The City of Dreaming Books (Zamonien, #4)
by Walter Moers, J. Maxwell Brownjohn (Translator)

Optimus Yarnspinner is a dinosaur who has inherited a mysterious manuscript of surpassing genius, but he can’t find the author! He travels to Bookholm, the center of all literature and publishing, hoping to solve the mystery and find the author. Everyone in Bookholm is completely obsessed with books, and the dangerous Book Hunters explore the catacombs beneath the city, looking for rare books that have been lost for centuries. Optimus meets many different types of creatures, including an Uggly hag who can tell the future and a Nocturnomath with three brains. The mystery leads Optimus into the deadly catacombs where he runs from Harpyrs, Sphinxxxxes, massive spider creatures, cyclopean Booklings, and ferocious sentient books, in addition to the Book Hunters, who will murder anyone who gets in their way. But the most dangerous of all is the Shadow King, who rules over the dark catacombs.

What a delight to have an entire story centered on books! I loved hearing all about Bookholm and their obsession with books. The entire catacombs is covered in books from centuries gone by, until the books themselves have magically evolved into sentient beings. It’s so satisfying to dive into this book-centered story!
The world-building is really detailed and imaginative with thousands of years of magical history, and we get to uncover these ancient mysteries little by little along with Optimus. It’s so whimsical and fun, but also addresses some serious subjects too.
The plot is full of magic, mystery, betrayal, adventure, poison, mechanical traps, curses, and monsters, and all kinds of whimsical and weird places!

There are tons of little hidden jokes throughout the book that had me laughing. For instance, some of the authors names and book titles are scrambled up from the letters of real authors and books. “Sir Ginel” by Doylan Cone is actually “Sir Nigel” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Ardelf Nennytos is really Alfred Tennyson, and Wamilli Swordthrow is William Wordsworth. “Vaddi Floppendice” by Asdrel Chickens is actually “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens.
Elo Slooty is Leo Tolstoy. Rasco Elwide is Oscar Wilde. It’s so cute! But some of the names are just made-up fictional names, so you have to look closely to figure them out!

There are a lot of little details in the beginning that become important later on, like perfectly interlocking Lego pieces of information. The architecture of an old building is later seen in another form underground in the caves. A chance line from a book becomes the solution to a problem later. It’s so imaginative in both the little details and the larger scope of the story!

I really loved the Booklings creatures! Their whole society is so fascinating because they memorize the entire works of different authors. I can’t even tell you all the fascinating things about the Booklings because it would be spoilers, but I just adored them so much!

There is quite a bit of violence in this book, since Optimus is always running from monsters or evil Book Hunters who are trying to murder him. An inordinate amount of people are beheaded. Like, a really unnecessary amount.

This book has been screened on the Screen It First website for violence, dark magic, and some light profanity. https://screenitfirst.com/book/the-city-of-dreaming-books-zamonia-4-2480672

One of my favorite scenes is when Optimus attends a music concert in Bookholm, and he is transported by the beautiful music so that he feels like he himself has become a wave of sound, “perfectly in tune with the universe.” That description of music was so genius!

The whole writing style is really genius, and it just draws you into this impossibly wild adventure, but all the pieces start to fit together as the plot moves along. It’s really fulfilling to see all the threads coming together. Every sentence is beautifully constructed like a work of art.

Another favorite scene is when Optimus sets off a trap in the catacombs and a literal wave of books buries him in an avalanche, a “churning mass of books” that nearly crushes him. It’s so wacky to have an actual avalanche of books when all the bookshelves go crashing down in a wave.

I also really loved the more serious scenes where the author explores the depth of the influence that books have on us. The Booklings memorize so much literature that they start to take on the personality of whatever they read. They say “it affects every aspect of existence.” That is so true of a dedicated reader, who is heavily influenced by what they read. There was one scene with the Booklings that actually had me in tears, because it was so sweet and heartfelt, but I can’t tell you about it because spoilers. You will just have to read the book for yourself!

We also explore the concept of what makes good literature. We meet a ruthless book trader who doesn’t want there to be good literature, because cheap trash makes more money and sells more copies and is easier to produce in large quantities. But truly exceptional writing takes time. He talks about “carefully controlled mediocrity”, and it really speaks to the state of publishing today that publishers are not as willing to take a risk on truly good art, but they will publish anything with the right keywords to jump on a trend that sells. They will dumb-down the vocabulary to appeal to the lowest common denominator, instead of raising people up to a higher level of understanding. Artistic integrity is thrown out the window in favor of money money money.

When Optimus finally encounters some truly great artistic books, he never wants to stop reading! He forgets to eat. He doesn’t bathe. He barely sleeps. He just reads and reads until his eyes are bloodshot. He is wild to consume more inspired books, instead of the mediocre trash he has been reading all his life. And he is desperate to learn how to write like the great artists he is reading!

Overall, I just loved this book so much! There are so many layers to the story and all the adventures. What an absolute delight in every way! I can’t wait to read more from this author, but I’ve heard that some of his books in this series have not yet been translated from German into English. So I will have to go ahead and read some of the ones that are translated and maybe wait a few years for the rest.