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82nd out of 1,868 books
—
3,698 voters
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Dirk Gently #2)
A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.
Paperback, 307 pages
Published
February 15th 1991
by Pocket Books
(first published 1988)
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Aug 12, 2007
John Wiswell
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fantasy readers, sci fi readers, theology readers, humor readers
Adams' bizarre book is more of an adventure than a mystery, and more of a picaresque than an adventure. It's true, this plot wanders and is flimsy at times, but Adams always makes up for it with clever insights and hilarious jokes. Minor events mushroom at the end to unexpected relevance, a very bold literary move that would be a sign of laziness if these moves didn't work and we didn't recognize Adams' competence as a writer from the execution of his humor throughout. Fantasy readers and Adams'...more
Sep 17, 2012
Kaethe
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
humor,
mystery,
strong-smart-female-protagonist,
fiction,
beloved,
adventure,
contemporary,
demons,
fantasy,
gods,
mental-illness,
mythology,
uk
1988 Jan 1
The travails of trying to order a pizza, Valhalla in London, and unexpected encounters with Thor. I loved it.
***
Tash talked me into watching Thor, which I enjoyed enormously. And it reminded me of Adams' Thor, committing an Act of (a) God, when he can't catch a flight to Oslo. More than thirty years later air travel has only become more annoying.
It's still fantastically funny, but I'm aware of a sadness to it that I didn't notice on previous readings. The heroine is a widow, the gods a...more
The travails of trying to order a pizza, Valhalla in London, and unexpected encounters with Thor. I loved it.
***
Tash talked me into watching Thor, which I enjoyed enormously. And it reminded me of Adams' Thor, committing an Act of (a) God, when he can't catch a flight to Oslo. More than thirty years later air travel has only become more annoying.
It's still fantastically funny, but I'm aware of a sadness to it that I didn't notice on previous readings. The heroine is a widow, the gods a...more
view all 7 comments
Unlike his “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series (a collection of humorous vignettes without much of a plot, continuity, or character development), Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently series (two novels and some sketches for a third one, included in the “Salmon of Doubt”) is in fact literature of the first degree. In the second novel, “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul,” Dirk Gently, a private “holistic” investigator (an eccentric slob, perpetually broke, capricious, silly, and wonderfully insightfu...more
Lots of hilarious moments, though the pacing's not quite up to the level set in the first Dirk Gently book. The ending especially feels rushed - he spends a long time building up this fantastic web of complexity, and then rips it down with a climax and ending that together are barely longer than "But it all worked out okay in the end."
But, as a math student working through too many proofs right now, I really love Dirk's way of thinking! ...especially his reversal of Sherlock-Holmes-style logic:
"...more
But, as a math student working through too many proofs right now, I really love Dirk's way of thinking! ...especially his reversal of Sherlock-Holmes-style logic:
"...more
Sep 14, 2007
Tracey
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those who like their alternative universes well-leavened with humour
Continuing in my Douglas Adams re-read, I checked out Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul from the library, as I seem to have misplaced my copy.
The story opens with Kate Schechter attempting to catch a flight to Oslo, even though Fate seems to be conspiring against her. An explosion, deemed an "act of God" confounds her plans. She becomes involved in the events around whom the god involved in the aforementioned act are developing.
Meanwhile, Dirk Gently, holistic detective, remembers that he has a c...more
The story opens with Kate Schechter attempting to catch a flight to Oslo, even though Fate seems to be conspiring against her. An explosion, deemed an "act of God" confounds her plans. She becomes involved in the events around whom the god involved in the aforementioned act are developing.
Meanwhile, Dirk Gently, holistic detective, remembers that he has a c...more
Jun 30, 2007
Jon
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Douglas Adams fans
Unfortunately, Adams' sequel to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency isn't as tightly-written as its predecessor. On the sentence level, Adams is still writing furiously funny jokes, but The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul ends up feeling like first-class humor wrapped loosely around second-class plot and characters. Adams has been accused of writing punchlines rather than plots, and it shows in this book perhaps more so than anywhere else. I also thought the book's flow suffered greatly in p...more
Once again, rather than attempt to describe the latest of holistic detective Dirk Gently's adventures, I will instead present a selection of completely random quotes from the book. They really have nothing to do with each other, but I like them.
"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression 'As pretty as an airport.'
Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness ari...more
"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression 'As pretty as an airport.'
Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness ari...more
When a passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, shot up through the roof engulfed in a ball of orange flame the usual people tried to claim responsibility. First the IRA, then the PLO and the Gas Board. Even British Nuclear Fuels rushed out a statement to the effect that the situation was completely under control, that it was a one in a million chance, that there was hardly any radioactive leakage at all and that the site of the explosion would make a nice location for a day ou
...more
It's not often that a standalone novel spawns a sequel that is actually better than the first, but that is what Adams achieved with this second Dirk Gently novel.
'Teatime' is, to me, an improvement on the first book in two particular ways:
1. The character interaction is stepped up to the point where every encounter and conversation makes me belly laugh until I hurt.
2. The plot is tighter and less rambling than the first. While that was a strength of Dirk Gently 1, it would have been too much to...more
'Teatime' is, to me, an improvement on the first book in two particular ways:
1. The character interaction is stepped up to the point where every encounter and conversation makes me belly laugh until I hurt.
2. The plot is tighter and less rambling than the first. While that was a strength of Dirk Gently 1, it would have been too much to...more
I've got to admit that, while the Hitchhiker books were fantastic for me as a youngster, they didn't stand up so well and I didn't really have the urge to re-read them. Perhaps it's because I was nearly obsessed upon my initial discovery and immersed myself in the bizarre worlds and antics of the characters so much that I "burned out", or perhaps, and this seems more likely to me, science fiction comedy is ultimately not really my style. Yes, I'm a fairly big SF fan, but I've always felt that un...more
Dirk Gently's second adventure begins when he wakes up late and begins wishing he had a client. Then he remembers he did, only he had angreed to to meet him several hours before. So starts a great example of Douglas Adams writing, and also a quest which leads from an airport (at the recieption desk to Oslo), to the Woodshed Mental Hospital, and into a world that exists beyond ours.
This is a great example of writing, easily recognisable as the work of Douglas Adams. It contains all the absured me...more
This is a great example of writing, easily recognisable as the work of Douglas Adams. It contains all the absured me...more
While shopping for Christmas presents in Waterstones… looking back I think anyone could see how this could be considered a bad idea, lets just say that I came across several books that I decided I must definitely own. Somehow, by some miracle I managed to muster up all my will-power, avoid the temptations neatly arranged and tastefully displayed in my path and come away with only one book, ‘The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul’ by Douglas Adams. Having already read the first in the ‘Dirk Gently’ s...more
Sometimes, even if you’re Thor, it’s very hard to get to Oslo.
At least, if you’re Thor in a universe where humans created gods, and the gods need ongoing worship to exist. See generally http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php.... This book might have been my introduction to the idea that humans created gods in our own image. And the pathos of being a being created to be worshipped once the worship stops.
It also may have been the first book I read where a lawyer and an advertising executive got t...more
At least, if you’re Thor in a universe where humans created gods, and the gods need ongoing worship to exist. See generally http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php.... This book might have been my introduction to the idea that humans created gods in our own image. And the pathos of being a being created to be worshipped once the worship stops.
It also may have been the first book I read where a lawyer and an advertising executive got t...more
It has been a few years since I read a Dirk Gently novel. I am so glad to return to Adams and to Gently. I read this and realized that this is why I loved Neil Gaiman's American Gods so much. It felt a lot like this novel. This is a book about the gods of Norse origin and their difficulty trying to keep themselves alive in today's world. I loved the fact that even the gods can be tripped up by attorneys and ad execs! I already posted the opening sentence in a Facebook status, but I will include...more
The back jacked of this book promised me it was "Funnier than Psycho" and "Shorter than War and Peace." Now, I thought that these were jokes. I assumed that that tag was cute and that it would be quite funny. In fact, funnier than Psycho is about as good as the humor was. It was there, but rarely very funny and generally simply kinda cute. It was in fact shorter than War and Peace.
I didn't expect much for plot. It is a Douglas Adams book after all, but I had hoped for decent characters. Unfortu...more
I didn't expect much for plot. It is a Douglas Adams book after all, but I had hoped for decent characters. Unfortu...more
Maybe the only merit of this book is that it shows how The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy could have gone terribly wrong. Why, the 'Hitchhiker's Guide' is a buch of strange and witty ideas that have no direction and almost can't work together. Yet, through the excellent pace and the hilariously funny writing style, Douglas Adams pulls it off and made it into the great sci-fi comedy it became.
Here, we again have weird ideas (even involving scandinavion gods) but, really, none of it works. The j...more
Here, we again have weird ideas (even involving scandinavion gods) but, really, none of it works. The j...more
I'm not sure whether this is the effect of not being jammed into half a train seat by someone twice the size of me, but The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul seemed less funny but more absorbing than the first book. It helped that it included Norse gods, I think. I had no idea that Douglas Adams had tangled with them.
On the other hand, I don't really think that as much seemed to happen, somehow. Less plates seemed to be spinning. I think that was a good thing for the narrative, but it seemed to mak...more
On the other hand, I don't really think that as much seemed to happen, somehow. Less plates seemed to be spinning. I think that was a good thing for the narrative, but it seemed to mak...more
None of these editions seems to be the one I have. Anyway, I almost gave this book a pass, because of the title. I knew the basic premise of the title, and I've always thought it silly. Adams himself points out that immortals don't necessarily have better memories than the rest of us. So how can they get bored, when they can't possibly know things well enough to anticipate what comes next?
In this case, it's because they're unemployed, and have nowt to do. And they don't seem to be very imaginat...more
In this case, it's because they're unemployed, and have nowt to do. And they don't seem to be very imaginat...more
Full of Douglas Adams' clever wit and humor Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul is fast paced yet still manages to wander all over the map. While somewhat more coherent than the first Dirk Gently book, this one is still a wild rambling and whimsical tale of interconnectedness that doesn't make sense until the very end. Unlike Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency however, the climax and resolution here is less than satisfactory... if you can even call it a resolution. Dirk, as eccentric as ever, st...more
As much as I enjoyed ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’, I have to say that ‘The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul’ is the better book. The reason for that is simple – you get more Dirk for your pound! Whereas it was halfway through before this most intriguing of detectives put in an appearance in the first novel, here he arrives in Chapter Three – waging a war with his cleaner as to which of them is actually going to open the fridge door (something which hasn’t been done in over three month...more
Jul 25, 2011
Nathan
added it
This book was a bit of a disappointment. Good by most standards, but below Adams’ median.
The second (and final) book in the Dirk Gently series, it has little to do with the first book except the Dirk character himself. The storyline, however, remains larger-than-life:
“So far he had taken no real interest in the strange incident at the airport, but now it demanded his attention. The explosion was now officially designated an ‘Act of God.’ But, thought Dirk, what god? And why?”
As always, Adams inc...more
The second (and final) book in the Dirk Gently series, it has little to do with the first book except the Dirk character himself. The storyline, however, remains larger-than-life:
“So far he had taken no real interest in the strange incident at the airport, but now it demanded his attention. The explosion was now officially designated an ‘Act of God.’ But, thought Dirk, what god? And why?”
As always, Adams inc...more
Upon my third reading, I discovered that this book shows its flaws when compared with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The plot is more direct and ultimately predictable, with the dramatic conclusion being neither dramatic nor conclusive, but Adams's style of prose makes it infinitely readable. One of the Great Masters of the comic novel, Adams could be the P.G. Wodehouse of the late 20th century. Although better known for his "Hitchhiker" series, the Gently novels seem to have been plot...more
Serinin ikinci ve son kitabında, Heathrow havalimanında can kaybına neden olmayan bir patlama meydana gelir. Miskin dedektifimiz ise bu esnada uyumaktadır. Müşterisiyle olan randevusuna feci geç kalan kahramanımız, müşterisinin vakitsiz ve mana yoksunu ölümü yüzünden tatsızdır. Patlama ve son günlerin hit şarkısı "Sıcak patates" in bir bağlantısı olduğuna emin olan Dirk, mümkün olan en saçma şekillerde bu gizemlerin izini sürecektir. Bu esnada, öfkeli kartallar, öfke kontrol sorunu olan Tanrılar...more
This is very hard for me, you know? I love Douglas Adams; I adore his phrasing, his word structure, and how he manages to make things seem funny,ridiculous, menacing or heartbreaking. I've loved the Hitchhiker books, and he continues to be one of the writers I care for quite immensely.
This is why rating this book as 3/5 is so sad for me, this book started off great, with plenty of intrigue and mystery, and a bunch of characters that seemed interesting and off their rockers (in other words, regul...more
This is why rating this book as 3/5 is so sad for me, this book started off great, with plenty of intrigue and mystery, and a bunch of characters that seemed interesting and off their rockers (in other words, regul...more
I know that I read “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”, but that was a long time ago, and while I remember that I enjoyed it, I don’t remember any details about the story. So, in a sense, I was getting to meet this character again for the first time. Dirk Gently is not your ordinary private detective. For one thing, he believes that things that can’t possibly happen are far more likely to actually happen than those that are merely improbable. And the events that occur around him seem to co...more
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As a rule, I much prefer Douglas Adams when he cheekily refuses to have a plot. I love the way his descriptions make me laugh out loud, and his characters are endearing and amoral, and his philosophical digressions go exactly where they should - when he has a simple plot, like the last couple of Hitchhiker books, I generally lose interest and pine for his zanier works. So this book, in which Dirk Gently investigates an "act of God" at a Heathrow ticket counter in a fairly straightforward way (by...more
I read this book in the early 1990s and needed something fun so I picked it up at the library.
I enjoyed the book, but really need to read book one of the series.
Dirk Gently is a holistic detective who is hired by a wealthy client who claims a 7 foot green monster with a scythe is coming after him due to a contract. Dirk doesn't believe the client, arrives late for a meeting by several hours, and finds his client decapitated with his head revolving on a record player (remember those?).
Dirk then...more
I enjoyed the book, but really need to read book one of the series.
Dirk Gently is a holistic detective who is hired by a wealthy client who claims a 7 foot green monster with a scythe is coming after him due to a contract. Dirk doesn't believe the client, arrives late for a meeting by several hours, and finds his client decapitated with his head revolving on a record player (remember those?).
Dirk then...more
"An 'act of God.' Merely a chance, careless phrase by which people were able to dispose conveniently of awkward phenomena that would admit of no more rational explanation. But it was the chance carelessness of it which particularly appealed to Dirk because words used carelessly, as if they did not matter in any serious way, often allowed otherwise well-guarded truths to seep through."
Holistic detective Dirk Gently returns for a mystery of supernatural proportions. But while the resolution of the...more
Holistic detective Dirk Gently returns for a mystery of supernatural proportions. But while the resolution of the...more
Classic Douglas Adams. This was a quirky, hilarious adventure that started with, "It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "as pretty as an airport."" Hence, little did Miss Kate Schechter know that while she stood at the passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, waiting for a flight to Oslo, that her life was going to be changed by an act of God... er gods.. er Nordic gods to be precise. Meanwhile, in a flat in North London, as h...more
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Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Hitchhiker's began on radio, and developed into a "trilogy" of five books (which sold more than fifteen million copies during his lifetime) as well as a television series, a comic book series, a computer game, and a feature film that was comp...more
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