Tag: Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic

Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic

by Terry Jones (Pan, 1997)

audiobook read by Bill Nighy (Pan, 2023)

Book cover: “Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic” by Terry Jones (Pan, 1997); audiobook read by Bill Nighy (Pan, 2023)

Given only a three-week deadline, Jones produced a passable Adams pastiche. Starship Titanic has its moments but more often serves to highlight, through laboured contrast, the finesses that Adams himself sweated blood over in pulling off his particular brand of freewheeling facetiousness.

Doctor Who: The Doomsday Contract

Doctor Who: The Doomsday Contract

by John Lloyd; adapted by Nev Fountain (Big Finish, 2021)

Release cover: Doctor Who - The Doomsday Contract by John Lloyd; adapted by Nev Fountain

Originally commissioned during Douglas Adams’ tenure as script editor, The Doomsday Contract exhibits a Hitchhiker’s tonality but without quite the same zest. Tom Baker gives it some welly but the denunciation of bureaucracy via reductio ad absurdum seems a bit old hat.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

by Douglas Adams (Heinemann, 1987)

Adams_Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Rushed ending aside, this is a consummate piece of genre creation. Adams crafts a supernatural SF detective story with gorgeous (often subtle) pieces of interconnectedness, Doctor Who rehash and zany bits of faux-throwaway, all brought together by the late-appearing protagonist. Improbably brilliant.

 

 

Last Chance to See…

Last Chance to See…

by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine (Guild, 1990)

Adams_Last Chance to See

In many respects this is Douglas Adams’ best book. Being non-fiction, the plot is taken care of, and Adams’ observational wit offsets the grave subject matter. What results is a humorous travelogue and rallying cry, at once poignant, profound, cautionary and hopeful.

 

 

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 1988); audiobook read by Douglas Adams (Phoenix, 2015)

Adams_Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

The story, when looked back upon at book’s end, turns out to have been the flimsiest of nonsense. Dirk actually does very little. But this only serves to emphasise the deft, droll, audacious touch of Adams’ whimsy, and the lure of interconnectedness.

 

 

The Salmon of Doubt

The Salmon of Doubt

by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 2002); audiobook read by Simon Jones (Phoenix, 2005)

Adams_Salmon of Doubt

A patchy, posthumous collection of Adams writings (predominantly non-fiction) exemplifying his off-beat, self-indulgent style, his knack for pinning down human absurdities, and his incurable technophilia and recycling of ideas and anecdotes. Most tantalising for fans is the nascent unfinished Dirk Gently novel(la).

 

 

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

by Douglas Adams (Pan, 1984); audiobook read by Martin Freeman (Macmillan, 2012)

Adams_So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

The ideas, as ever, are ingenious, and Adams is at the top of his game in reuniting Arthur Dent with the erstwhile-destroyed Planet Earth. The story, however, such as it is, hitchhikes half-heartedly while secretly yearning to become a Dirk Gently novel.

 

 

I Was Douglas Adams’s Flatmate

I Was Douglas Adams’s Flatmate, and Other Encounters with Legends

by Andrew McGibbon (Faber and Faber, 2011)

McGibbon_I Was Douglas Adams's Flatmate

With the exception of the title piece, this collection of reminiscences focusses far more on the people making them than on the legends in question. It’s an interesting enough hodgepodge but reads rather like a single good idea released as an album.