June 18, 2009

Review: Fluke by Christopher Moore



Based out of a Hawaiian island, Nate Quinn, his partner Clay and research assistant Amy spend their time cataloging and researching humpback whales and their songs. Nate’s mission is to find out why the humpback whales sing.

While out to sea one day Nate has a strange encounter with one of the great creatures. The underside of the whale’s fluke had the word Bite Me! written in foot-high black letters. With no one around to corroborate what Nate saw he can hardly believe it himself but he managed to get at least one photo snapped and he sends the film off for developing.

When Nate gets the pictures come back the incriminating photo is missing and soon there’s more trouble brewing for his team. Their office is wrecked and one of their ships gets stolen and is sunk. This leads him to believe that what he saw was real and someone will stop at nothing to keep that information from getting out.

Next thing you know Nate disappears while out in the water and while his crew thinks he’s lost at sea, Nate goes on the ride of his life and gets pulled into the middle of a strange man vs. the sea struggle for survival.

The first thing that comes to mind when trying to sum up this book is that it’s just plain weird. I read and loved Moore’s book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal so I was really looking forward to this read. I can’t exactly say that I was disappointed because overall I did like the book but it was a bit of a let down that the writing wasn’t the same caliber as Lamb. In Lamb I was cracking up with every chapter and in Fluke there were a few chuckles but it wasn’t nearly as humorous. What does amaze me is how in the world Moore comes up with these crazy plots. I recommend this one for anyone who loves to read humorous fiction but don’t let this be your first Christopher Moore book. Save that title for Lamb.

3 comments :

bermudaonion said...

After your review, I want to know the rest of the story. I was intrigued because "Bite Me" was written on the whale - I say that far too much.

Kitten22 said...

I've been meaning to read a Christopher Moore for ages and just haven't gotten around to it. I'll have to start with Lamb then since you enjoyed it more!

Karen said...

Thanks for this review-I haven't read any of his books yet, and I'm glad you said to read another one first. I usually like strange things, so I'm excited to check it out.
Karen
swingdanc1@yahoo.com