Zamonia
#534.29 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 5 books Status Ongoing 1999–present Reading commitment Medium Walter Moers Last reviewed 2026-08-27
Overview
Zamonia is a lost continent populated by hundreds of invented species, chronicled across a series of illustrated, satirical fantasy novels by German author and cartoonist Walter Moers. Each novel loosely stands on its own rather than continuing a single plot, following a different protagonist: a seafaring bear compiling his own impossible memoirs, an orphaned would-be warrior, a poet wandering a city built from living books, through Zamonia's dream-logic geography. The sequence opened with The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (1999) and continued through The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books (2011), with Moers presenting the novels as translations of a fictional Zamonian scholar's writings, complete with invented footnotes and his own extensive illustrations throughout each book. Widely popular in Germany, the series has sold millions of copies domestically and been translated into numerous languages, and The City of Dreaming Books in particular became one of the most acclaimed entries for its satire of the publishing industry itself.
Comic fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For All ages
Core Canon: Reading Order (5 works) counts toward ranking
Zamonia Novels (translated) Walter Moers
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear | 1999 | core | 4.33 (28,650 ratings) |
 | Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures | 2003 | core | 4.53 (9,652 ratings) |
 | The City of Dreaming Books | 2004 | core | 4.40 (25,330 ratings) |
 | The Alchemaster's Apprentice | 2007 | core | 4.22 (9,375 ratings) |
 | The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books | 2011 | core | 3.60 (7,987 ratings) |
Walter Moers's own illustrated satirical-fantasy novels set on the continent of Zamonia, loosely connected rather than a single continuous plot.
Library / Expanded (1 work)
Ensel und Krete (2000) ; Zamonia's second novel, a dark reworking of the Hansel and Gretel motif; not yet translated into English.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Zamonia? Zamonia's Core Canon is 5 books, plus 1 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for Zamonia? Publication order, starting with The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Zamonia finished? Ongoing (1999–present).
- How much reading does Zamonia take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 5 Core Canon books · ~2,196 pages).
- How is Zamonia ranked? #53 in this site's official ranking, based on 80,994 reader ratings across 5 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #53?
Ranked #53 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.29 across 5 core books.
- A smaller readership (80,994 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.60 to 4.53.
- Less than 0.01 behind #52, The Nevernight Chronicle (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Top-tier rated · 5 books · Ongoing · 81k ratings · Ranks #53 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length comic fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (5 Core Canon books)
- The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear (1999)
- Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures (2003)
- The City of Dreaming Books (2004)
- The Alchemaster's Apprentice (2007)
- The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books (2011)
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what Zamonia and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Moomins Comic fantasy / Cozy fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.24
- Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Mythic fantasy / Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.30
- The Daevabad Trilogy Epic fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.29
- Legendborn Urban fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.27
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.29 across 80,994 ratings on 5 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Zamonia admitted; Core Canon = the five novels translated into English accepted 2026-08-27
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Moers
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13%C2%BD_Lives_of_Captain_Bluebear
Last reviewed: 2026-08-27
Rule: Core Canon is the five novels so far translated into English (The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear through The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books), all translated by John Brownjohn. Expanded Canon covers the untranslated German-language entries, represented here by Ensel und Krete; several further Zamonia novels published in German since 2017 exist but were not individually researched this pass.