Rating: 
Summary: Not Moore's Best But Still A Great Read
Review: A few years ago a co-worker recommended that I read "Practical Demonkeeping" by Christopher Moore, an author that I had never heard of. Being a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, I love a story that can make me laugh and Christopher Moore's books haven't let me down yet.I loved the first three-quarters of "Fluke" but was disappointed by the ending. The protagonist Quinn definitely gets overshadowed by the much more interesting characters Kona and Amy. I would have liked to read the same story with Kona as the focal point instead of Quinn - it would have been like "The Big Lebowski" meets "Moby Dick". My favorite Moore books are "Lamb", "Coyote Blue" and "Bloodsucking Fiends", in that order. However, I do have to admit that "Fluke" contains one of the funniest scenes I've ever read (the one concerning how Quinn's ex-wife became a lesbian). So grab yourself a pastrami and swiss on rye and settle down with Mr. Moore's weird take on why the winged whale sings.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird is good!
Review: After reading Practical Demonkeeping, I've been itching to read another Christopher Moore book! I got this one for my birthday this year, and couldn't put it down. Some say it's too weird.. but weird and intriguing storylines seem to be his forte! I LOVED the book! The characters are colorful and fun to read about, the plot is just hilarious. It's a great book - I highly recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: What happened????
Review: I was so excited that a new Christopher Moore book was coming out. His other books were page turners and laughs until the end. This book was definitely disappointing. Too much on the whales and not enough of a good story. But I have not given up on Christopher Moore and I will still look forward to reading his books. This one was just not one of his best.
Rating:
Summary: Fluke is C-A-P-T-I-V-A-T-I-N-G
Review: I dare say that Christopher Moore has done it again. Fluke is a wonderfully entertaining story about Nate's life long pursuit of why whales sing. Nate has, what can only be envisioned as, an ex Dead Head bus worth of assistants. Amy, the hot young grad-student. Clay, his life long buddy who is a photographer. Kona, the new pot smoking kid. And a myriad of spicy characters that are just out of this world. Nate finds that biology isn't the only thing he must employee to figure out why whales sing, once a whale eats him. Fluke revolves around the crazy explanation about the beginning of life on this planet and how we all fit into it. Not only a worthwhile read, but an extraordinary tale!
Rating:
Summary: Strange Happenings In Maui, mon
Review: I found Fluke to be both humorous and insightful. The characters are a strange collection of people with the common interest of whale research. They include a white surfer dude rasta man who actually becomes the voice of reason. The plot begins with the normal activities engaged in by researchers in the cetacean community but slowly evolves into something that is incredibly weird.
Moore takes the nature vs. nurture debate and twists it into a potentially apocolyptic scenario -all done tongue in cheek with a healthy sense of humor but wth enough scientific validity to allow the reader to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. This was my first Moore novel but it certainly will not be my last. Well Done.
Rating:
Summary: Moore's back where he belongs
Review: In Fluke, Moore returns to ground that is no less rich in mythology than religion--the sea and its creatures. Moore excels when he brings supernatural beings down to Earth (in this case, a whale who orders pastrami on rye) without the fear of offending anyone other than newage whale-song devotees. The characters in this book are simultaneously hilarious and sympathetic, and just when you think Moore has settled into a comfortable storytelling track, he switches gears and takes you on an unexpected journey that is both hilarious and touching.
Rating: 
Summary: Silly to a Very High Degree
Review: I think I would probably give this 3 1/2 stars because it really kept me interested and I read it rather quickly....until it got the end. There is no doubt that Christopher Moore is a creative writer. He could teach the class at Harvard. But he introduces so many different outlandish ideas and relies on too few pages to try and explain them. The novel starts out fairly pedestrian, introducing the reader to the world of scientists who study whales. But about 100 pages into the book something unimaginable happens and the book reads like Alice in Wonderland. If you read the jacket, that was to be expected and actually I welcomed it. I haven't read a book this bizarre since "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." However, for some reason, I didn't care what happened to the characters anymore with about 40 pages left. I sensed that things were going to wrap up nice and neat and everyone would be happy....which is not a bad thing. It's just that I wanted a bigger payoff, but it came up short. I still recommend it and I am looking forward to reading more from Moore.
Rating:
Summary: A Whale of a time
Review: Nothing like an absent-minded professor, a hot assistant in sexy shorts and a boat off the coast of Maui to solve the mystery of the Whale song. Why do they sing? No, really. But Scientist Nate doubts his sanity when a humpback flips its tail with "bite me" scrawled on the flukes. The charming story soon veers toward the severely improbable when Nate is swallowed by the object of his research and discovers a secret underwater world that challenges Darwin's theory. One cannot resist the humorous voice that never quits and hilarious secondary characters like Kona, the white native surfer with a Jamaican accent and dreadlocks "enveloping his face like a furry octopus attacking a crab." Thank heavens (or should I say the goo?) because at the beginning, the roaming point of view, long paragraphs and many flashbacks confuse the reader who loses sense of place and time. The imaginary world under the pacific ocean seems sketchy, unfinished, like its inhabitants. The villains remain too vague and impersonal to constitute a believable threat, including the military conspiracy (or is there a conspiracy?), as if the author lacked the time to fully develop and polish his ideas. The romantic thread also suffers from terminal vagueness. Although Christopher Moore did some serious research (as attested by the politically correct author's notes at the end), the story will make the scientific community cringe, unless they have an acidic sense of humor (let's hope they do). Still, this tale, reminiscent of Jonas or Jules Verne, presents an intriguing concept of the creation. Not as funny as other novels from Christopher Moore, like Lamb or Practical Demonkeeping, Fluke still delivers a whale of a time. Pun intended.
Rating:
Summary: Moore does sci-fi, with unsatisfying results.
Review: I normally love moore's writing. He's one of my favorite writers most of the time. And Fluke has such a winning setup; good characters, good science backing up the beginning. A book about why whales sing - how can that go wrong, I thought. But then the book goes terribly wrong in the middle. Sci-fi is not Moore's medium, and he should avoid it. For all the good scattered throughout the second half (the whaley boys are hysterical), the plot makes almost no sense and the second half seems not to fit with the first. Suddenly the whales are sort of irrelevant, there are government plots, and a silly 'save the world' resolution. I'm hoping this is just a speed bump, that Moore was burnt out after "Lamb" and used this book as an excuse for an extended stay on Maui - hell, I can't fault him there - but couldn't come up with enough plot to get all the way though. I'll be first in line to buy his next one, but with fingers crossed, hoping he's not just out of ideas for good.
Rating:
Summary: His worst so far
Review: I really like Chris Moore's stuff, so I eargly awaited this book. I was so disappointed. As a scientist, I have some familiarity with the circumstances he set up in the beginning of the book which had the makings of a good book about the realities of the competition that can occur in research fields (despite his disclaimer at the end)! I'm used to the magical realism Moore likes to through in his books and I enjoy it for the most part. But half-way through he lost the plot, any credibility he had built up and my attention. I struggled through this middle section and, as I really like his writing style, I was able to enjoy the last 1/4 of the book but I was just so bummed by how bad it was compared to his other books! Hopefully Moore will get his stride back soon.
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