Fluke

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, moving novel
Review: A while back someone attempted to make a movie of this book and screwed up completely, turning a beautiful, moving novel rich with spirituality into a cleaned-up pseudo-heartwarming Disneyfied kiddie pic. What a shame. This is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read and it's spiritual message about acceptance and moving on, as well as the wages of karma, cannot be ignored. If you can find it, read it (ignore the classification on the spine, although "Fluke" is written by a horror writer, it is NOT horror).

Rating:
Summary: Gentle fantasy is a shocking change of pace.
Review: Fluke tells the tale of an abandoned dog named Fluke that has past life memories of being a man, a man that was evidently murdered. Fluke then goes on an odyssey to find his home, his family, and his killer. Getting there alternates between funny and frightening. Herbert shows genuine skill as a fantasist here and I wish it was a talent that he tried explore more often, as this is his best novel.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Moving
Review: It was a dog's life for Fluke the puppy until the images that had been haunting his canine mind came into sharp focus - he wasn't supposed to be a dog, he was actually a MAN! How had he ended up in this furry body? What of his wife, his child? What of HIM? Soon, though, the truth came - he the man had died, and had been reincartnated as a dog. And the visions hinted that he had been murdered! This begins a quest as Fluke sets out to his old town, determined to deliver out justice to whoever murdered him...An excellent book and a personal favorite of mine. But the best part of all was Fluke. He remained at all times a dog, even though he had human intelligence and memories, rather than some bizarre mix of human and animal that all too many books have. Fluke's friend Rumbo is also an enjoyable character, even if he did have a passion for crime. One of the best, well-written and beautiful stories I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Moving
Review: It was a dog's life for Fluke the puppy until the images that had been haunting his canine mind came into sharp focus - he wasn't supposed to be a dog, he was actually a MAN! How had he ended up in this furry body? What of his wife, his child? What of HIM? Soon, though, the truth came - he the man had died, and had been reincartnated as a dog. And the visions hinted that he had been murdered! This begins a quest as Fluke sets out to his old town, determined to deliver out justice to whoever murdered him...An excellent book and a personal favorite of mine. But the best part of all was Fluke. He remained at all times a dog, even though he had human intelligence and memories, rather than some bizarre mix of human and animal that all too many books have. Fluke's friend Rumbo is also an enjoyable character, even if he did have a passion for crime. One of the best, well-written and beautiful stories I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: not the usual James Herbert
Review: There is the James Herbert who pioneered the visceral "creature feature" which emerged in Britain just as Stephen King was inventing modern American horror fiction, there is the James Herbert who went on to create tense supernatural or alternative reality thrillers - and then we have the James Herbert who wrote Fluke. This particular James Herbert has not really written anything similar since. The original publisher's blurb on the cover said: "The story of a man who thinks he's a dog...or a dog who thinks he's a man." There is no more concise way of summarising the plot. Perfectly imagined, beautifully-paced. For my money, this ranks alongside, if not ahead of, the best of Richard Adams. I remember seeing a TV interview with Herbert in which he recalled that his publisher was horrified by the manuscript...because there was no horror. He suggested that Herbert make the dog rabid. Luckily, Herbert didn't listen.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!
Review: This book is as beautiful, moving, riveting, and profound as its film version, and explains further the concept of reincarnation. A man returns to life on Earth as a dog...trying desperately to adjust to his new life, he is constantly beset by confusing flashbacks to his former life as a man. Why is he one of the few who remember? And should he go back home to find his human family? These questions and more are answered in "Fluke."

I've read this book many times and still find it fascinating; it's written simply but beautifully, in language anyone can appreciate fully. The author obviously has a vivid mind and understands how the world looks through a dog's eyes; or perhaps he has been a dog in past lives. I know that I have. I highly recommend this lovely, exciting adventure.

Rating:
Summary: a different kind of love story
Review: This book tells the story of a dog named Fluke who remembers being more than a dog. It makes you look at your family pet in a very different way. When your pet looks at you, what exactly does he/she see, think, remember? It is sad, exciting,wonderful. A modern fairy tale. I loved this story and so did my 10 year old daughter.

Rating:
Summary: An unusual and satisfying book, maybe Herbert's best.
Review: This is a surprise. With Herbert, you usually got a gore-fest, and when I started reading this book about a man who finds himself in a dog's body, I imagined there would be lurid descriptions of dogs ripping apart other living things, probably humans. Far from it. This book is as cleverly written and as skilfully told as anything by Richard Matheson or Jonathan Aycliffe, and I do not make such comparisons lightly. 'Fluke' describes the dog's (told in the first person-or should that be in the first dog?) quest to discover his previous humanness. It is a journey both of discovery and self-awareness. Herbert vividly describes what it (probably) feels like to be a dog, capturing the world of smells and canine desires; and the lingering sense of his previous humanity that propels him to discover who he was before he became a dog. The ending is moving without being sentimental. An unusual and satisfying book and one that I can fully recommend.