Practical Demonkeeping

Rating:
Summary: Christopher Moore is funny, brilliant and weird
Review: "Practical Demonkeeping" is the funniest book I have read in ages. Christopher Moore is such a welcome change from all the other tired, un-hip authors who somehow keep managing to get published. I recommend this story wholeheartedly to anyone who craves weird but lovable characters. Or anybody who just loves a happy ending. Without giving away too much, I must say that the human characters are surprisingly modern but not mainstream and while fantastic, are totally recognizable. As for the supernatural characters, their personalities are very fixed, evolved and side splittingly funny. I'm sure that when I meet other Moore fans, all I will have to say is "Excuse me, but could I trouble you for a pinch of salt" to send them into gales of hysterical laughter. On one hand, I'd like everyone to read this wonderful, truly original story; on the other, I'd like to keep it and Christopher Moore all to myself. If you are a goth, Goddess worshipper, horror fan, hippie, stoner, philosopher, twisted or have ever spent time in Northern California, you HAVE to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not as much fun as I'd hoped...
Review: Having read "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Moore, I figured this book would be just as hilarious with a great story and interesting, memorable characters. OOPS--not so with this book.

Travis is a very old man who looks about 25 thanks to his constantly hungry companion, a demon named Catch. Through a very complex and amazing line of circumstances, the pair find themselves in the oddball town of Pine Cove, California. It's here in Pine Cove that the town witch, an elderly couple, a bait store owner, a waitress, a drunk husband, and a cafe owner with a remarkable resemblance to H.P. Lovecraft all meet up in one situation that could mean the preservation or loss of many lives. Sounds interesting, right?

As mentioned in the Kirkus Review featured at the opening screen, Moore has too many characters jumping through too many mystical hoops unnecessarily. Every single character in the book is of major importance to the overall outcome, right down to Mavis, the long-suffering barmaid from the Head of the Slug. There are no true minor characters (not even The Breeze, who vanishes almost as soon as the story begins), and this makes for a big headache. And as much as these characters interact and overlap one another, you won't be able to really feel much about any of them. I enjoy characters that make me miss them at the end of the book, and that didn't happen with this novel.

I've since learned that this was Moore's first book, but the complexity of the plot and the details don't demonstrate an author's first effort. The ending will leave you flat and asking "HUH?", but there are some truly funny moments in the book that aren't to be missed. I especially enjoyed Jenny's preparation for her date with Travis, and Robert's assessment of The Breeze's trailer. Moore's description of Mavis and Rachel are vivid and highly visual, and the story of how Travis became bound to Catch is very well-constructed.

It's worth reading, but consider checking it out from the library and save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining
Review: I like Christopher Moore. He has a wacky, demented view of the world, which ought to be obvious from this work's title. Don't expect great literature, or philosophical insights, but if you suspend disbelief, this is a very entertaining read, fast paced and humorous.

Rating:
Summary: A Treat of a Tale Told with Impish Glee
Review: Every year around Hallowe'en, I look for a book that deals with the darker side of occult phenomena. This year, I didn't want to give myself a major case of the creeps...but I still wanted something which touched on that area.

'Practical Demonkeeping' was just the book for me.

The story deals primarily with Catch -- the demon -- and Travis -- Catch's deceptively young keeper. Catch and Travis -- in the midst of an interesting love-hate relationship (Travis hates Catch and Catch loves to be hated) -- arrive in the tourist town of Pine Cove where significant mayhem ensues! It is all related in an enjoyable manner. And the various occupants of the town are portrayed deftly without mean-spiritedness.

The author, Christopher Moore writes with the same type of wit which admirers of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins will appreciate. And, this novel -- his debut -- is admirable for giving us a wide variety of characters, dealing humorously with their particular quirks, and engineering a clever plot in which their paths cross. Although the ending seems a bit rushed, I enjoyed just about every aspect of this novel. I won't give anything away. But, in the novel's last chapters, I would have enjoyed a more complete depiction of the characters' reactions. Not because I expect every detail to be spelled out...but because so many unique, interesting and amusing characters are involved at this point. It would have required significant authorial skill to relate all of that without bogging down the narrative but I think Moore could have managed it.

Without being macabre or morbid, this novel gives plenty of surprises. There are a few scenes which provoke a squirm or two but Moore never indulges in excessive depictions of violence or gore.

This kind of book works by keeping us intrigued about what will happen next -- not by dragging us deep down into depictions of cruelty and savageness.

Rating:
Summary: So-so
Review: I found out about Christopher Moore a couple of weeks ago and picked up this book because there is a shortage -- or at least I can never seem to find -- humorous speculative fiction a la Douglas Adams, who is hilarious. I wasn't expecting anything up to Adams' level and I wasn't disappointed, although the book wasn't horrible by any means, just a bit on the mediocre side. I zipped through the first 200 pages in 2 days, then took another 2 days to force myself through the last 40 -- just the opposite of what you'd expect. When they started discussing their big plans to catch, kill, whatever, the demon. By that point, not really caring about any of the characters in the first place, I didn't really care what their overly-confusing plans were, I just wanted to finish the book.

There was some humor in the book, but not too much, and some of it was groan-inducing. That bit about the huge owl being a good military design only if the opposing army had field mouse shaped tanks? All I can say is...wow. That's humor? No, that's PROFESSIONALLY published humor? Actually the funniest part had nothing to do with the storyline, but was that bit about all the perfumes and lotions Jennifer put into her tub making the building blocks for life, and when she dropped the soap into the water, that life let out its death gasp. That was great. Another 20 or 30 like that and you'd be 3 chapters into a Douglas Adams book. This is Moore's first book, though, and I'm going to read at least one more to see if he got better. Either his vampire book or the Lust Lizard one, both of which sound good. Oh, there's a lot of character hopping in this book which distracts from ever getting really involved in it, so if you don't like jumping around inside of point-of-view characters every 4 or 5 pages, give this one a pass. And as for the humor, don't let anything I said about it sway you one way or the other. The funny thing about humor is that what one person considers laugh out loud funny will provoke only the slightest twitch at the corner of another person's lip, or even a groan, so give this book, or any of Moore's, a try if you enjoy speculative humorous fiction as I do. I'm sure there are people out there who think Douglas Adams is humorless too. You can never tell with something as subjective as humor.

Rating:
Summary: Practical Demonkeeping
Review: With a title like "Practical Demonkeeping" who wouldn't find it interesting? This was my first time reading a Christopher Moore novel, and I found it quite entertaining. He managed to keep me chuckling to myself throughout almost the entire book. Previously I loved in L.A. and know that there are in fact towns which are secluded along the coast, so it was not a problem to get the image of Pine Cove emblazoned upon my brain. I especially liked his multitude of characters and how they all eventually intertwined due to circumstances and ended up at the same place. I confess that I believe the ending was a little rushed in their overly complicated plan at the ending, and I found myself a little lost. I found that I had gone through the first 200 pages quite quickly yet when it came down to the last 50 it took the same amount of time to read the first 200. Of couse we can cut him a little slack for it was his first book. I am definitely going to read another with the best hopes. We can only hope that he will develop a Douglas Adam's style.

Rating:
Summary: Bad Demon! Bad! No Biscuit!
Review: Every now and then, those of us who indulge in the most gruesome of the horror and science fiction genre must kick back, take a load off, and curl up with a well written and light hearted book that will allow us a chuckle or two.

This is the book for that moment. Relatively short (238 pages) and a very fast read, Moore's tale is not only captivating but will leave you chuckling in morbid humor. Travis O'Hearn is over ninety years old, but doesn't look a day over twenty five. This is because of his demon, Catch. Many years ago Travis unsuspectingly summoned the demon and became his Master, with one of the benefits being perpetual youth and an inability to die. Of course, the bad part is, Catch is not a nice demon, and Travis is stuck with him.

Catch likes to watch TV, read comic books, and ride on the hood of the car; but most of all he likes to eat, and people are his favorite food. All Travis wants to do is find a way to send Catch back to hell, but he doesn't have a clue as to how to go about it. The one person who holds the objects that may help him get rid of Catch is a young girl on a train, who Travis lost track seventy years ago without ever learning her name.

Which is what brings Travis and Catch to Pine Cove, a sleepy seaside tourist town. Here in Pine Cove, Moore introduces us to the townspeople; fleshing them out into fully developed personalities that you will either like or dislike, but will certainly not leave you with that dry feeling of a hastily sketched character. Moore's ability to bring all these different people to life is what makes this book such a fast and fun read; how he manages to bring these characters to life in only a few short paragraphs is the sign of a gifted writer.

There is Rachel, the benign witch; Howard, who runs the HP Café; Robert the drunken loser; Mavis, the gnarly tavern owner; Rivera the police sergeant; and a host of others that all add to the flavor of the story.

Topping it all off is the arrival of the King of the Djinn, Gian Hen Gian, who looks like a tiny wrinkled old man and spouts the most hilarious of insults to those who peeve him. The townspeople, Travis, Catch, and the Djinn all collide to bring us a most entertaining and humorous story. The ending is a flurry of activity, with fantasy and imagination that borders on silly but fits tightly in with the rest of the book.

Truly, 'Practical Demon Keeping' is a frivolous and light-hearted romp that is well worth the money spent. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: What a great book!
Review: I have just finished reading Practical Demonkeeping and immediatly got on line to see what else Christopher Moore had written. Wonderful story, even better characters and the style of humor had me laughing out loud quite a bit. I loved the little references to H.P. Lovecraft that popped up thru out the book.
It is less than a week until christmas, I have so much to do its insane and yet I had to finish this book, and then look to see what else he had available. (There may be time to add a new book to my christmas list.)

Rating:
Summary: What a Great and Hilarious Story
Review: Travis has been twenty years old for seventy years. He's been given eternal youth by Catch, a human-eating demon and this pair have just arrived in the small Californian town of Pine Cove just south of Big Sur, which is full of neo-pagans, perverts, winos, drug dealers, deadbeats and weirdoes. Catch wants to chow down, Travis just wants his freedom.

Factor in a pretty waitress, her drunk husband, a cop, a paranoid, a genie, a witch and a Zen fisherman and all hell breaks loose in a tale that will have you laughing right up to the end of the book.

Reviewed by Devon Adams, the Cool Kid

Rating:
Summary: Practical Demonkeeping
Review: Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore was very enjoyable because of its mixture of comedy with seriousness. It is about a man named Travis and his demon servant, Catch. They travel to a small town called Pine Cove where Travis hopes to rid himself of the unwanted demon, and Catch forms a plan to free himself into the hands of a more ruthless master. But the plot thickens as the king of an ancient and magical race called the Diji asks for the help of a local man named Augustus to send the demon back to hell.
Moore describes things just enough to let you know the general idea of what things look like but leaves enough space for your own imagination. He also has an interesting spin on the Bible. Overall, this is a good book to have just to pull out and enjoy once and a while.