Island of the Sequined Love Nun

I really like Christopher Moore because he makes me laugh out loud --in novel form instead of typical comedian style. My favorite book of his was Lamb. This book and Fluke weren't as funny as Lamb, but still good. He keeps my interest, I believe, because he is such a unique writer. Where does he come up with this stuff? I generally stick to non-fiction, but every once in awhile, I read a humerous non-fiction and he is a good relief.

From the beginning of this book the characters jump right out at you from the pages. I love Mr. Moore's vivid imagination. Putting down this book was a very hard thing to do, for it kept you captivated. I will read this many many times again. I have borrowed it to my friends and get the same thrilling remarks from them. One of my favorite books so far. I intend to purchase more of Mr. Moore's work. Cannot wait to see what else he has in store for me.

lacking the wit of a Robbins novel. Lacking the charm, the clever writing, the magic, the spirituality, the sex (there was some, but it was quite machinelike), the true quirkiness. The story was, indeed, Robbinsesque. That's where the similarity ends. Sorry Mr. Moore. Good try, but you just didn't put it over.

lacking the wit of a Robbins novel. Lacking the charm, the clever writing, the magic, the spirituality, the sex (there was some, but it was quite machinelike), the true quirkiness. The story was, indeed, Robbinsesque. That's where the similarity ends. Sorry Mr. Moore. Good try, but you just didn't put it over.

Typical Christopher Moore. Very funny with lots of outrageous and unexpected twists and turns. Mr. Moore creates great characters and sends them reeling through fantastic adventures. A very fun read!

A host of exotic characters come together on an isolated island where the natives are worshipping the "love nun." Will keep you entertained. Typical Moore, for those who have read him, but in this novel the underlying premise to all this craziness really exists! It could actually be going on! Read it and find out.

This is the first Chirstopher Moore book I have read. I loved it! How can you go wrong with a book that begins with the main character hanging in a tree waiting to be a cannibal's dinner? It only goes down from there for our hero. I am now reading more of Moore. Very entertaining.

This was a used purchase and was received exactly as described. I love this story so much that the small indications that it has been previously read makes me even happier! everyone should enjoy Christopher Moore :)

The truth is, even though I finished it, I really didn't like it. A friend has recommended this and other titles by Christopher Moore. I found the humor forced and even just silly. I have to compare the writer to Carl Hiaasen. He just isn't as funny or as interesting. Some people love his books, but I'm not one of them.

The author definitely has a warped sense of humor which I appreciate but I cannot say that I am going to order every single book he has written. I do that when I discover a new author that hits the spot.
I will keep his name in my file of "reads" that I pick up at Library Book Sales and second hand shops.
Summer reading for sure.

Christopher Moore is a writer of comic contemporary fantasy, who has combined the narrative voice (and Californian geography) of John Steinbeck and the comic absurdist fantasy of Kurt Vonnegut.

Like other writers, Moore has constructed his own storyverse (or The Verse in TV Tropes lingo), with its focus in California (Moore himself lives in San Francisco) and particularly the sleepy town of Pine Cove. Sleepy that is, until invaded by demons and their weary summoners (Practical Demonkeeping), Godzilla (the fantastically named Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove) or near-miss zombie apocalypses (The Stupidest Angel).

As for which Moore novel is my personal favorite and accordingly takes its place in my top ten, there’s some tight competition – such as the Bloodsucking Fiends vampire love trilogy set in San Francisco or A Dirty Job psychopompic thriller also set in San Francisco (which crosses over with Bloodsucking Fiends).

However, my personal favorite is yet another fantastically named novel, The Island of the Sequined Love Nun. In this novel, Moore steps outside the main Californian venue of his storyverse to the Micronesian island of the title of the Shark People. Protagonist pilot Tucker Case is fleeing the literal and metaphorical debris of an unfortunate incident involving alcohol, sex and a plane crash. Blacklisted as a pilot in the United States and pursued by the goons of Mary Jean Cosmetics for the destruction of their pink plane, he takes the only job opportunity available to him - flying behind a tiny Micronesian island and Japan for "an unscrupulous medical missionary" and "his beautiful but amoral wife". The latter is the eponymous sexy blonde high priestess, impersonating the pinup girl on the sacred Second World War bomber of the island's cargo cult, exploiting the Shark People for a sinister purpose. However, bomber pilot Captain Vincent Bennidetti may be deceased but has also ascended by the power of belief to present-day deity of the Shark People - and he is not about to abandon his flock without some supernatural intervention (and a talking fruit bat named Roberto). That is, when he's not playing poker with his fellow deities - and losing to Jesus…

Island of the Sequined Love Nun is the second stand-alone novel by American author Christopher Moore. When pilot Tucker Case, flying jets for the (very conservative) cosmetic baroness, Mary Jean Dobbins, disgraces himself with a prostitute on one of her pink jets, he finds himself unemployed, infamous and facing possible prosecution. His best friend Jake Skye manages to scuttle him out of the country to accept a job flying for a missionary doctor in Micronesia, but it isn't until he gets to the island of Alualu, via several flights and a journey in a small boat through a typhoon, that he realises he could have been a bit more sceptical of his employment conditions. A Lear 45 to fly, extremely generous pay and conditions: is this Dr Sebastian Curtis for real? When Tuck finds himself a virtual prisoner in a compound with Japanese guards, forbidden from drinking any alcohol, prohibited contact with the island natives, making short hops to Japan and back delivering mysterious cargo, he begins to wonder what is really going on. Finding out isn't easy, though: Dr Curtis and his charismatic wife, Beth, are charming but tight-lipped. This story has a bit of everything: a cargo cult, a typhoon, a ghost, land mines, a cannibal, golf, some neat tricks with jets, a cross-dressing navigator, shark-riding and a talking fruit-bat named Roberto. Tucker imbibes gin, beer and kava; the natives have plenty of kava and betel nut. There is an abundance of humour as well as intrigue, suspense, a daring rescue and a gripping climax. Having read the third novel of the Pine Cove series, The Stupidest Angel, I was interested to know Tucker Case's backstory, and I was not disappointed. Moore's plot is very original and his characters develop well: Tucker starts off as a shallow, alcoholic, sex-obsessed male but ends up a hero. This was a fun read.

Christopher Moore ("Practical Demonkeeping," "Fool," "Bite Me") is the funniest writer cranking out novels today. With all apologies to master satirist Christopher Buckley, Moore's magnificently deranged novels have me laughing harder and re-reading sentences more out of sheer glee than any other writer.

Moore's novels follow a vague chronological sequence that I have failed to follow. And so it is that I have already encountered not-so-intrepid pilot Tucker Case ("a geek in a cool guy's body") and his beloved talking fruitbat Roberto in "The Stupidest Angel." Case looks like a pilot should look, and his twin devotions to women and booze finally catch up to him after he tries to introduce a hooker to the mile-high club. Unfortunately, Case forgot that most of us get into the mile-high club in the plane's bathroom, not the cockpit and definitely not while flying the plane.

The ensuing crash and melee see Case fleeing for a perfectly timed opportunity - a chance to fly missionaries around the South Pacific, with nobody asking pesky questions about flying licenses or damaged bits and pieces. But what seems at first like a golden last chance for a desperate man turns into a bizarre search for justice involving cargo cults, drunken journalists, illegal surgeries, transvestite navigators, plane-worshipping shark-hunting natives, Japanese ninjas, and the sexiest nurse who ever performed in your wildest beta-male fantasies.

Along the way Moore gets to exercise his delightfully insane brand of humor as various cultures clash and the struggle for survival turns literal. Moore writes with surprising sweetness, even in the midst of carnage and death, and it is no surprise when heroes emerge from the most surprising of places.

While this is not my favorite Moore novel (I'm currently partial to the books set in Pine Cove, California) I love this book. Please please please give this guy a read!

If you've read Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, you'll recognise one of the premises of this book: if enough people believe that there's a god, you get a god. For Pratchett, this means that there is a minor goddess for Things That Stick in Drawers. For Christopher Moore, this means that a World War II pilot named Vincent can become a god because the people of a small Micronesian island worship him in their cargo cult. For both Pratchett and Moore, the power of a god is directly proportional to the number of followers that they have.

For all that the book is about Vincent, he's almost an incidental character. Our main character is Tucker, a pilot with a near-terminal case of alcoholism -- not terminal for the damage he's done to his liver, but near-terminal for the decisions he makes while under the influence. His worst decision has him crashing his employer's jet, doing a lot of damage to a very sensitive piece of anatomy, and getting deservedly fired. Through an improbable (but also improbably funny) sequence of events ends up piloting for a doctor on a remote island who claims to be doing missionary work.

On the way to discovering that the doctor isn't all that he claims to be, he meets a cross-dressing navigator and his talking bat, an old cannibal, a people who take on sharks with just their knives and win, and the love nun of the title. The story is even one of redemption: Tucker figures out what's happening on the island, saves the day, and finds out that he was doing god's (or at least Vincent's) work all along.

I really enjoyed every page of the book. I've read some of Moore's other books, and liked Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal better, but would still recommend this one.

Its a lot of fun reading a Christopher Moore book, his stories are lurid and dreamlike, where anything can happen. This one especially. Fantastically written with real atmospheric surroundings; the tropical setting, coral reefs, and a map of Alualu itself contained within.

Tucker Case is a pilot working for a major cosmetics company. Case is a cool guy, but it doesn't show, his life is a series of mess-ups and disasters. So when he decides to get drunk with a hooker, they have a little leisure flight. While fooling around on the console and silly drunk - Case crashes the jet, thus is fired.
Then things get strange. He receives a letter by a Dr. Sebastion, to work for him, in secret, as a pilot on the island of Alualu. So he decides to take the trip, mysterious as it is.
So here's a little breakdown - Becomes friends with a transvestite named Kimi, her pet fruit-bat Roberto (who can talk of course), braving a typhoon on a rowboat, being possibly eaten by the island cannibal, Sarapal; the goddess, "The Sky Priestess", a god of the island tribe?, uzi toting ninjas, shark surfing, sex, mystery and intrigue and even a little gravel golf. All in wonderful comedic Moore fashion. Addicting and unpredictable with every page; twisted, hilarious and a lot of fun.

"IOTSLN" was published in 1997.

Some books have nice generic titles. For example, I recently read a book by Ridley Pearson called Cut and Run. An the store search shows that there are several other books with the same title. On the other hand, I doubt there will ever be another book called Island of the Sequined Love Nun.

Christopher Moore's tropical adventure follows Tucker Case, hard-partying pilot whose job as the private pilot for a cosmetics company comes to a sudden end with an incident that involves alcohol, a prostitute and a crash that leaves Tucker with an unpleasant (but fortunately, not permanent) injury and a need to leave the country.

An opportunity is presented to him by Sebastian and Beth Curtis who operate a medical clinic on an isolated Micronesian island called Alualu. Based on the money they are offering (a lot), the plane he'll be flying (a Lear jet) and his own bad reputation, Tucker is pretty sure that something shady is going on (most likely drug smuggling) but he doesn't have many other choices. The people of Alualu, known as the Shark People, have developed a cult around Vincent, a pilot who visited the island during World War II, and the Sky Priestess, the beautiful woman painted on Vincent's plane. The Curtises have exploited this cult with Beth taking on the role of the Sky Priestess and delivering the word of Vincent to the tribe. As a result, they do pretty much whatever she wishes.

It isn't drugs, but Beth and Sebastian do have a scheme that involves big bucks. Tucker gets to Alualu after some misadventures and becomes entangled in their plot. Tucker, whose life story reads something like Hamlet (quite literally), also has something of the Danish Prince's reputation for indecision and hesitancy, a habit he needs to break to either embrace the Curtises' evil plan or fight it. Along the way, he'll acquire some interesting allies, including a male prostitute, a fruit bat and the ghost of Vincent himself.

This is an off-beat Christopher Moore novel; actually all his novels are off-beat, but this one is a departure from his other works. The tropical island setting and the much smaller role of the supernatural make this a change of pace from the other Moore novels I've read (Bloodsucking Fiends, Practical Demonkeeping and Coyote Blue); it does however have his standard eccentric characters and effective humor. Overall, this is another fun, fast read in the Moore canon.

The first two Christopher Moore books I read I thought were funny as hell. Witty well written and just wonderful. Now the last three have been rather mundane. Yes they have their humorous parts but I just haven’t felt that pull that I felt with ‘The Stupidest Angel’ and ‘A Dirty Job’ which I found hilarious from start to finish. Maybe it’s the characters but I feel like there is just something missing. I didn’t find ‘Sequined’ bad but I also didn’t find it that great either.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun is the wacky, entertaining tale of Tucker Case, a "hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy's body." On the run from his former employer's goons (he crashed the company jet while having sex with a hooker in the cockpit), he ends up as a pilot for a missionary on a small Micronesian island where all is not what it seems.

The best part of Island is the characters. They're delightfully crazy and include a cross-dressing navigator, a talking bat, an old cannibal who isn't allowed to eat humans anymore, and a tribe of native Micronesians that is obsessed with People magazine. They're all quirky and fun to read about and though most of them don't have too much depth, it's not really needed. They're caricatures and wonderful ones. That's all that they need to be for this story.

The best parts of the story are those that feature one or a few of the characters doing things that are only minimally related to the actual plot of the book. The little peaks into their lives enhanced the caricatures, gave a small peak into their motivations, and provided a lot of amusement for the reader. After all, where else can you find a High Priestess of a small island tribe who is obsessed with shoes and soap operas and isn't even a member of the tribe?

The plot of Island of the Sequined Love Nun is extremely far fetched and full of holes, but it somehow works. It's almost like those things that are so ridiculous that they have to be true...because nobody would actually make something like that up. This is so ridiculous that it's easy to suspend disbelief and just enjoy it. Nothing really fits, but when it's put together it somehow makes a coherent whole, one that's enjoyable in its own crazy way.

Really, the only way to describe Island of the Sequined Love Nun is that it's just crazy. It shouldn't' work, but it does, thanks to Moore's talent at pulling together stories that are as strange and amusing as his titles. Jibes and jokes abound in the story as Moore pokes fun at just about everything he can. Some are obvious, some are subtle and no reader will catch them all, but there are enough to keep almost anyone amused all the way through the book.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun is not great literature, but it is highly entertaining and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a few chuckles. Nothing was really laugh-out-loud funny, but the majority of the book was highly amusing and entertaining. Anyone who likes out-there humor will likely enjoy this book very much.

Christopher Moore is simply one of the most inventive and funny writers around. He doesn't take his books "seriously" a la the very funny Kurt Vonnegut. They are feel good novels, and they are WACKY!!! ISLAND OF THE SEQUINED LOVE NUN is one of his better ones, because the main characters are particularly loveably painted for us. Tucker Case, our main character, is a ne'er do well pilot for a Mary Kay kinda corporation, who ruins his career when he takes a girl on the company jet and causes a serious accident. He gets a chance to elude prosecution when he's hired by a mysterious missionary organization to fly their jet from an obscure Micronesian Island to Japan for "medical supplies" for the natives.
I'd really rather not try to summarize more of the plot, because virtually every chapter introduced a new twist or engaging character, and there are A LOT of chapters. The book flies by as Case and his supporting cast go from one dilemna to another.
And as often happens in Moore's books, there are relationships of either love or friendship that develop unexpectedly during the story, and suddenly, we find ourselves not only laughing outloud at the silly antics and outrageous plot turns, but we are caring about the main characters. This is rare in writing that is so flip and over-the-top.
Moore's books are fast-moving and you're sorry when they are over. LOVE NUN is particularly winning, and if you haven't tried Moore before, this is a good place to dive in. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (not for kids...lots of language and some naughty goings-on.)

This book was released several years ago and is a typical Chris Moore novel filled with zany characters. It tells an excellent story. The hero of the book, Tucker Case, is a small plane pilot who takes off in a Learjet while drunk. He flies all right, but his landing wrecks the plane and him. Disgraced, jobless and broke, he accepts a strange job offer to fly for a missionary doctor on a tiny island in the South Pacific, but he misses his connecting boat to the island from Truk. A transvestite native named Kimi agrees to take him across hundreds of miles of ocean in a open boat. Kimi is accompanied by a fruit bat called Roberto. THe bat wears a variety of stylish sunglasses to keep the sun of his eyes and occasional talks.
When they finally reach the island, they are captured by the island's last remaining cannibal and things rapidly go downhill after that. The missionary doctor and his beautiful wife/nurse run a nefarious business and are guarded by a half-dozen Japanese thugs armed with Uzi's.
I won't give away the plot, because it's a good one with many twists and surprises. After the first few chapters, the humor dies away, but by then the reader is immersed in the plot and the characters.
An enjoyable story: four stars

Tales From Gundarland: Eight humorous stories from the land of the incongruous

This is another boonie dog book review by Wolfie and Kansas. We are reviewing Christopher Moore's "Island of the Sequined Love Nun" from a regional perspective, rather than our usual canine perspective, even though the book contains one vignette portraying the suffering of our boonie brethren on Chuuk.
We began this book with the preconception that we would be offended by a stereotypical story of supposedly ignorant "natives" who need to be rescued by a heroic haole (or "repsech", since most of the action takes place on a Yap outer island.) We were happy to find that this novel satirizes the genre as much as it adheres to it. While Mr. Moore took a lot of artistic license, as he acknowledges in an afterword, the reader will nonetheless gain more insights into Chuuk, Yap and travel on the Micro Spirit than one would get from a typical travelogue.
Moore's fictional island of Alualu is a hodgepodge. The map of Alualu looks a good deal like Falalop, Ulithi, although Alualu is an isolated single island like Satawal. The mixed Yapese/outer island culture may be based on Ngulu. The Alualuans have a Faisian appetite for shark, a Pohnpeian thirst for sakau (kava), and a Melanesian cargo cult. Moore fully develops the characters of several of the Alualuans, and gives a plausible explanation for their susceptability to a cargo cult. Our willing suspension of disbelief was strained only by one premise. One reason given for the islander's gullibility as to one scam was their supposed ignorance of internal human anatomy. The Alualuans were stated to be only a generation removed from cannabalism, with at least one ex-cannibal still living. Micronesians have a tradition of oral history, and they enjoy talking about food. Surely the Alualuans would have more knowledge of human anatomy than average Americans.
Nitpicking aside, "Island of the Sequined Love Nun" is a rollicking, funny yet suspenseful tale that should please all readers. It is a special treat for any but the most politically correct readers out here in the Western Pacific. In the languages of various characters in the novel, with apologies if we are not up to date on the latest orthographies, we can only say, "Christopher Moore, ho sa hachegcheg, kamaagar, kiniso chapur, and salamat."

This was our second Moore book, following "Fluke" which had left us curious for more. We both enjoyed the fun and unexpected situations and we both laughed out loud many times. There were times where I felt bored - like ok, move on... And like Fluke, I felt like parts of the end were too rushed/not as well developed to really feel connected to the characters and story.

We enjoyed the character development and the conversations between characters. Loved the fruit bat - wished for more Roberto. I'm not going to read everything Moore has written but will pick up some others when I'm in need of another fun and odd read.

Also, Kindle edition has many issues but generally I'm able to read right past most of them.

In Seattle, Meadow Malackovitch asks Tick Case to help her become a member of the Mile High Club. Being a bit drunk while having a bit of action in the air, Tucker "Tuck" Case crashes his company's pink plane, landing in the weekly tabloids. Wheeled away to the hospital with damage to his penis, his buddy figures that God takes care of fools and drunks, of which Tuck is both. However, he loses his divine luck as he faces the wrath of his employer, Mary Jean Dobbins for thinking with the wrong head and the loss of his aviator's license.
Fleeing to the Pacific Ring, Tuck accepts a job with a missionary, Dr. Curtis flying medical supplies to an isolated Micronesia island. He makes new friends with a transvestite and a fruit bat, but unwittingly (the norm for Tuck), he is the runner in a lucrative organ transport business.
Renowned for his amusing yet ascorbic satires, Christopher Moore returns to his fertile grounds to provide the audience with a wild ironic look at the action thriller. The story line is two parts of humor and two parts of action, which add to the irreverent glimpse at a world gone crazy, Mr. Moore simply eradicates everything sacred under the western sun. Though somewhat stereotyped in characterization and not quite as wild as expected from the king of weird, the plot entertains those readers who enjoy a tale to the extreme of the absurd.

...

If you're already a Christopher Moore fan, you know what to expect: a cast of quirky characters, snappy (and often sarcastic) dialogue, and a slightly macabre Tim Robbins-ish love story. If you like his other stuff, this book will not disappoint.

If you're new to Moore, you should probably understand that his works all have a slightly surreal feel to them, and a small dose of suspension of disbelief is required. His works are best described as dark comedies, and the humor may not be to everyone's taste. I love him, but I can also see why other people wouldn't.

Either way, this book is not for the squeamish due to an image early on.

Although I really liked IOTSLN as a whole, I did find it required a higher 'suspension of disbelief' than normal... and I'm not even talking about it having a talking fruit bat aspect. The ending felt fairly contrived, and if you have a low tolerance for such things, you will probably be put off. It's necessary for this to have a happy ending (and for the main character's redemption,) so some of the improbabilities that pop up in the last 50 or so pages I'm willing to overlook.

If you're fairly tolerant, and looking for a good chuckle, give it a go.