The Alchemaster’s Apprentice is chronologically the fifth of Walter Moers’ [or should that be Optimus Yarnspinner’s?] fantastical Zamonia novels although it is only the fourth to be translated into English [there still being no publication date for an English version of Ensel und Krete]. Malaisea, the least healthy place in Zamonia, is a city dominated by the Alchemaster Ghoolion, a sort of wizard-of-all-trades whose main passions in life are alchemy, taxidermy, controlling the Ugglies [Malaisea’s home-grown variety of witches], spreading intriguing diseases among the unfortunate inhabitants of the city [intestinal acne anyone?] and committing to canvas any natural disasters that particularly appeal to him. Into Ghoolion’s favourably miserable life comes Echo the Crat, a multi-lingual, dual-livered creature best resembling a cat. Following the death of his mysteriously relevant mistress, Echo had been begging and starving on the diseased streets of the city. Echo strikes a deal with Ghoolion; rather than lingering for a few more days before painfully expiring of starvation, Echo agrees to be fed royally for a month on the condition that, when that period expires, he will allow Ghoolion to sacrifice him and use his fat for some nefarious alchemistic purpose. However, while Echo enjoys a good feed as much as the next Crat, he has no desire to become a magical ingredient and so enlists the help of his friends [the Leathermice, the Cogitating Eggs, the Golden Squirrel, the Cooked Ghost and Izanuela Anazazi, the last free Uggly in Malaisea] to aid him in escaping from his terminal obligations. The Alchemaster’s Apprentice finishes with an afterword by Optimus Yarnspinner in which he acknowledges that his novel is actually a reworking of Echo the Crat by Gofid Letterkerl since Letterkerl’s style means that his stories are no longer accessible to modern readers. The Zamonia series often involves books within books and translations of translations and this is another clever example as The Alchemaster’s Apprentice is actually a reworking of Mirror, the Little Cat [Spiegel, das Katzchen in the original German] by Gottfried Keller. In another example of layers within layers of literary mythology, Walter Moers acknowledges that, when he translated Optimus Yarnspinner’s work from Zamonian to German, he too had to make some changes to render the text more suitable for contemporary readers. This is another fantastic novel from Walter Moers. Zamonia and all who dwell there are uniformly great creations and Moers’ fantastical imagination is in top form again when crafting the adventures of Echo the Crat. Given that Echo is trapped in the city, less of Zamonia is explored in The Alchemaster’s Apprentice than in Moers’ previous novels, but Malaisea is such a quirky and peculiar place that it is pleasure to read a detailed description of the city and its inhabitants and so the tighter geographical boundaries of the story are never a hindrance to reading enjoyment. Echo is a great guide to the city and through his explorations insight is gained into the place and the people, particularly into the peculiar life of Alchemaster Ghoolion himself. Moers’ plotting is as funny and inventive as readers have come to expect and, although the shortest book in the series, The Alchemaster’s Apprentice is a truly wonderful fantasy that is every bit as good as its predecessors. The wonderful text of The Alchemaster’s Apprentice is, as ever in the Zamonia novels, accompanied by Walter Moers’ inked illustrations which are excellent in themselves and also serve to further fire readers’ imaginations. A lot of it completely bonkers, all of it absolutely delightful, The Alchemaster’s Apprentice is another fine addition to the library of Zamonian literature in translation.

I was sure that this book would be a good read, having been written by Walter Moers, however after finishing it I was left strangely disappointed. Although there were some good points like a well thought out storyline, the book included elements of drug-induced 'trips', suicide, and morose and frankly disgusting creatures capable of the most appalling things which the author describes graphically. I picked up this book expecting to be charmed by Moers' usual imagination and wit, however the Alchemaster's Apprentice has left me stone cold.