Fluke Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

Everybody knows that humpback whales sing . . . but no one knows why.  So every winter, Nathan Quinn and his partner in the Maui Whale Research Foundation ply the warm waters off Hawaii in search of an answer to this burning question. Lately, though, Nate's beginning to wonder if he's spent just a little too much time in the sun. Either that, or he's losing his mind. For just as he snapped a photo of a humpback tail fluke, he could've sworn he saw the words "Bite Me" scrawled across the whale's tail . . .

So begins a rollicking adventure involving an age-old conspiracy, top-level military secrets, a highly evolved super race with a penchant for baked goods, the source of all life on the planet, a very bizarre long-distance love affair, and a megalomaniac undersea ruler thrown in for good measure.  Told in the signature Moore style -- surprising, smart, informative, and deeply funny -- FLUKE is Christopher Moore at his outrageously original best.

The first reviews are in, and they're great:

Check out Fluke in the New York Times

From Publishers Weekly
From Jonah to Pinocchio, men have dreamed of stowing away alive in the bellies of whales. Nate Quinn experiences this doubtful honor in Moore's outrageous new novel (after Lamb). Nate studies whales, operating a small research unit in Lahaina in Maui along with Clay Demodocus, a famous undersea photographer, and two seasonal hires: Amy Earheart, supposedly a grad student from Woods Hole Institute, and Kona, a dreadlocked Hawaiian stoner. When Nate spots a humpback whale with "Bite Me" tattooed on a tail fluke, mysterious disasters start to strike. Then Nate, out with Amy, is swallowed by the tattooed humpback. Technically, this is impossible, nature having created narrow throats for humpback whales, but the tattooed one is a living ship, a simulacrum of a humpback run by a crew of humans and "whaley boys"-human/ whale cross breeds. Nate learns that they were designed by the Goo. (The Goo is a giant, intelligent organism that evolved undersea billions of years ago and has lately been spying on humans with fleets of false whales.) The whale ships dock in Gooville, an underwater city populated by supposedly drowned humans and horny whaley boys on shore leave. The place is run by the "Colonel," Nate's old teacher, "Growl" Ryder. Nate runs into Amy and helps foil the Colonel's mad plan to destroy the Goo. Meanwhile, Clay and Kona plan to come to Nate's rescue. Moore is endlessly inventive in his description of the rubbery, watery world of Goo, and his characters are perfectly calibrated, part credible human beings and part clever caricatures. This cetacean picaresque is no fluke-it is a sure winner.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
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.....
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From BookPage
“It is difficult to put the book down, for there are astonishing new developments on every page.”

Read Chapter 1

Order Fluke

FAMILY ALBUM: The Making of Fluke