Steve is a primordial dragon-creature risen from the depths of the ocean by nuclear reactor leakage who calls his supper to him by using ESP to make them feel great.
Ken suggested I try out Steve’s story, another book by Christopher Moore. This story is a bit more smooth than Fluke. You can still feel the author’s familiarity with biology in his writing. I wonder if he has studied in that field. I digress.
There are many characters in the story besides Steve. Theo is the Cove’s constable, who is in the pocket of the local sheriff due to his affinity to marijuana. Molly is an ex-post-apocalypse movie star who partly thinks she’s Kendra of the Outland. Val is the treating local psychologist, who is having a moral dilemma over her blanket treatment of patients with pharmaceuticals. There’s Catfish, a blues man who is on the run from Steve, and a biologist named Gabe (and his intelligent but overlooked dog) who is running to find out why all of his rats have suddenly run away from the water.
There are also a lot of religious folks who get eaten.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the story is about without giving a lot away. Basically, a woman kills herself, leading Val to replace all of the town’s medication with placebos. When everyone starts to go bonkers, Steve crawls up out of the water and starts eating them. Steve’s psychic powers seem to affect everyone in town, making them all a bit friskier than usual. Things happen. Man and lizard get it on. Entertainment ensues.
Nana read the first 40 or so pages of this book and decided it wasn’t for her. Considering that there is a character who fantasizes about having sex with dolphins, I don’t find that surprising.
As I mentioned earlier, this book is a bit more smooth than Fluke. Moore presents a good story with an even, comical tone. This one has an actual climax, where Fluke kind of just ended without really bringing things to a boil first.
I can definitely see how some of these characters might move on in other books. I wonder if there is a chronology - which book happens first.
I suppose I should pick up Practical Demonkeeping next, since that one seems most likely to become a movie, and I should love to say, “I read that book before it was a major motion picture that was nothing like the book.”
For the trip over the weekend, I arranged to get the unabridged audio book of A Dirty Job, Moore’s latest book, and also another Pine Cove book, The Stupidest Angel. Hopefully they will also be as enjoyable for our 10-hour (total) ride.
