his experiments and magic tricks, teaching him everything he knows about alchemy... Echo starts to realize that he's not prepared to die yet.
I love everything about this book. From the writing style, to the descriptions the writer literally paints into your head, to the creepiness, to the magical story. The parts where Ghoolion teaches Echo about alchemy is amazing. And how Moers describes scenes... breathtaking, I tell you! And Fjodor F. Fjodor (the middle F. probably stands for another Fjodor) is the best. His grammatical issues are really fun to read. I even care about Ghoolion. I mean, sure, he's nuts and horrible and his ideas are totally sick, but his tragical story makes us feel sorry for him. And I think that if he didn't go crazy, he'd be a pretty decent person. He doesn't want immortality potion for himself after all... I especially love the bond that forms between Ghoolion and Echo. Not just in the teacher-student kind of way. They literally become friends. Ghoolion himself states that he thinks Echo has a good influence on him, making him more sane, more down to earth. It's a shame that the Ghoolion's love towards a certain someone overpowers their friendship.
I loved the book and you're probably going to like it too. If you don't, well, I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea. But give it a try. I'm soooo glad that I did.