Coyote Blue review

by Christopher Moore

Samuel Hunter started life as Samson Hunts Alone, a full-blooded Crow living on a reservation in Montana. At 15 he killed a cop and ran away, changing his name and living a completely new life.

But when he was younger, on a vision quest for a spirit helper Old Man Coyote came to him, just like he came to Samson's uncle Pokey Medicine Wing. Coyote was quiet for 20 years while Sam worked his way up to become a very successful salesman, and not surprisingly using a bit of trickery to gain that success.

One day Coyote shows up, completely screws up Sam's life while insisting that he's "helping". Thanks to Coyote, Sam meets a beautiful young woman (who happens to have a son by a rather disreputable biker), gets his townhouse forcibly taken from him by the homeowner's association, and nearly loses his partnership in the sales company. Much like in the classic Coyote-tales, everything Coyote does ends up causing problems. Coyote also helps Sam get things back in order. We find that even though Coyote's earlier "help" caused problems, those problems were a necessary step in a transition to a better life for Sam.

This may be the best book I've read so far from Moore. He has a knack for creating interesting, believable characters in just a few sentences. It works well with Sam, the girl he meets (Calliope), and many others. The best character in the book is, of course, Old Man Coyote. Moore did a wonderful job with the character - throwing the character into the modern world after having been away for far too long. Coyote is sometimes amazed at the modern world, and sometimes disdainful. He seems to love the technology and all of the tricks one could play using it.


/ [Viking]

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