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)

worth listening to

I enjoyed the story.

Very good, after a while

I really liked this book. It starts out really slow, and doesn't really start getting good till about a quarter to a third of the way through. Its worth it though.

Where does he get his ideas?

Would you listen to Fluke again? Why?

Yes, it's engaging and hilarious

What did you like best about this story?

The comedy surprises

What about Bill Irwin’s performance did you like?

Very well read and performed

If you could rename Fluke, what would you call it?

There's a whale in my martini

Any additional comments?

Christopher Moore surprises at every turn!

Another great book

I have been a fan of Christopher Moore's writong for a while now. This book is another that I will anjoy listening to repeatedly.

Passable Read

I wouldn't say this is one of Moore's best books. It didn't grab my funny bone and leave me smiling in the same way that "Dirty Job" or "Lamb" did.

Christopher Moore is really good at creating interesting, memorable characters. I wish he'd put his usual amount of effort into that aspect for this book.

Kona, the fake Hawaiian/Jamaican Surfer Dude is up to standards for sure. But most of the rest of the characters have nary an interesting personality quirk between them.

The "Old Broad" is also an interesting character, but she's hardly even in the story. A few other ancillary characters show some promise as well. But as far as the main characters go, they're not much to speak of.

The general ideas expressed in the book are amusing. For example, the notion that all Killer Whales are named Kevin, and biological technology that involves a lot of sphincter usage.

In general, though, I felt that this book just didn't live up to Christopher Moore's other works. It just didn't have the same humour and soul that I've enjoyed from his other books.

But the plot was interesting enough, as were the ideas and settings. So I can't say that I regret buying this book.

The narrator did a passable job. He's okay at voices and his rhythm is good. He'd be better if he could narrate in less of a monotone.

I understand there's a version of this story narrated by Fisher Stevens. I really like some of Stevens' voices - but his rhythm is terrible, and he often assigns the exact same voice to different characters making it hard to differentiate between them when they're having a conversation.

I personally appreciated having a different narrator for this book. I'll admit though, it's hard to find the perfect narrator. It's a very difficult skill.

All in all, I'd recommend buying this book. Even though I'm more lukewarm about it than Moore's other books, I still believe that it's a worthwhile read.

At first, meh. Then, BAM!!!!

I Love Christopher Moore and I'm trying to catch up on a few of his books that I missed. So far I haven't been disappointed. But when I started listening to this book I thought, "You've got to be kidding me!" The narrator made me feel like I was about to fall asleep. Not the best thing to do while you're driving to and from work. He made this funny book so very dull. But then, either he got a memo telling him to liven it up, or he felt the momentum of the story. About half way through he started to sound awake, if not lively. On top of that, Mr. Moore threw a little curve ball. I was sitting there wondering, "What's the point already?" when I heard the word meme. I know what you're thinking. Those stupid cartoon faces all over the internet. That what I thought too until a few months ago when I heard a story about Meme-ology on NPR. Fascinating stuff. I would encourage everyone to go look it up. Anyway, for me it turned a dull book into a great book with just one word. The ending is pretty amazing too. But I'll stop here before I give anything away. If you love CM then you should stick with this book through the dull bits. If this is your first CM book, maybe skip it for now and listen to Fool or Sacre Bleu first.

Fun

I was looking to laugh out loud. I loved "Fool" so I got this one. I was surprised that it wasn't a laugh a minute like Fool. Still, it held my interest and I enjoyed it!

awesome

very funny this is my favorite author by far this book was a lot more thought-provoking than many of his other books LOL

Loved the narrator

I swear, I want to hang out with the Iry surfer from upstate New York. The narrator did such a great job of narrating this, it stayed incredibly entertaining instead of just ridiculously stupid. It was funny as hell, an easy read, and generally entertaining.

First experience for a first time audiobook.

This was my first audiobook, and I'd have to say, it was a blast! This was an extremely fun story, that made you think, and was full of witty banter. The characters are amusing and highly intelligent. I enjoyed the voice actor as well. His voice wasn't boring, and he seemed to give the characters their own personality, which in my mind is a must in story telling. You won't regret this purchase/listen.