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sarahetc 's review for:
Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
by Christopher Moore
I know we all grow and change as people and that makes our tastes and preferences evolve. Five years ago I would have counted Christopher Moore one of my favorite authors. Bloodsucking Fiends was remarkable. I read A Dirty Job in one five-hour marathon in the Orlando airport. I laughed so hard at You Suck that I thought I was going to give myself a hernia. Along the way, though, working my way through his catalogue, I have had real moments of doubt. Island of the Sequined Love Nun was all title, little story. Fool was well-written, but lacking an essential something that I thought I had found before. And earlier this year (and really, I shouldn't read an author more than once per year, I know), Bite Me just totally fell flat. It was a mishmash of two short stories, neither of which was interesting enough in and of itself to have gone anywhere, so he sorta stitched them together and put it out there. Kona was, by far, the best part of that story-- and that's a story with a giant vampire tabby named Chet, which sounds impossible to make dull and yet it was so dull.
So here's Kona, too. Kona in Hawaii before Kona became the white Rasta helper of the vamps. And in the whole book, minor giggles at the idea of "action nerds" and all, Kona is about the only interesting part of the book. Like some of his others, this seems to be a novelization of a single idea and the story serves the idea, rather than the other way around. In this case, it's genes versus memes, with a side of OMG Save the Whales! I get that he has some great ideas and that they're inspiring. But this whole book feels like a ramshackle attempt to storify his conclusions about genes vs. memes without all the messy hard work of developing a real plot or characters or anything.
I don't know how long Kona was lurking in the back of his head or for what reasons. But Kona is one tertiary character who exists mainly for cheap laughs and he's the best part of the book. I think I'll pass on Moore from here on out, unless the book features him. Or C. Thomas Flood.
So here's Kona, too. Kona in Hawaii before Kona became the white Rasta helper of the vamps. And in the whole book, minor giggles at the idea of "action nerds" and all, Kona is about the only interesting part of the book. Like some of his others, this seems to be a novelization of a single idea and the story serves the idea, rather than the other way around. In this case, it's genes versus memes, with a side of OMG Save the Whales! I get that he has some great ideas and that they're inspiring. But this whole book feels like a ramshackle attempt to storify his conclusions about genes vs. memes without all the messy hard work of developing a real plot or characters or anything.
I don't know how long Kona was lurking in the back of his head or for what reasons. But Kona is one tertiary character who exists mainly for cheap laughs and he's the best part of the book. I think I'll pass on Moore from here on out, unless the book features him. Or C. Thomas Flood.