Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (Heinemann, 1987) 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.
Tag Archive for Douglas Adams
Last Chance to See…
Last Chance to See… by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine (Guild, 1990) 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.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Season 1
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Season 1 (2016) Very much ‘inspired by’ rather than ‘based on’, this BBC American adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently books takes a simple outlandish idea and builds strangeness upon strangeness. As per Adams, the plot is essentially meaningless but brilliantly funny in the unfolding.
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) 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…
The Salmon of Doubt
The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 2002); audiobook read by Simon Jones (Phoenix, 2005) 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) 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…
I Was Douglas Adams’s Flatmate
I Was Douglas Adams’s Flatmate, and Other Encounters with Legends by Andrew McGibbon (Faber and Faber, 2011) 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. …
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Hexagonal Phase
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Hexagonal Phase by Eoin Colfer; adapted by Dirk Maggs (BBC, 2018) Colfer’s contribution to Hitchhiker’s probably works better in adaptation—as a continuation of the seminal radio series—than as a novel. Forty years on, the original actors have returned to their recording booths and sound ever-young, still invested in Adams’ cosmic zaniness.
Mostly Harmless
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 1992); audiobook read by Martin Freeman (Bolinda, 2006) An ingeniously plotted novel—by far the most coherent of the Hitchhiker’s books—and one in which Adams at last paid attention to characterisation; but the effect is spoiled somewhat by an incongruous (if by then expected) jokiness in the prose style.
Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen
Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen by Douglas Adams & James Goss (BBC Books, 2018) Goss takes delight in adding a fourth book to Douglas Adams’ trilogy of Doctor Who stories, channelling the unfocussed wit of ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ (Adams’ version), diligently but to the detriment of the Doctor Who tale that could have been.