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: Another great one from Christopher Moore.
Review: So let me preface this with this: I try and squeeze in reading when I can, and whenever you read in public, someone is always bound to ask "Hey, whatcha reading?" In this case, I honestly had no idea where to begin. "It's a book about humanoid whaley boys and what they can do with their prehensile members!" Security is called and I am promptly asked to go enjoy my book elsewhere. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and I believe it's Moore's most creative work to date. I always enjoy his characters, so not much difference there. I was actually worried about Fluke, thinking "How is whale research going to translate into a Moore story?" At first, I was sure that it would be nice, but Lamb would still be my favorite, but after finishing it, I'm not quite so sure. As mentioned by another reviewer, almost all of his books stand out in some way or another as a favorite. For fans of Lamb and other Moore works, you won't be disappointed. Meep!
Rating:
Summary: Another great one from Christopher Moore.
Review: So let me preface this with this: I try and squeeze in reading when I can, and whenever you read in public, someone is always bound to ask "Hey, whatcha reading?" In this case, I honestly had no idea where to begin. "It's a book about humanoid whaley boys and what they can do with their prehensile members!" Security is called and I am promptly asked to go enjoy my book elsewhere. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and I believe it's Moore's most creative work to date. I always enjoy his characters, so not much difference there. I was actually worried about Fluke, thinking "How is whale research going to translate into a Moore story?" At first, I was sure that it would be nice, but Lamb would still be my favorite, but after finishing it, I'm not quite so sure. As mentioned by another reviewer, almost all of his books stand out in some way or another as a favorite. For fans of Lamb and other Moore works, you won't be disappointed. Meep!
Rating:
Summary: A very pleasant surprise
Review: The only other book of Moore's I read before "Fluke" was "Demonkeeping for Beginners", which, while amusing, was pretty lightweight. I wasn't expecting much from "Fluke", and was very surprised to find thet Moore had written a comic novel with real characters, a great plot, and a bit of real whale science tossed in as well. "Fluke" begins with the photographing of a somehwat anomolous whale by a researcher- it's like most other whales except it has "BITE ME" printed on its tail. When he gets his film back from the lab, someone has cut out the frame with the picture. Then his labe is broken into and all his records stolen. A drunken coral fisherman reports wraiths on his boat. A batty old lady tells him the whales want a pastrami sandwich. And then things start to get weird. Really weird. Is it the military? A slightly evil promoter of dolphin tours? Aliens? You'll never guess, but you will have a wonderful time reading this book, laughing out loud at times and, oddly enough, learning a lot about whales, too.
Rating:
Summary: A very pleasant surprise
Review: The only other book of Moore's I read before "Fluke" was "Demonkeeping for Beginners", which, while amusing, was pretty lightweight. I wasn't expecting much from "Fluke", and was very surprised to find thet Moore had written a comic novel with real characters, a great plot, and a bit of real whale science tossed in as well. "Fluke" begins with the photographing of a somehwat anomolous whale by a researcher- it's like most other whales except it has "BITE ME" printed on its tail. When he gets his film back from the lab, someone has cut out the frame with the picture. Then his labe is broken into and all his records stolen. A drunken coral fisherman reports wraiths on his boat. A batty old lady tells him the whales want a pastrami sandwich. And then things start to get weird. Really weird. Is it the military? A slightly evil promoter of dolphin tours? Aliens? You'll never guess, but you will have a wonderful time reading this book, laughing out loud at times and, oddly enough, learning a lot about whales, too.
Rating:
Summary: Cetacean biology has never looked like this!
Review: There are lots of humor writers out there who base their work -- sometimes all of their work -- on a single gimmick. Christopher Moore has the gift for writing outstanding novels that are distinct, clever, intelligent and thoughtful -- and also happen to stimulate your internal laugh track without pause. (It boggles the mind to consider just how much actual science, as well as seamanship, Moore learned before writing this book!)
Rating:
Summary: Funny stuff
Review: This book is a quick, fun read that will leave you laughing out loud at times. Also, after reading this book, you will never think the same way about whale penises.
Rating:
Summary: A total hoot
Review: This book is a total hoot--puckering sphinctral wash basins and whaley boys with wildly waving willies beggar the mind. The book runs a bit out of steam at the end, otherwise it would have been a ten star, on a scale of one to five. In this, it's a bit like Lamb, imagination gone wild with a few weak spots.
Rating:
Summary: Whales and Their-uh-Songs-ahem
Review: This book should be sold at the Phallic Museum in Reykjavik Iceland, right next to the preserved whale willies in their really really big jars. In fact, the most hilarious scene in the book has to do with the aforementioned items. Fluke isn't as jam-packed with funny scenes as other Moore books, but it has plenty of unforgettable characters. Kona the ersatz Hawaiian Rastafarian was my favorite. Unfortunately, Moore couldn't quite slide his message in with the twisted humor as neatly as he has in the past (Lamb, Coyote Blue, ), so he was forced to put it in an appendix, albeit a humorous one. In general, while Fluke was well worth reading, it was missing Moore's usual go-for-broke insanity
Rating: 
Summary: Halfway through, Moore finds the edge, then he jumps.
Review: This is a readable, generally entertaining book. The funny bits - and there are a lot of them - are really funny. But about half way - maybe a little more - he goes from pleasantly wierd to a complete abondenment of any sense of believability. It was a bit like he'd started writing the book, came up with a couple of good gags, found himself in a spot he couldn't think of a way to get out of, and just started randomly inserting impossibilities to make the pieces stick together. The impossibilities bring out the paper thin personalities of the characters, and for me, it sort of unraveled from there. In some ways, the character development of the central characters is summed up on page one. Nate is a researcher, good hearted, obsessed with whales. Amy is young, hot and looks good in shorts. Things happen around these people, we get revelations about their past, but that's about it - the revelations don't lead to any better understanding. For me its unsatisfying - neither the story nor the characters nor the humor really grips.
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