Christopher Moore, the bestselling author of Lamb, now brings us his own take on Shakespeare's King Lear in Fool.

This story is set in King Lear's England, and is about an orphan named Pocket (thanks to him being so little that he could fit in the nun's pocket). Pocket grows up in a nunnery, and due to some sinful acts, becomes a Fool for the great King Lear. He will eventually, thanks to a ghost (there's always a bloody ghost), become something more than just a Fool. Almost at every turn there is a new surprise that slowly unlocks the story of Pocket and his heritage.

This book was well written, and has me wanting to read more Moore. Pocket is truly a character that you won't ever forget. His wit, and smart ass comments will make you wish that you could say the same things just as freely. Drool is a lovable sidekick to Pocket who'll warm your heart. And Cordelia is a powerful force to be dealt with. By the end of the book, you will be at war with yourself on whether or not Lear deserved what he got. And lastly, there is Kent, a very close friend to Lear. Kent goes through hell to keep his friend, King Lear, protected. Even after Lear is something less than a friend.

The other characters in this book are: King Lear's other two more evil daughters, Goneril, and Regan. Edmund (a real bastard), The Anchoress, and of course, the three witches.

You do not need to know of the original Shakespeare's King Lear to get into this. Anyone who likes a bit of humor, intrigue, and just a bit of gruesome eye plucking will love this book.

Beginning

Started out eerily enough. Man spies another man out in the front yard with a rifle, what else is there to do but go chase him through the woods in the middle of the night? I think it's needless to say that the man doing the chasing (DV) ends up dying, but not in the way you would have guessed it. Now his assistant (Lucy) has to fly over to Italy and start the process of going through the dead man's belongings.

Middle

*Sigh* With over forty pages of the main character being ill and lying in bed, it's enough to make you want to hurl, hurl the damn book across the room. Really, it's nothing more than endless chapters filled with the phrases "and she awoke" and "she still didn't feel well", oh and "just when she thought her stomach could hold the liquid down". Give me a break.

Finally when Lucy does feel well she immediately starts a fling with a married Italian (Massimo - who will now be known as Mass) who has been caring for her. Now the reader is meant with the challenge of figuring out if she is in love with him, or is really just having a good old romp in the hay. Good luck figuring it out though, because in one paragraph she is watching his every move, acting on every word he says; and in the next chapter she is commenting on how she will leave him soon to return home.

At this point you will also start noting sudden jumps in the story. In one chapter, Lucy and Mass are eating dinner with the local family and suddenly out of nowhere Lucy is reading the next few pages in DV manuscript. Hopefully the end will be better.

End

And it wasn't. I wish Martin would have chose a side. Is this going to be a Gothic Mystery, or a Romance? Or a unique blend of both, which is certainly doable, but Martin failed to do it. It remained a Romance with barely a hint of what the book started off as, and continued right up until the last 40 pages, where it clicked back into Mystery mode and although these last pages were written beautifully, with enough suspense that it literally gave me goosebumps, it was still too little too late.

Linkage

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Lamb is a story about the first 30 years of Jesus's life, told by his best friend Biff (aka Levi). It is a beautifully written story that I'm really upset to be finished with. I honestly debated about reading the book again for the second time after just having finished it.

Biff is brought back from the dead to write another gospel, so the book is interlaced mostly with the story of his time and travels with Jesus, but also with his time with an angel in the present. Some of this time with Jesus includes travels towards the east looking for the three wise men who visited Jesus on the day of his birth.

Biff is an incredible character whose voice is hard to erase from your head. And Jesus is of course what should be expected, but add a smart ass best friend who will help bring some lightness to his character.

Let me state that you do not to be Christian or even have a religion in order to read this book, although if you know some of the bible, you'll begin to recognize bits of it towards the end. Of course this story has little to no truth in it, but I think everyone could get something out of it.

I just may become one of those crazy fangirls now ;-)

Linkage

My take:

It was a little slow to get into, but in the end it was worth finishing. The Egyptologist is among one of my favorites. There was so much description that it was hard not to imagine the scenery unfolding.

Book Description:
Suze Wilding and Lloyd Rockwell are complete strangers. She lives in London; he lives in New York. But when their advertising firm sponsors a job swap, having them trade apartments and jobs for the summer, they find themselves living each other’s lives.

From the beginning, these two seem polar opposites—Suze is impetuous, brash, and commitment phobic, whereas Lloyd, cautious and thoughtful, is looking to settle down with his suitable girlfriend. But when Suze discovers a plot at work to get Lloyd fired, the two begin communicating long-distance, and can’t help wondering if they might just be perfect for one another.

My take:

This book was horrible at first, I forced my way through it. It does pick up, but it's mediocre at best.