Way Of The Rat Volume 3: Haunted Zhumar (Way of the Rat)

by Chuck Dixon

Trapped in Old Mother's House by an army of evil ghosts, things get bad for Boon and Po Po thanks to the arrival of Kung Kung Yi. Who is this powerful spirit and why do the undead fear him? This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933160594
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Checker Book Publishing Group
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 0.5" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

In the vastness of the exotic Shinacean Empire, I bet the city of Zhumar places last in tourism

Oh, the poor city of Zhumar. Long hailed (or maybe muttered about) as an unassailable mountain stronghold and the furthest outpost of the Shinacean Empire, Zhumar has of late fallen on hard times. The Great Bhuto Khan and his barbarian hordes had recently laid siege to it, and then hungry, big honking dragons have been set loose in it. Zhumar's graceful Princess Zheng Mai became a casualty, having been sucked into the Hell of Hungry Dragons. The inhabitants of Zhumar are frightened and fed up and now believe that Zhumar is cursed, and they're hightailing it out in one long leaving line. This is the pathetic sight which greets Zhumar's newly appointed, just arrived minister. As a proper welcome, he doesn't think much of it. That the city has endured is thanks in part to the semi-heroic efforts of the hero Boon Sai Hong, a.k.a. the Jade Rat. It's a testament to how low grade heroes are in Zhumar when one considers that Boon Sai Hong is actually a common thief. Boon has inherited (read: straight out stole) two mystical artifacts of incalculable power: the Ring of Staffs, which grants its bearer uncanny mastery over all staffed weapons, and the Book of the Hell of the Hungry Dragons, a scroll which flings opens the gateway to a hell populated by baleful (and hungry) dragons. Walls of Zhumar (Way of the Rat, Book 1), collecting issues #1-6, chronicles how Boon turned away Bhuto Khan's invasion. WAY OF THE RAT Vol. 2: THE DRAGON'S WAKE, collecting #7-12, tells of Boon helping to solve the dilemma of dragons rampaging around in Zhumar. We'll try to ignore the fact that Boon isn't entirely blameless in these somewhat cataclysmic proceedings. As mentioned, low grade quality of Zhumar's heroes, etc... One protagonist who actually radiates a nobility of purpose about her is the Silken Ghost. An early mystery circulated about the Silken Ghost, concerning her true identity. Was her true identity that of the brave Princess Zheng Mai or that of the scholar's daughter Tei Su? To SPOILER it now - and stop reading this paragraph already, if you care all that much not to find out who the Silken Ghost truly is, and, okay, this should now be long enough of a buffer sentence - the Silken Ghost turns out to be the scholar's daughter Tei Su. She is instrumental in this coming up story arc, narrated in WAY OF THE RAT Vol. 3: HAUNTED ZHUMAR. This TPB collects issues #13-18 of the sadly short-lived comic book (damn you, CrossGen Comics, for going in the red). There's a third mystical artifact which ends up with Boon, and this is the mysterious Phoenix Heart. And we finally find out what it does, much to the chagrin of Zhumar's residents, and more people just skedaddled to the back of that line leaving town. Princess Zheng, as seen in the last volume, was condemned to an undeserved stint of damnation in the Hell of Hungry Dragons. A concerned wise woman, Old Mother, futilely consults the Phoenix Fire for traces of the Princess, except that this has the horrifying advers