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)

Fascinating, Compelling and Funny

I love Christopher Moore’s clever plots, quirky characters and zany wit! This one is especially clever.

awesome 👌

this book was designed for a open minded group. So beware flat earthers !!! This will break your feeble little brain.

Reader hid the joke with his deadpan delivery

I loved the book. The reader isn't as "fun" as the prior readers. He would knock a spy novel out of the park.

Good Read!

I enjoyed the Biolgical aspects as well as the humor of this book. Christopher Moore knows how to get laughs and keep the reader engaged.

Great story, disappointing Narrator!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The Narrator! I'm sure Bill Irwin would do a good job with something that was much more serious, but please....Christopher Moore books are meant to make you laugh out loud and I didn't do that once. His voice is somber and atonal and even when he was delivering lines that should have cracked me up, they fell flat.

What did you like best about this story?

I love whales, so anything to do with them interests me. And of course Kona...I love that Christopher Moore's characters show up from book to book. It links all of them together.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Bill Irwin?

Either Oliver Wyman or Fisher Stevens would have done a much better job of this story.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Absolutely! I think any of Christopher Moores books would make a great movie.

Any additional comments?

My daughter read this book and loved it, so I was looking forward to listening to it so much. I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed.

had to speed it up to tolerate the narrator.

the story would have been funnier if the narrator would have put any emotion into the story telling.

Be prepared to think out of the box!

Not sure what drew me to this book.......but I listened to every word once it got started. It is a bit of a stretch to the brain..........but oh my the reader is amazing. He is what makes this book.

Christopher Moore

I read this book and loved it. Listening to the audio version was even better. Having sound affects and characters voices.added so much moore.
I highly reccomend. it.

A song of praise for Fluke

I love Christopher Moore and this book is an excellent example of why. I truly believe "Magic is just science you don't know. " in Fluke, Moore weaves science and the magic of storytelling together into a tapestry of wonder. The narrator does a top notch job bringing the book to life. Please treat yourself to a gem of magic and wonder.

Love Christopher Moore

In preparation for tackling Moby Dick, I though this would be a nice whale tale. It was. The plot twists and turns. Christopher Moore's stories are alway interesting and funny.