The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear
core novel 1999 Zamonia
Record
| First published | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  DE |
| First English translation | 1999 |
| Translator | John Brownjohn |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.33 (28,650 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 704 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781585677245 |
Synopsis
The novel follows Bluebear, a human-sized bear with distinctive blue fur, across the fantastical continent of Zamonia. His adventures begin when he is found as an infant floating in a walnut shell and rescued by a crew of diminutive pirates, after which his long and eventful life leads him to encounter mythical creatures, interdimensional portals, and legendary lost places such as a Zamonian version of Atlantis. The narrative alternates between Bluebear's own episodic, often perilous adventures and excerpts from an in-world encyclopedia that explains the strange flora, fauna, and phenomena of Zamonia, building a sprawling picture of a continent unlike any other before his story reaches its final, thirteenth-and-a-half life.
Where it sits
- Universe: Zamonia
- Series: Zamonia Novels (translated) core; position 1 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Walter Moers
Notes
- From the series record (Zamonia Novels (translated)): Walter Moers's own illustrated satirical-fantasy novels set on the continent of Zamonia, loosely connected rather than a single continuous plot.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Zamonia Novels (translated): position 1 of 5: next Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures (2003)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Moers
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13%C2%BD_Lives_of_Captain_Bluebear
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