Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Fantastic Imagination...
In this fantastic debut, Moore creates a group of hilarious characters, including the unlikely duo Travis and Catch. Travis is a svelte looking 100-year-old man and Catch is his invisible demon companion who can only be seen by others when he is eating. When the two arrive in the seaside town of Pine Cove, a local man known as The Breeze becomes Catch's first meal. Moore introduces you to the other bizarre inhabitants of Pine Cove who all become involved in trying to take control of Catch or send him back to the Netherworld. The only thing you know for sure is that none of their lives will ever be the same. Christopher Moore has secured his place among my favorite authors and I cannot wait to read more of his zany adventures.
Rating:  - A Treat of a Tale Told with Impish Glee
Every year around Hallowe'en, I look for a book that deals with the darker side of occult phenomena. This year, I didn't want to give myself a major case of the creeps...but I still wanted something which touched on that area.'Practical Demonkeeping' was just the book for me. The story deals primarily with Catch -- the demon -- and Travis -- Catch's deceptively young keeper. Catch and Travis -- in the midst of an interesting love-hate relationship (Travis hates Catch and Catch loves to be hated) -- arrive in the tourist town of Pine Cove where significant mayhem ensues! It is all related in an enjoyable manner. And the various occupants of the town are portrayed deftly without mean-spiritedness. The author, Christopher Moore writes with the same type of wit which admirers of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins will appreciate. And, this novel -- his debut -- is admirable for giving us a wide variety of characters, dealing humorously with their particular quirks, and engineering a clever plot in which their paths cross. Although the ending seems a bit rushed, I enjoyed just about every aspect of this novel. I won't give anything away. But, in the novel's last chapters, I would have enjoyed a more complete depiction of the characters' reactions. Not because I expect every detail to be spelled out...but because so many unique, interesting and amusing characters are involved at this point. It would have required significant authorial skill to relate all of that without bogging down the narrative but I think Moore could have managed it. Without being macabre or morbid, this novel gives plenty of surprises. There are a few scenes which provoke a squirm or two but Moore never indulges in excessive depictions of violence or gore. This kind of book works by keeping us intrigued about what will happen next -- not by dragging us deep down into depictions of cruelty and savageness.
Rating: - Fun and twisted read
This book was a delight to read. It took me about 60 pages to really start getting into it and the characters. There are a lot of characters in this book and they are all well developed. Christopher Moore is great at weaving a story together from other characters points of view. His twisted sense of humor was very entertaining. If you like the sort of sci fi mystery that doesn't quiet take everything so seriously, you will love this book.
|
