Adventure Annotation: Fluke by Christopher Moore

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Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

by Christopher Moore


Synopsis:

Nathan Quinn has been studying humpback whales for years, with one nagging question driving him: Why do the whales sing? While out on the boat with Amy, his intelligent and gorgeous research assistant, Nate attempts to take a photo of a humpback whale's tail fluke...only to find that the tail has some unusual markings. Across the fluke, Nate sees the words "BITE ME". Startled, Nate questions what he saw, but begins to find more and more evidence that someone--or something--is seriously messing with him. What follows is a new twist around every corner, with Nate finding a lab destroyed, a journey to the bottom of the ocean, an encounter with a dangerous megalomaniac, and a group of friends with a mission to discover why in the world a whale would call to order a pastrami on rye.

Adventure Characteristics¹:

  • Hero goes on adventure to an exotic, unknown, or mysterious place
    • Starts in Hawaii, moves to interior of a whale, moves to cave-city under the ocean
  • Tongue-in-cheek humor
  • Exaggerated, over-the-top style
  • Hero operates under his own strong, moral code
    • Nate wants to study and save the whales, but he also operates with extreme care around his research assistant as he has qualms surrounding romantic relationships
  • Male friendships take emphasis of relationships
    • Nate is employed by Clay Demodocus, who believes in loyalty above all things. When Nate goes missing, Clay will stop at nothing to find him. A friendship also arrives in the form of Kona (né Preston Applebaum of New Jersey), a faux-Rastafarian with the same sense of loyalty.
  • Intensity builds as plot progresses, with potential danger in every scene
    • Several almost-drownings, a destroyed lab, a sabotaged boat, swallowed by a whale, dangerous creatures, a megalomaniacal man who calls himself "The Colonel," potential nuclear threats
  • Quick-paced, with each event coming one right after the next

Read-a-Likes:

Novelist suggests:

The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe

Hot Stuff by Flo Fitzpatrick

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Voyage Along the Horizon by Javier Marías

Saricks suggests²:

George MacDonald Fraser
Arturo Perez-Reverte (Captain Alatriste series)
Wilbur Smith (River God series)


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¹Saricks, J. (2009). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction, 2nd edition. Boston, MA: American Library Association. 16-22.
²Saricks, J. (2009). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction, 2nd edition. Boston, MA: American Library Association.

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 11, 2018 at 11:53 AM

    This sounds like a very interesting book. I have never really read adventure stories that much, unless it has a romance in it. I have been finding characteristics of all the genres we have been going over that appeal to me. This does sound like a book I might try to read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna RicheyFebruary 11, 2018 at 1:07 PM

    This sounds like something I'd enjoy reading. Subjectively - did you like it? Was this the first Christopher Moore book you've read? I've only read one Christopher Moore book (Lamb), and it wasn't my cup of tea. I was surprised because several friends with similar tastes to mine love him. Maybe I should give this one a try!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 11, 2018 at 6:13 PM

      This is not my first Moore. I’ve actually read quite a bit of his work, but this really felt the most...tame? That doesn’t seem like the right word, but it really is less vulgar than some of his other work. That stuff doesn’t really bother me, and I don’t know if that’s something you’re into, but Fluke is really the most gentle way to start out with Moore, I think. That may be due to the characters in Fluke, as they really do have their own moral codes they stick to. Yes, there is still that absurdity that permeates all of Moore’s work, but there’s almost a logical buildup to it in this one.

      Delete
    2. UnknownFebruary 11, 2018 at 6:16 PM

      And yes, I did enjoy it! 😀

      Delete
  3. Erin CataldiFebruary 12, 2018 at 12:32 PM

    Fantastic annotation! Your summary, appeals, and readalikes are spot on! Full points!

    ReplyDelete

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