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. ( )

I really wasn't sure of this book until at least half way through. I am a huge Christopher Moore fan, but it took me awhile to come around. I did end up enjoying it thoroughly. ( )

Not as good as Lamb, but better than The Stupidest Angel. Overall, a quick, quirky, fun read. ( )

A good mixture of humor, plotting, whales, biologists and a little adventure. I both read the book and listened to the audiobook., which I highly advise at times. I especially like it if the voices are need a little help in finding a purchase in my imagination. A good read that left me with gut wrenching laughter. ( )

I have genuinely loved every Moore book I have read, but this novel was missing a certain something. It started out promisingly enough: A whale researcher is treated to the puzzling sight of the words “Bite Me” clearly printed on the flukes of a diving whale he is photographing. But the follow-through gets a little messy and, quite frankly, strains even my very elastic suspension of disbelief. (I won’t go into details, lest I spoil it for someone.) I quite enjoyed some of the high theory of the book – ancient war between genes and memes, themes of early life being akin to God, the spirituality of whales – but Moore didn’t seem to completely follow through on any of these interesting ideas. All in all, a promising story that left me feeling a little unsatisfied. ( )

This is my third Christopher Moore book, and I liked it almost as much as A Dirty Job (and much, much more than The Stupidest Angel). This had a lot of Moore’s trademark humor, but it also had a bit of a serious side as he tackled the issue of whale conservation. In that way, it reminded me a lot of a Carl Hiaasen. At the beginning, it was a little difficult to keep the supporting characters straight, especially the women, but it all shakes out as the story goes on. We listened to the audio production, which really brought the book to life. The delivery of Kona’s parts had us laughing many times. Moore continues to be our favorite author for long car trips. ( )

Based out of a Hawaiian island, Nate Quinn, his partner Clay and research assistant Amy spend their time cataloging and researching humpback whales and their songs. Nate’s mission is to find out why the humpback whales sing.

While out to sea one day Nate has a strange encounter with one of the great creatures. The underside of the whale’s fluke had the word Bite Me! written in foot-high black letters. With no one around to corroborate what Nate saw he can hardly believe it himself but he managed to get at least one photo snapped and he sends the film off for developing.

When Nate gets the pictures come back the incriminating photo is missing and soon there’s more trouble brewing for his team. Their office is wrecked and one of their ships gets stolen and is sunk. This leads him to believe that what he saw was real and someone will stop at nothing to keep that information from getting out.

Next thing you know Nate disappears while out in the water and while his crew thinks he’s lost at sea, Nate goes on the ride of his life and gets pulled into the middle of a strange man vs. the sea struggle for survival.

The first thing that comes to mind when trying to sum up this book is that it’s just plain weird. I read and loved Moore’s book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal so I was really looking forward to this read. I can’t exactly say that I was disappointed because overall I did like the book but it was a bit of a let down that the writing wasn’t the same caliber as Lamb. In Lamb I was cracking up with every chapter and in Fluke there were a few chuckles but it wasn’t nearly as humorous. What does amaze me is how in the world Moore comes up with these crazy plots. I recommend this one for anyone who loves to read humorous fiction but don’t let this be your first Christopher Moore book. Save that title for Lamb. ( )

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? ( )

I found this one at a library sale and picked up because it was set in Hawaii. I lived in Hawaii but was traveling at the time. I could tell pretty quickly that there was a spiritual element (normally a turn off for me). The writing was so funny I pressed on often laughing out loud. The spiritual message is there, but it's a palatable one and delivered by wonderful characters. You also learn a little about whales in the process. An da local pidgen, yeah. ( )

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. ( )

Fluke (Or, I Know Why the Wacky Writer Writes) ... o.k. the subtitle is my own addition to the latest reads by Christopher Moore (finished on the wee hours, after awaking at 4 am and being unable to fall back asleep). He's done it again! Like his earlier book "Lamb" inspired a renewed appreciation of Jesus (go figure, the book is written like a cross between Harry Potter and Kevin Smith's "Dogma" but set back 2000 years), Fluke has inspired my appreciation for science. It's strange how fiction and humor can weave inspiration. Once again the coincidence of timing too adds to the mix. My new job at the Wildlife Safari will allow me to breath some life into this inspiration, though not with marine mammals.

The book hits on similar themes as the 4th Star Trek movie (The Voyage Home). Whale songs may have a reason we don't know or understand, but whatever the reason (even if there's no reason), whales are worth keeping around, or as he wrote in an afterward entitled "Conservation" ... "just yell at people randomly to stop killing whales. It could really catch on ... [while at a fast food joint] Would you like fries with that? [you respond] Shut up and stop killing whales!" Maybe it could work? Maybe if teachers who know social studies start taking a greater interest in and appreciation for science ... kind of like me.

"Caring about the condition of our oceans does not make you a psycho, tree-hugging, bleeding-heart liberal, it just makes you smart." Christopher Moore (from "Fluke")

from my facebook notes ( )

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. ( )

I do enjoy Christopher Moore’s books. He comes up with the most random assemblage of characters and somehow manages to weave them into a cohesive story that actually makes whatever crack-brained idea he’s dealing with in the current book work.

This book is about whales. He captured a pretty decent picture of the whale scene in Hawaii. From reading one of his afterwards, he apparently did about two years of research for this book, though he skirted much of the actual science he learned for the sake of the story. I definitely respect someone that does that amount of research for a speculative fiction book, since you know they often barely use any of it when all is said and done.

I will say, the eventual conclusion of this story was not at all what I was expecting. His explanation of whale sound, and all of the other interesting things that we’ve been trying to figure out for years about whales was certainly inventive. ( )

Wow. I thought Lamb was amazing, but Fluke was even better. (Read in approx. 2005) ( )

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. ( )

I read this book as part of a book club selection and I freely admit that this wasn't a book I ever would have picked up on my own to read. I'm glad for the experience but have to say that without Kona this book would have been a total loss for me. I just didn't find it funny (except Kona) or particularly interesting - it was just weird. ( )

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. ( )

This is one of the most ridiculous books I have ever read. The writing style is a little bit amateurish, the women characters are terribly stereotyped, and the story is outlandish. But for some reason, I just kept reading, even as the story got more and more insane. I will consider this a guilty pleasure. ( )

Fluke is a wonderfully absurd novel. Like all Moore's books this novel starts normally enough--with marine biologists studying whales in Hawaii--and then promptly takes a left turn. This story gets stranger and stranger. I'd say more but it's hard to talk about the plot without give things away.

Fluke is very well written. I love that the dialog is littered with chortle-inducing one liners. The metaphors and similes that Moore uses to describe things are all original. Moore seems to go out of his way to avoid cliche lines. I had to read a couple of them twice to make sure of what I was reading, it seems so odd. This is part of what makes Moore one of my favorite humor writers. He is a joy to read.

Whether or not you'll enjoy this book has a lot to do with what kind of sense of humor you have. If you have a taste for the warped and the absurd, you'll like this book and any thing else written by Moore. If not, this book will probably just seem silly.

This isn't my favorite book by Moore. (My favorites are Lamb and Coyote Blue.) The characters don't have the heart that some of his other creations have. But they are well-fleshed out and I enjoyed reading this book a lot.

This was my first experience reading Christopher Moore and I don’t think that it will be my last. I very much enjoyed his writing style and sense of humor. Several times during the book I laughed loudly enough for people around me to ask what was so funny. I felt the story itself started to lose its draw after Nate left the surface, but the writing was still there. The world that he enters was a little too fantastical, and too much of a shift from what we had been seeing for me, especially with the way those around him acted. But, it was still a highly enjoyable novel. ( )

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. ( )

Absurd fun. ( )

While this book was entertaining, some of the ongoing jokes stopped being funny about halfway through. I'm a huge fan of Christopher Moore, but this book was a bit too far over the top with not enough realism to back it up and make it funny as opposed to more often silly. You'll enjoy it, but don't expect it to live up to his other works. ( )

I like Christopher Moore's sense of humour. A wacky, fun, but not pointless book. ( )