Fluke

Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

By: Christopher Moore

Narrated by: Bill Irwin

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Just why do humpback whales sing? That's the question that has marine behavioral biologist Nate Quinn and his crew poking, charting, recording, and photographing very big, wet, gray marine mammals - until the extraordinary day when a whale lifts its tail into the air to display a cryptic message spelled out in foot-high letters: Bite Me.

Trouble is, Nate's beginning to wonder if he hasn't spent just a little too much time in the sun. 'Cause no one else on his team saw a thing - not his longtime partner, Clay Demodocus; not their saucy young research assistant; not even the spliff-puffing white-boy Rastaman Kona (aka Preston Applebaum). But later, when a roll of film returns from the lab missing the crucial tail shot - and his research facility is trashed - Nate realizes something very fishy indeed is going on.

By turns witty, irreverent, fascinating, puzzling, and surprising, Fluke is Christopher Moore at his outrageous best.

©2003 Christopher Moore (P)2006 HarperAudio

Critic reviews

"This amusing pastiche cobbles together elements from all the classic sea yarns: from 'Jonah and the Whale' to Moby Dick to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." (Booklist)

Hilarious book, God-awful narration

The story itself was fantastic (Christopher Moore is a comedic genius and this is one of my favourite of his novels) but my enjoyment of the audiobook was marred by the awful narration.

The narrator pronounced all of his "w" words with an "h" on the front, which drove me slowly insane. It's a book about WHALES...which he pronounced as "Hwhales". Every. Single. Time.

Fantastic story and performance

I have never been so taken by an audio work of fiction. Two thumbs way up.

The story is clever, unpredictable, and LOL funny.

I loved it from start to finish, including the author's notes at the end.

whaley good time

this is one of my favorite authors and story's. if your looking for some good entertainment this is the book

Whale of a tale

Listened to this book 10 years ago and it is ageless and every bit as good listening a second time. Moore’s humor is off the wall regardless of the subject. People must drive by me thinking what is that idiot laughing at, he is alone in his car. If they only knew!

A guilty pleasure

Sorry, I have to admit it. I'm a huge Christopher Moore fan. Admittedly, this author is not for everyone; you have to totally suspend belief in order to keep going when his stories start departing from reality, and just go along for the ride. "Fluke" is no exception: try explaining the plot to another person, and you'll wind up sounding like a candidate for a bed at Bellvue. But it's usually a great ride, and a great read; funny, full of memorable, outrageous characters but never so "over the top" that you can't get on board with them. And nobody writes a line like Christopher Moore. With every book, I find myself quoting his characters on a daily basis. My advice to you: put aside that crime novel, that self-help book, that evil government spy drivel, and pick up Christopher Moore. Suspend belief and get ready to grin and snicker like a Whaley Boy.

So so funny

First, can I just say that I LOVE Christopher Moore's books?! He has an amazing voice and Bill Irwin (the narrator) captured his cocky, casual charm perfectly! I would have given this a 5, but parts of the book were just a little too... uh... out there for me.

Love Christopher Moore

I love the quirky comedy of Christopher Moore. This story is off the wall and written well with very likable characters. I read a lot of murder mystery so I like the 'break' of Christopher Moore. You'll enjoy this one!

"shut up! and stop killing whales!" - right on!

Douglas Adams meets Carl Haaisen meets Hermann Melville, with some weird scenes featuring whale genitalia - a fun read!

love the direction it took

If you could sum up Fluke in three words, what would they be?

Hopeful. Excited. Prayful

What did you like best about this story?

Gooville and everything related

What about Bill Irwin’s performance did you like?

Mostly good, kept the characters seperate and distinct. Was an annoyingly sharp sssss sound with certain words while listening to headphones

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Absolutley

Any additional comments?

Thought it sounded like a boring theme but thought hey, Christopher Moore's never let me down and low and behold it was a great great story.

Laughed outloud.

It has been a very long time since a book made me laugh outloud. This one accomplished that and more. Great humor.