Fool

A Novel

By: Christopher Moore

Narrated by: Euan Morton

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Christopher Moore, much beloved scrivener and peerless literary jester, now takes on no less than the legendary Bard himself (with the utmost humility and respect) with a twisted and insanely funny tale of a moronic monarch and his deceitful daughters, as seen through the eyes of a man wearing a codpiece and bells on his head.

Pocket has been Lear's cherished fool for years. So naturally Pocket is at his brainless, elderly liege's side when Lear demands that his kids swear to him their undying love and devotion. Of course Goneril and Regan are only too happy to brownnose Dad. But Cordelia believes that her father's request is kind of...well...stupid, and her blunt honesty ends up costing her her rightful share of the kingdom and earns her a banishment to boot.

Well now the bangers and mash have really hit the fan. And the only person who can possibly make things right . . . is Pocket. Now he's going to have do some very fancy maneuvering: cast some spells, start a war or two - the usual stuff - to get Cordelia back into Daddy Lear's good graces, to derail the fiendish power plays of Cordelia's twisted sisters, and to shag every lusciously shaggable wench who's amenable to shagging along the way.

Pocket may be a fool...but he's definitely not an idiot.

©2009 Christopher Moore (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

A pandemonium of aristocratic politics

Involved interpersonal plot, the origin story of Pocket, our Fool and protagonist,

Lots of good twists in the story, and plenty of witty, bawdy dialogue.

I enjoyed The Serpent of Venice a lot more, probably one of the best audio books you can get. This is good backstory.

Very Baudy... Very, very Baudy

This isn't a proper review, I haven't finished the book yet, I wanted to make the disclaimer that this is a tale for adults.
...and a darn good one so far!
James Salyers

Mr Moore does it again.

This is story of King Lear through the eyes of his fool (court jester) named Pocket. Like his other stories his characters are witty, unique and at times crass. I will warn you that there is colorful language throughout the story. Not the normal language you would hear on cable TV, but new colorful language that only CM could create. There are lots of sexual references as well. If you are not completely opposed to these things you will enjoy this book. If you enjoy witches and potions, knights and wenches, kings that go crazy, dysfunctional families and the occasional shagging then this is the book for you. The narrator does a good job and adds to the story with his appropriate accent. It is a great listen and will have you laughing out loud.

Mixed bag

Parts of the book were laugh out loud funny but not as much so as I had been lead to believe based on reviews of this book and author. Other stretches of the book were rather dull. Overall, I would rate the story and its narration at 3.5 stars. In my final rating, though, I'm deducting 0.5 stars for the poor audio quality; there is a persistent high-pitched whine throughout the book that nearly drove me crazy.

HILARIOUS POTTY MOUTH SHAG HUMOR!

GET READY TO LAUGH! As the opening line states, if you don't like bawdy tales full of wanking potty mouth shag humor, then don't read this book. But if you do, ge ready to laugh more than you ever have at an audiobook. Exceptionally well read and written with a mix of english cuss from a variety of milenia and locales.

Very entertaining

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - Euan Morton did a fabulous job narrating. Finally, King Lear retold in a manner that brings the characters to life and showcases them in all of their spiteful, vindictive glory! However, it's not for readers who are offended by or can't get past crude language/vulgar situations.

The Bard meets Monty Python

At the start my initial thought was that this will have to pick up if I am going to finish it. It did. If you are not a fan of "Search for the Holy Grail" or some of the other Python renderings, then this mode of humor is not for you. Many chuckles and few loud laughs await if you are.

Brilliant as Usual

The story itself is wildly entertaining as is normal for a Moore novel, but the narration from Euan Morton really adds a wonderful dimension to the story.

Great Story and Reader!!!!

Witty, intriguing, funny, suspensful, tragic - everything you want in a fun story about the King's Fool. I've recommended this book to all my friends and anyone else who will listen! Beware - there is dry, dark humor here and a bit of "heinous f***ery". You have to like this kind of quick wit tongue to like this book. And listen carefully or you'll miss the joke entirely. If you don't like dry, dark humor and off kilter jokes then you will not like nor understand this book.

Hilarious

much better than 'heads will roll'. I tried the full cast 'Heads Will Roll' and gave up after 45 minutes but it left me wanting. This scratched that itch just fine.