This book seemed to have such promise. It sounded very “Christopher Moore” from the description. The reviews were excellent and declared it as the funniest book…. I suppose that should be a warning. Or maybe its me perhaps if I were a stone male college student who hadn’t yet read Christopher Moore novesl, I would liked it.
So it started out OK but seemed to go downhill quickly with some side plots that just got in the way . The premise is this: our hero Cormac is a college student with a true idiot for a roommate – Vance. Vance’s goal in life appears to be creating something called the “stadium couch” (didnt’ they do this in the Lego Movie?).
At any rate Cormac has this problem that when he falls asleep, he wakes up ….on a 19th century Whaler. A Whaling ship. Populated by a captain and his crew who seem to speak very much in the modern day vernacular. Which is a bit odd. So Cormac pops in and out of that reality when he sleeps. When he wakes up, he is back in his apartment with his wacky roommate. This could have been ok, but then they added the character of “Dean Bickerstaff” who is on the outs with the university Board for his inability to maintain the high standards expected. The dean is a very annoying character with a “shillelagh” that he likes to use on people who don’t agree with him. Long story short, he and Vance team up and attempt to use Cormac’s odd situation to gain advantage for the Dean.
Hijinks ensue. More hijinks on the Whaler ensue involving pirates, storms, ex wives, slaves, ex slaves, whale penises and chinese gold shenanigans. I kind of started to speed read. Was really hoping for more and was disappointed.