This a fantasy adventure story about the adventures of a big blue bear as he travels through an extraordinary land that is filled with giants, trolls, hobgoblins, tiny pirates and giant evil spiders...I could have done without the spiders. Bluebear recounts his adventures of getting trapped inside a tornado, crossing a desert made of sugar, and even traveling to other strange dimensions. If that sounds ludicrous, but that's because it is. The entire story is the height of ludicrousness...but it's so much fun...even for we "big kids". It's an adventure story that manages to be both exciting and a satire on other adventure stories. When Bluebear is about to die, and he is rescued at the last moment by a flying reptilian creature; "Deus X. Machina" or "Mac", for short. My old brain learned something new..."Deus ex machina" is a literary term that is sometimes used when the problem with a plot is suddenly solved by an unlikely occurrence. Now you have learned something today also...and my young neighbor is now using the term as much as possible in everyday discussions. If you are older than 12, you will probably find that the humor in this book is lot like Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s zany and satirical, usually making fun at literary things like "deus ex machina"...but it’s also so incredibly light-hearted and silly that it easily manages to work as just a fun tall tale that appeals to the hidden "child" in all of us. I loved meeting all the wacky, crazy characters that Bluebear encountered. I would recommend this if you enjoyed witty adventure stories, like the afore mentioned "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy", or even "The Hobbit". If you're looking for a fun and unusual children’s book, although I’d say that this is more for older children since it does have some scarier bits...but if you’re looking for a fun, smart, and zany adventure story then "Bluebear" is your man...I mean, "bear". ( )

"shaggy dog" stories should henceforth be called "blue bear" stories. Some of the "lives" were droll enough but many were not and the book did not sustain my interest across its laborious 700 pages. ( )

My Holy Grail. I have no way to tell how many times I've re-read and relistened to this. I know large portions of it by heart and have used this book to teach myself two languages.
Are you open to high fantasy, incredibly witty and wonderous storytelling? This is a must read. Regardless of age. ( )

Wow (not a good wow). This book was a slog. But I made it. Finally.

Don't get me wrong, fair play to Walter Moers - it's abundantly clear this is a labour of love and that he revelled in losing himself within this magical, imaginative world of his, with his plucky blue narrator; and if that's not what life's about, then I don't know what is. But as a reader, journeying through this tale was akin to traipsing through the dastardly quicksand near that volcano in the story (Forgive me for not being precise; I cannot bear (no pun intended) to reopen that yellow brick to find its proper name because that in essence is my entire problem with it all: gah! it's too made up!)

I know, I know. It's not ol' Walter's fault it's mine and I get that, but I also think a good work of writing captures the reader, so they lose themselves in the book, like a spell. I just thought Bluebear was incredibly transparent - I could sense lists of words coming a mile off; nouns stacked behind nouns separated with countless commas or semi colons of endless, relentless, meaningless, soul defeating lists of things - I imagine he was having a whale of a time thinking of synonyms or other imaginative phrasing but it just left me thinking the same things I think about dreams: if anything is possible, where is the measure of quality of idea? For me it should be in the selection process - what you chose and chose not to include - which I feel was lacking from the onset. Another reviewer asserted the book could've been 400 pages shorter and I high-five that assessment. There was just too much of stuff and I think it lacked a little skill in the editing department. And when the congladitorial duel came up, I thought I was done for. It was literally a tall tale telling tale after tall tale for pages on end. A little bit of me died at that point.

To sum up then: wonderfully imaginative and clever (especially the broad vocabulary and subject matter and hat tips to our own world) but ultimately massively too long and stylistically a bit drab, not for me, sorry! ( )

This book was a lot! It is a work of non-stop imagination and was very entertaining. I did a combination of print and audio for this book which was the best of both worlds as the audio was spectacular and the print is full of wonderful illustrations that really add to the text. Using both formats gave me a full, rich experience. A wonderful book, although a bit exhausting. ( )