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Fluke : Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

Fluke : Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

List Price: $34.95
Your Price: $22.02
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I had the best time . . .
Review: . . . reading this book. I've just finished ISLAND OF THE SEQUINED LOVE NUN and THE LUST LIZARD OF MELANCHOLY COVE, too.

Christopher Moore is a New Age Hunter Thompson. Irreverent. Cheeky. Cynical. And thought-provoking.

Set in Maui, FLUKE centers around an expert whale researcher seeing the words BITE ME on the tail of a humpback whale. Of course, he was the only one who saw it and the pictures he took didn't turn out, so he has to prove to himself that he's not going crazy from too much time in a boat.

Moore has filled his book with rich characters, a plausible plot (mostly), and some really wild adventures.

Moore has many gifts, but the one that shines brightest is his skewed view of what most of us see as normal. He makes his readers pause and think: "Could this really happen?"

Enjoy!!!



Rating: 4 stars
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: 4 stars
Summary: Christopher Moore strangeness
Review: A whacked out and possibly drug-induced book.

I mean that in a good way.

Rating: 5 stars
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: 5 stars
Summary: I'm With Stupid Brah
Review: And other life wonders resolved here! If you read any book this year, read this one. Although if you are worried about people staring at you, do not read it in public, it will have you laughing all the way through. Moore's ability to make you feel like one of the characters (or a charater depending on how you look at it) is uncanny.

Kona is by far my favorite character in this book, brah. If only we could all say the things he does and have it sound as funny.

As always, Moore hits the mark in his newest venture.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cool Runnings from Moore
Review: Chris Moore has, once again, created a story that makes you want to live in the world of his imagining. The characters, the setting, the twists and turns are so inviting you find yourself walking around your own life looking at things through the filter of his works. The humor is contageous and the charm and intelligence of his characters are so skillfully crafted that before your done reading, you've made new friends.

Q

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "deep" humor
Review: Christopher Moore has this indescribeable subversive humor that is so sly you might miss it as you read through his prose. If you're fascinated by marine biology or even if you're just up for a great imaginative story about truth being stranger than fiction this book is for you. The plot (if you can call it that) revolves around Nathan Quinn, marine biologist extraordinaire who has been tracing humpback whales around Hawaii. He is determined to understand their language - their wailing or whaling. One day - one fluke (the farthest horizontal tail fin of a whale) has the words "bite me" written on it. Other incredulous events lead them to believe their research is being impaired by other professionals jealous of their work. Yada yada yada they end up off the coast of Chile.

To provide snippets of the story would undermine the sarcasm and un"fathomable" wit. But this book is just what I needed. A descriptive, sardonic but fascinating read. Highly recommended read.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Read Lamb Instead
Review: Christopher Moore is noramlly funny, insightful, slightly twisted and respectful of his subjects. Fluke seemed like an assignment he had to finish but needed to expand to fit a minimum requirement. I kept waiting (and waiting....) for his wonderful sense of humor to kick in. I wanted to care for any of his characters. I didn't until the last 50 papges. I do have to admit that the answers are pretty darn odd and unexpected even in a book with a whale tale that says "Bite Me."

If you loved Lamb or Blue Coyote and must read this book, read the first 50 pages and just jump to the middle of the book. Better yet, try to check it out at the library.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fluke: Or I know Why I Love to Read This Guy's Books
Review: Christopher Moore is the most under-appreciated writer in America. The guy is a modern-day Steinbeck in his story telling ability and affection for his characters, only instead of the tragedy he infuses his novels with a unique and sometimes fantastically twisted sense of humor and imagination. The new book Fluke is another winner from cover to cover. This is the kind of book that describing it would make very little sense, just get it and enjoy!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "The science you do not know looks like magic."
Review: Christopher Moore's brand of humor, while always irreverent and sometimes off-color, also bursts through the constraints which might limit it to the real world. Moore has often explored other realities, and in this novel, we discover the underwater world of singing whales and the researchers who study them. Far more "straight" and less frivolous than in most of his earlier novels, Moore is clearly fascinated by cetacean biology and the research on which he focuses here.

Nate Quinn is a PhD. researcher who studies the subsonic songs of humpback whales and works the channel between Maui and Lanai, identifying and following individual whales, recording whale songs, and converting the songs into digitized computer programs in an effort to decode them. Three other researchers and numerous other wacky characters, allow the author plenty of room for hijinx at the same time that he is exploring serious issues. An old woman gets a phone call from a whale wanting a hot pastrami on rye with mustard, a researcher remains underwater for sixty minutes without breathing, an absolute ruler wants the navy to "nuke the goo," and mutants who look like aliens, known as whaley-boys, walk the land.

When a navy captain refuses to reveal information about his research, rumors surface that the navy may be building a torpedo testing range inside the whale sanctuary. Soon one of the research crew is injured and two disappear, and as Moore shifts from science to science fiction, the line between reality and fantasy disappears. The reader willingly suspends all disbelief and succumbs to the spell of Moore's non-stop flights of imagination as he explores an underwater colony, populated by 5000 people, who live 600 feet below the surface of the ocean. Moore's famous sense of the absurd, his irony, and his humor, some of it black, never flag, and his imagination, given free rein, soars in this wild fantasy.

However playful it may be, this novel also marks a significant new direction for Moore. He is clearly fascinated by whales and the threats to their existence, and while the book is great fun and often very funny, it also has something serious and important at its heart--it is not frivolous entertainment. In an unprecedented move, Moore adds three separate Author's Notes at the end of the book, updating the reader on current whale research and acknowledging some of the world's great whale researchers. Readers will come away from this novel with broad smiles, a new appreciation for Moore's talents and his willingness to take risks, and, most significantly, new understandings of whales and the ecosystem in which they flourish. Mary Whipple


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