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    Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
    Unavailable
    Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
    Unavailable
    Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
    Ebook423 pages7 hours

    Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

    By Christopher Moore

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Readers new to the work of Christopher Moore will want to know two things immediately. First: Where has this guy been hiding? (Answer: In plain sight, since he has a cult following.)…[H]e writes laid back fables straight out of Margaritaville, on the cusp of humor and science fiction.”—Janet Maslin, New York Times

    Whale researcher Nathan Quinn has a problem. It’s not a new problem; in fact, it’s been around for nearly 20 million years. And Nate’s spent most of his adult life working to solve it. You see, although everybody (well, almost everybody) knows that humpback whales sing (outside of human composition, the most complex songs on the planet) no one knows why. Nate, a Ph.D. in behavior biology, intends to discover the answer to this burning question—and soon.

    Every winter he and Clay Demolocus, his partner in the Maui Whale Research Foundation, ply the warm waters between the islands of Maui and Lanai, recording the eerily beautiful songs of the humpbacks and returning to their lab for electronic analysis. The trouble is, Nate’s beginning to wonder if he hasn’t spent just a little too much time in the sun. Either that, or he’s losing his mind. Because today, as he was shooting an I.D. photo of a humpback tail fluke, Nate could’ve sworn he saw the words “Bite Me” scrawled across the whale’s tail. . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061807688
    Unavailable
    Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
    Author

    Christopher Moore

    Christopher Moore is the bestselling author of You Suck, A Dirty Job, The Stupidest Angel, Fluke, Lamb, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Bloodsucking Fiends, and Practical Demonkeeping. Visit the official Christopher Moore website at ChrisMoore.com.

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    Reviews for Fluke

    3.5/5

    1,365 ratings80 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Classic Christopher Moore. Wit and sassiness combined with a whale of a tale. ;)
    • 4/5
      Just finished Fluke by Christopher Moore. I do love this author! His plots are highly improbably, yet they work for me and he has such a great sense of humor. This one follows a marine behavioral biologist and his photographer as they try to decipher songs of the whales. Except that then one of the whales flashes our heel a note on the back of his tail, which reads "Bite Me." And things get weirder from there. There's a little romance, a funny Rasta boy, some cool marine info and lots of fun. Great summer read.
    • 4/5
      After trying Moore's Sacre Bleu many years back, and having it not work for me, I avoided starting anymore of his books. That was clearly a mistake that I am happy to have rectified. This is now the third book of Moore's that I've loved. This was fun and I love his smart ass sense of humour. I will keep going with Moore's novels. I've been loving them on audio and I think I will keep with this format.
    • 2/5
      Ok....I've been reading this for the past 6 months, and I still am only 1/2 way through! I just can not get into this book. In fact I find it rather boring and not even near as funny as his other books....

      I am sadly disappointed.
    • 3/5
      Such a strange story. It was mildly amusing and then it took a big left turn into the bizarre. It was fun to read.
    • 4/5
      A whale song researcher spots a whale with the words 'bite me' written on its tail, suffers a string of research setbacks, and ends up on a 20,000 Leagues-style cruise.There's something seriously bizarre about Christopher Moore's books, and I'm being literal. He says the most outrageous things, and then just plows onward with no winks, nods or pauses. It's almost unnerving.
    • 5/5
      Just great fun. LibraryThing recommended Moore based on my Tom Robbins books (and apparently Carl Hiaasen). It certainly hit the target. Wildly inventive story, a scientific research setting, interesting and mostly likable characters, irreverence, and just the right amount of goofiness. I look forward to reading more....
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed this book right up till the end. What a disappointment. All this build up and then blah.
    • 4/5
      A good book. Not my favorite Christopher Moore book, but I thought it was pretty funny. I thought the story was resolved to easily, but it was a satisfying ending. I thought the environmental aspect of this book was interesting. A unique way to get across the issues marine life is facing, without beating you over the head with it.I am looking forward to reading the rest of Mr. Moore's books.
    • 3/5
      This started off pretty dull - no suspicion of anything more than usual goiing on. However, at a certain point of the novel (when Nate gets swallowed by a whale), things take a rather startling turn. I had heard about Christopher Moore because it seems that everyone who reads his books thinks he's hysterical. And they're actually nearly right - OK, so I wouldn't call him "hysterical" per se, but he's quite entertaining and I am definitely going to read more of his books.
    • 4/5
      This was an enjoyable read (or listen, since I listened to the audiobook). Witty, but rarely laugh-out-loud funny. Nothing profound, but a fun read.
    • 4/5
      Very funny. The main character is very sympathetic and the story's plot line is very well researched.
    • 4/5
      I thought this was really entertaining. It's a light read that's pretty hard to put down. It gets very weird about halfway through, which sort of threw me off until the weirdness started being explained a little better (which I suppose is to give you the same sort of sensation/thought process as Nate, the character experiencing it). Overall, I definitely recommend. Not to kids, though! :^)
    • 4/5
      Biologist Nate Quinn has been researching whale songs off the coast of Hawaii for years, and although he enjoys his work, he's never discovered anything really earth-shattering . . . until the day he sights the whale with "Bite Me" written across its tail. This astounding spectacle soon leads him and his trusty companions--flirtatious research assistant Amy; Clay, his loyal photographer; their perpetually stoned surfer-dude helper, Kona; and Nate's ex-wife, Libby, now a lesbian (apparently because of an unfortunate encounter with a randy male whale)--on a surprising adventure above and below the ocean. 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.
    • 4/5
      While this was not my favorite Christopher Moore (see Lamb and Fool), a bad Christopher Moore is still WAY better than just about anything out there... Odd little story, strange twists and turns, funny as hell.
    • 4/5
      Fluke is a little more serious than most of Moore's work, however don't let that stop you from enjoying a complex and funny story about marine researchers and whales. It's a slow builder, with nothing but brooding mystery and character development for two hundred pages. Like Carl Hiaasen, Moore's characters are all slightly screwy, or completely nutty which means getting to know the book's players is always entertaining. The book has plenty of twists, and in fact the actual real plot is hidden away until (too close to?) the end. Moore is a master of wit and words, a literary genius, and although Fluke is not full of belly laughs, it's a well crafted tale which will keep you riveted until the very last page.
    • 4/5
      The first half of Fluke was amusing, and Christopher Moore actually researched cetacean (marine mammal) biology and mentions a few actual scientists, which is kinda cool to see. But ultimately, the second half of the book dragged the premise down, veering off the wise-alecky humor into some pure fantasy.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book, but I really loved the audio book.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book...it was funny, made me think just enough to not feel like I was reading The Enquirer, and motivated me to become fascinated with whales.This was my first experience with Christopher Moore, and I must say I love his non-vampire tomes much more than those with vampires.The characters were believeably far-fetched, it read at a quick pace, and I had a warm fuzzy when I finished. What more could you ask for?
    • 4/5
      Nate (action geek) has spent a lifetime trying to discover why the humpback whales sing. . . pure science. He works with Clay (loyal friend), Kona (fake Hawaiian Rastafarian), and Amy (the snowy biscuit). The Old Broad funds their research. Once Nate discovers the true reason for the whales' singing, he becomes more involved in environmental and animal protection actions.
    • 3/5
      Having only read one other Moore novel, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, I was a little disappointed in this one. I must say, this is only personal preference, as the book is well written and engaging, enough so that I was able to continue reading, anyway. I just didn't care about the characters.

      E.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed reading this book. I know next to nothing about whales and I really learned a lot in addition to enjoying the great characters Christopher Moore created. I'm just not sure how the book wound up in my library, a fluke perhaps ?
    • 4/5
      This was a wonderful book! I won't even try to give a plot summary as it starts out weird and just gets weirder and weirder from there. Even though strange, I found the story incredibly compelling; this was a book I couldn't put down. Also very funny, in a Terry Pratchett kind of way. Not as burst-out-laughing funny as A Dirty Job, but still pretty hilarious. This is my second book by Moore and I now must read everything he's written. He's simply brilliant. His characters are so real, even though they are very eccentric and often times out-of-this world (literally) they come across incredibly real and likable.
    • 2/5
      Another book of Christopher Moore's that I just couldn't get myself into. I think it was just to out there for my taste in reading. I like off the wall stuff, but off the wall stuff that might actually be real. His books in general are really good, and this one had a lot of great jokes and humor. Check it out anyways you might like it.
    • 4/5
      I like Christopher Moore's sense of humour. A wacky, fun, but not pointless book.
    • 5/5
      Certainly different than many of Moore's novels, but I really enjoyed this one a different level. It wasn't as consistently funny, much like Lamb - but the story was great. Christopher Moore never disappoints, and as I much as I've heard people say this novel is his weakest, I have to say that I've enjoyed it as much as all of this other novels. Well worth the time.
    • 3/5
      The book is an easy and fun summer read. Not the best by Mr. Moore nor his worst. It is entertaining, though, I found some parts to be 'meh' in feel. If you are looking for something for the dog days and are a fan of Moore, pick this up and give it a go.
    • 3/5
      Not as good as Lamb. Very imaginative.
    • 4/5
      Very funny, cool and original.
    • 3/5
      Christopher More is a genius. This is the second book by him I have read and I want to read them all.