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Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

(Dirk Gently #1)

Douglas Adams

3.97 · Rating details · 124,945 ratings · 3,541 reviews

What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over 200 years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common? Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, ...more

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Paperback, 247 pages

Published June 24th 1988 by Pan Books (first published May 15th 1987)

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Apr 17, 2020 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adams-douglas

The concept of putting as many ideas as possible in as less book space as imaginable worked well for the hitchhiker, but in this case, it was too much, no I mean, less.

It could have been an epic milestone like the ingenious hitchhiker series, but it is simply too short and too densely packed at the same time, it´s a miracle how this is even possible.

The characters and main plots could have been used for one much longer or two short books and it would have been a masterpiece again. More details The concept of putting as many ideas as possible in as less book space as imaginable worked well for the hitchhiker, but in this case, it was too much, no I mean, less.

It could have been an epic milestone like the ingenious hitchhiker series, but it is simply too short and too densely packed at the same time, it´s a miracle how this is even possible.

The characters and main plots could have been used for one much longer or two short books and it would have been a masterpiece again. More details in the descriptions, probably some more explanations to the reader or another side plot, infodumps, longer dialogues, it would all have been possible if Adams hadn´t tried to distill it to the absolute minimum. I got nervous the closer I got to the end because I couldn´t imagine how all those should culminate in a believable, understandable and satisfying ending.

Especially the end was really unsatisfying, so much came out of nothing, interesting ideas weren´t described in detail and everything felt quite half-baken with too many questions left unanswered and too much confusion for the reader. And I am someone who reads multi k page series with loads of settings, characters, and connections that can be understandably described by the author without a permanent "what, where, when, why, how?" like in this case.

Adams' intention has been to make as many and as complex subplots, connections and associations as possible to let them explode in an epic culmination point, but it didn´t get speed and just hit the fourth wall a tiny little bit without producing more noise than contrived harrumph to let the embarrassing moment pass by. It feels as if there should have been a second half before the sudden ending.

Don´t get me wrong, it´s still a good, philosophical book full of innuendos, connotations and some good laughs, but don´t expect the same quality or the same entertainment the more famous galactic fun brought to your mind.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... ...more

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Nov 05, 2008 Madeline rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, the-list

I still don't really understand how the ending of this book worked, and trying to describe the plot would be like trying to build a submarine out of cheese. Instead, I'll just share some quotes from this book that I especially loved, because Douglas Adams is the only author in the history of the world who is capable of creating them.

"'A horse?' he said again.
'Yes, it is,' said the Professor. 'Wait - ' he motioned to Richard, who was about to go out again and investigate - 'Let it be. It won't b I still don't really understand how the ending of this book worked, and trying to describe the plot would be like trying to build a submarine out of cheese. Instead, I'll just share some quotes from this book that I especially loved, because Douglas Adams is the only author in the history of the world who is capable of creating them.

"'A horse?' he said again.
'Yes, it is,' said the Professor. 'Wait - ' he motioned to Richard, who was about to go out again and investigate - 'Let it be. It won't be long.'
Richard stared in disbelief. 'You say there's a horse in your bathroom, and all you can do is stand there naming Beatles songs?'"

"Richard stood transfixed for moment or two, wiped his forehead again, and gently replaced the phone as if it were an injured hamster. His brain began to buzz gently and suck its thumb. Lots of little synapses deep inside his cerebral cortex all joined hands and started dancing around and singing nursery rhymes."

"On the wall was a Duran Duran poster on which someone had scrawled in fat red felt tip, 'Take this down please.'
Beneath that another hand had scrawled, 'No.'
Beneath that again the first hand had written, 'I insist that you take it down.'
Beneath that the second hand had written, 'Won't!'
Beneath that - 'You're fired!'
Beneath that - 'Good!'
And there the matter appeared to have rested."

"'Welcome, by the way, to my offices.'
He waved a vague hand around the tatty surroundings. 'The light works,' he said, indicating the window, 'the gravity works,' he said, dropping a pencil on the floor. 'Anything else we have to take our chances with.'"

"'Don't you listen to anything you say? The whole thing was obvious!' he exclaimed, thumping the table. 'So obvious that the only thing which prevented me from seeing the solution was the trifling fact that it was completely impossible. Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.'" ...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Fabian rated it liked it · review of another edition

Is it an audacious thing to say that Mr. Douglas Adams is hit or miss?

Yes. (Well, & "audacious" not really.)

Good. Here is a fun (and I mean FUN) book, rife with what is absurd and comical in certain sciences that dictate what the world is--I know my math teacher in high school was mad about him. And it does seem as though there is an intended niche audience already built for this type of literature: more literary than, say, Piers Anthony but not character-driven, nor truly dearly dramatic. There ...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Bradley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-shelf, sci-fi, fantasy, space-opera, history, humor, urban-fantasy, reality-bending

I last read this when I was really young and was shortly getting off a fantastic kick of HHGttG wanting MORE, as, I assume, most people do when they get on a Douglas Adams kick.

Like the other series, every page is filled with wonderfully witty and fascinating and wise (crack) quotes that will delight and amaze and generally blow most writing away by the sheer audacity.

To think that Douglas Adams never considered himself a writer! Truly amazing. And of course us fans just snicker at that and keep ...more

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Dec 06, 2008 Manny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: well-i-think-its-funny, parody-homage, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 16, 2017 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I discovered Douglas Adams by coincidence. I found his book Last Chance to See, co-written by Mark Cawardine, about animals near extinction and Douglas' and Mark's trip around the world to see some of them, in a box with "Mängelexemplare" (old books, sometimes not in top condition that are therefore sold at a reduced price). His humour stood out even in the German translation and when I told a friend about it, she told me all about an odd-sounding story about a guy hitchhiking across the galaxy ...more

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Jun 03, 2016 Apatt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

“He instituted this Chair of Chronology to see if there was any particular reason why one thing happened after another and if there was any way of stopping it. Since the answers to the three questions were, I knew immediately, yes, no, and maybe, I realised I could then take the rest of my career off.”

Books by Oscar Wilde, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams have (at least) one thing in common. I can easily pick funny, witty, interesting quotes from every page. The above quote represents Adams’ ...more

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Aug 02, 2013 Shurrn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-scifi-and-fantasy, genre-humor, series-1st-book, i-lol-moments, i-other-dimensions, z-own-for-ipad, c-playing-detective, s-ghosts, i-other-worlds, series-completed

I am a firm believer that a bit of British humor is good for the soul...
And I am quite American, in case you did not know...

“Don’t you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn’t developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don’t expect to see?”

Douglas Adams has a highly quotable, laugh out loud writing style which I adore; I seem to remember a blurb describing this book a I am a firm believer that a bit of British humor is good for the soul...
And I am quite American, in case you did not know...

“Don’t you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn’t developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don’t expect to see?”

Douglas Adams has a highly quotable, laugh out loud writing style which I adore; I seem to remember a blurb describing this book as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with significantly fewer spaceships (I apologize that my memory fails on whom I heard this from) I can't think of a better description myself.

This book will forever be on my list of favorite books of all time.
There's really not much more I can say about it which could express my love.

Some of My Favorite Moments:
(view spoiler) ...more

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Sep 22, 2007 Ian Wood rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: douglas-adams

Douglas Adams' underated masterpiece leads Dirk Gently from a search for a missing cat to unlocking the secrets of time travel and saving the human race from total extinction.

I thought no-one could write a better comic novel than 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' until I first read this. I've subsequently re-read this novel countless times and it never fails to entertain, I'm still finding references to literature and popular culture that I've previously missed.

That a novel can be re-rea ...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Robin (Bridge Four) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome-audio, 4-5-stars, sci-fi

From the title you would think this is possibly about a detective agency. Well there is an agency but they don’t detect things in the normal matter. You should probably guess that since it is a Douglas Adams book and when has he written anything really normal (I mean that in the best way).

Nope for this book “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

There is craziness, absurdity, the interc From the title you would think this is possibly about a detective agency. Well there is an agency but they don’t detect things in the normal matter. You should probably guess that since it is a Douglas Adams book and when has he written anything really normal (I mean that in the best way).

Nope for this book “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

There is craziness, absurdity, the interconnectedness of all things and Dirk is smack dab in the middle of it all. He will somehow figure out how a horse in a bathroom, a ghost making telephone calls, a undoable magic trick, the cat in Schrodinger’s Box and an alien electronic monk who can believe anything all have to do with one another.

It is a crazy and fantastic ride that if you just hang back and not think about it too much everything will just all into place. Most of the time Dirk Gently seems to make no sense until he makes hysterical sense. There were times I flat out belly laughed at some of the general obscurity of it.

I will never think of Sir Isaac Newton the same again – or Bach but that is a different matter.
“Sir Isaac Newton, renowned inventor of the milled-edge coin and the catflap!"
"The what?" said Richard.
"The catflap! A device of the utmost cunning, perspicuity and invention. It is a door within a door, you see, a ..."
"Yes," said Richard, "there was also the small matter of gravity."
"Gravity," said Dirk with a slightly dismissed shrug, "yes, there was that as well, I suppose. Though that, of course, was merely a discovery. It was there to be discovered." ... "You see?" he said dropping his cigarette butt, "They even keep it on at weekends. Someone was bound to notice sooner or later. But the catflap ... ah, there is a very different matter. Invention, pure creative invention. It is a door within a door, you see.”

I read both the Dirk Gently books years ago and they are some of the few books that I come back to years later and love for different reasons all over again. If you were a fan of the Hitchhikers series or Monty Python then this kind of humor might be exactly what you need for a good laugh.
...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Kris Larson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, fiction

Hysterical. If you liked The Hitchhiker's Guide but thought it could do with fewer spaceships, try this. If you're shaking your head in bafflement, thinking "Fewer spaceships? Do you want to ruin the whole thing, woman?" try this. If you've never read any Douglas Adams at all, try this. If you like things that are good, try this.

On the other hand, I am pretty sure my best friend hated it, and she does often like things that are good, so maybe it's not for everyone. But try it anyway.

"He was rou ...more

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Jun 19, 2011 surfmadpig rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-ebook, laughs, read-in-english

I recently watched the pilot episode of Dirk Gently and loved it. So, naturally, I picked up the book. Now this order of doing things is often frowned upon by many people, including me, but sometimes things just happen.

The reason I'm telling you this is that I was slightly let down by the book, having seen (a version of) Dirk Gently in action before reading about him. There just wasn't enough of the detective in the book, while he (both versions) is such an interesting character. And yes, it wa ...more

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Jun 30, 2012 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I love this book. I love it far, far more than is in any way reasonable. It is possibly Douglas Adams' strangest work, and it is far and away my favorite. It makes almost no sense unless you read it twice or more. And a good knowledge of the content and historical context of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is essentially required to understand many of the jokes and much of the plot.

Because, as it turns out, the linchpin upon which history turns, upon whic I love this book. I love it far, far more than is in any way reasonable. It is possibly Douglas Adams' strangest work, and it is far and away my favorite. It makes almost no sense unless you read it twice or more. And a good knowledge of the content and historical context of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is essentially required to understand many of the jokes and much of the plot.

Because, as it turns out, the linchpin upon which history turns, upon which depends the whole of human history before and to come, is the fact that Coleridge never wrote the second "altogether stranger" part of Kubla Khan.

This discovery is the culmination of an intricate, madcap skein of detecting into the interconnectedness of all things by "holistic detective" Dirk Gently, computer programmer Richard MacDuff and his ghostly employer Gordon Way, an Electric Monk, a rogue Time Lord turned Cambridge professor (the book started life as a Doctor Who script), a horse in the bathroom and a thousand thousand slimy things. Beginning with an inquiry into an inexplicable bout of housebreaking, proceeding to impossible magic tricks, a murder, a sofa that can't be where it is, the mathematics of music, aliens, and time travel, the story is packed with whimsical trivialities which turn out to have the most profound significance — in line with the titular detective's much-professed belief in the interconnectedness of all things, but especially nice beaches in the Bahamas. Although it may appear nonsensical, all is in the end tied together — but if you blink, you'll miss the explanation of how the sofa got up the stairs.

Dirk Gently is a much darker book than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but it's also much richer, with a flavor a little closer to Terry Pratchett (and particularly to the brilliant Good Omens) than to the wacky, almost slapstick Hitchhiker series. Adams' omnipresent punnery and clever narrative is absolutely delightful, if subtle enough that one must sometimes pause to figure out just what sort of trick he is playing. The joy Adams took in whimsy and wordplay is palpable on almost every page. This may be the best-written of his works, and to my mind it is also the funniest. It is a quick read, and well worth the few hours it'll take to read twice. Or five times, if you love it as much as I do. ...more

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Mar 16, 2019 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: awesomely-silly-but-i-loved-it, chattering-class-favorite, humor, science-fiction, pseudo-science, a-jack-in-the-box-pop-surprise

‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ is completely absurd. If you have read other books by Douglas Adams, like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, gentle reader, it is helpful to know that all of Adams' books, including this one, are hilariously ridiculous and impossible. The characters and the plots are played entirely for laughs, puns, jokes and satire. Oh, and usually some of the known aspects of quantum physics and Einstein's relativity theories drive the action endured by Adams’ most ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ is completely absurd. If you have read other books by Douglas Adams, like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, gentle reader, it is helpful to know that all of Adams' books, including this one, are hilariously ridiculous and impossible. The characters and the plots are played entirely for laughs, puns, jokes and satire. Oh, and usually some of the known aspects of quantum physics and Einstein's relativity theories drive the action endured by Adams’ mostly hapless and confused main characters, who often are deers in headlights as quantum weirdness takes over their realities. Also, expect ghosts. And electronics which can bridge universes (remember our real history of linking electricity with spiritualism in the late 19th century?) And animals with some very human-like or weirdly species-appropriate thinking.

It takes a few chapters and many seemingly disconnected introductory scenes of many other characters, but eventually Dirk Gently is introduced. Dirk Gently is a very peculiar detective. He has been forced into the profession after being sent down from St. Cedd's college for cheating. He didn't cheat - it was a coincidence when he guessed all of the answers to an upcoming test correctly. He DID coach many students in the answers to the test to make money, supposedly through mystic means which he believed he was faking, but he truly had no idea his con would end up being so correct. The unspoken assumption behind Gently's becoming a detective is the mystery of having all of the right answers when he never knew he had all of the right answers has led him to being a detective. He is not a mystic, but he believes in particle physics and Einstein's relativity, apparently, and all of the spooky science which comes out of that, and especially, maybe, in the Grand Unification Theory of Everything. A Holistic universe, so to speak. Hehe.

Of course, as the author explains Gently's accidentally appearing to be seemingly clairvoyant, or in the University's thinking, a cheater, Gently was actually a simple student who simply knew the patterns of the usual questions asked on the usual exams given usually in any given subject. He made assumptions that some form of the usual questions with the usual answers would be asked. He hinted it was a mystical process when he was only being logical, based on past patterns of human behavior - which if you analyze, gentle reader, is a holistic exercise we all do, and get better at, as we age and collect patterns of past behaviors of actual people around us...and coincidences of perfect guesses occur, an actual scientific possibility of statistics. Or like a guess of what Time it is being correct twice a day.

: D

Adams appears to me to design scenes in the manner of someone using free-association word games where someone who is trying to think of creative ideas writes down a word on a paper, and then follows that up with whatever words are triggered by that word, letting the mind go where it will without restraint - and then putting some humorous order to the ideas, like the physics theories which most decidedly are putting a humorous and impossible order on the actual universe. In Adams case, these wild and insane ideas appear to always involve quantum/relativity physics craziness, along with space aliens, which he spins down into a kind of daft coherency - barely.

This is the usual premise of a Douglas Adams' novel: Barely competent space aliens land on Earth and cause mysterious events to occur to barely competent earthlings. The space aliens have the advantage of superior technology, which, combined with the aliens' ignorance or incompetence, frequently bring horrendous side effects to the unfortunate earthlings who unsuspectingly become part of whoever and whatever space aliens' lives they have the bad luck with whom to be swept up. Three hundred pages later, luck and fate and accidents have led the main characters, and us readers, down a rabbit hole to an Alice-in-Wonderland adventure which we all have miraculously survived!

Even though describing an Adams' book can make them seem alike, this is not true. Well, not entirely true. What is important is the novels are extremely funny and entertaining! However, the humor is whacked out and often bizarrely witty. It requires a flexible mindset, and being prepared for all kinds of coloring outside the lines.

We assume space aliens would be smarter than us, or more noble, or are more purposefully vicious, and intent on a plan or have goals in mind - after all, to fly here would require all sorts of brilliant technology which should reflect a greater intelligence. But what if space aliens, even if they have better tech, are no different in their faults or interests or mental lapses than any humans? What if space aliens differ the same way people differ - they can drive a spaceship or time machine like most of us drive a car, but just like most of us, they do not know any more of how their spaceship works than we do, but they do want a vacation or just an outing, or an adventure, just like we do. Plus, they have missed connections, or their vehicle breaks down, or they run out of money, or decide to settle, for the same reasons we do.

The fact is we are all unknowingly silly while we believe we are doing things meaningfully - this fact slowly grows on readers of Adams' novels. People are very very silly. This is why Adams has had plenty of silly material for his books.

That said, I would not read this book first of Adams’ work. I’d start with ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ - in my opinion, his best book.

Here is a link to my review of 'The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul': https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 Samir rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I enjoyed the TV show, especially the first season and based on that experience, I wanted to read the book. I'm just glad I've watched the show first because if had read the book first, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the show.

...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Jacob Overmark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, read-owned, reviewed

To prove the theory of the interconnectedness of everything I´ll grant 3½-4, possibly 4½ star.

I have learned a lot. How the dodos became extinct, how to computer simulate the movements of a sofa while it gets stuck in a stairway and how an abacus can work in mysterious ways.
Not least have I come to know the origin of the albatros in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a thing that has puzzled me for billions of years.

I´m still very much in doubt when it comes to the death of Gordon Way, but it jus ...more

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Mar 24, 2012 P. Aaron Potter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, scifi, future-youngling-reading, read-more-than-five-times

It's all about the couch.

Allow me to elucidate. Doug Adams book. Funny? Sure. Satirical? Check. But would you have guessed intricately plotted?

Adams, who practically invented the vein of British literary humor now being minted hand-over-fist by Terry Pratchett, is in fine form with this novel, his major work outside the Hitchhiker's universe. We get the same bumbling protaginsts, the gently affable quasi-villain, the apocalyptic-threat-which-is-not-a-threat, the deft one-sentence-paragraph narra ...more

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Oct 17, 2016 Lubinka Dimitrova rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, award-winning, male-author, funny, the-narrator-nailed-it, did-not-see-it-coming, adventure, the-movie-or-the-book, fantasy, thought-provoking

The classic, beloved, brilliant, wacky Douglas Adams, with his penchant for paradoxes and meaningful nonsense and his totally absurd humor. It would be hard for me to chose what I loved most from this book, but I think it was the decision-making program that allows you to justify practically any outcome by back-tracing from the desired result - that could come quite handy, no?
But apart from all this, the book is quite well thought out, with a self-consistent detective story and an imaginitive an ...more

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May 02, 2017 Cyndi rated it it was amazing

Robot monks, ghosts, murder and add a bit of The Doctor. But since it is Douglas Adams, don't forget the towel. ...more

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Apr 28, 2019 RJ from the LBC rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-read

Adams, author of the bafflingly popular The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series as well as this whimsical genre-buster and its sequel, seems to have mastered the oximoronic art of writing funny books that are actually not very funny at all. There are some wacky English characters who fall somewhere on a spectrum between Jeeves and Fat Charlie's brother Spider, and an unusual plot which plods along aimlessly and manages to make 260 pages feel like 1000, and you may smirk a couple of times but ...more

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Jul 08, 2014 Kaethe Douglas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, humor, animals, fiction, ghosts, time-travel, colonization, death, music, adventure

1988 The plot gets a bit muddled at the end, but I dearly love this book. And the sofa.***Sept 10, 2012This may be one of the few books that is more rewarding to re-read. Now all those random scenes make sense.In fact, my reading pal at the mini mart and I were talking yesterday about how hard it can be to read Adams the first time. That you have to just stick with it, and hope it makes sense at the end. [It won't, it'll still be muddled nonsense, but it'll be funny nonsense] This reading what ...more

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Jun 27, 2020 Jamie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Infinitely dull for long stretches, punctuated by brief flashes of humor and incomprehensibility, with an ending that's fairly amusing. Time well spent? No, not really. Recommended for lovers of dry British humor that can stomach even the driest of Monty Python sketches. ...more

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May 07, 2018 Raúl Omar rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, from-paper-to-film

If you are interested in this book because you watched the Netflix series, or intend do so, my comments at the end :D

Adams nails it again and delivers a nice piece of fiction/comedy/romance/sci-fi/detective/fantasy.

It was a hard read though. I have to admit that I didn't dedicate as much attention to this book as I had wished, between my overworked and underpaid job and my messy personal life, I could only manage to pick this book for 10 minutes everyday before I fell completely asleep.

I haven't ...more

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Oct 16, 2019 J.M. Hushour rated it liked it · review of another edition

Given how huge a Douglas Adams fan I have always thought myself as, I was surprised at how little I liked this book. And guilty, I feel guilty. One star is added on for the guilt.
But, in truth, in retrospect, I don't remember liking this one anywhere near as much as Hitchhikers. The humor is a little flat and often forced, nothing has aged well (the ga-ga'ing over computers seems childish these days) and the plot, rehashes of two episodes of Doctor Who that Adams wrote, is too confusing and unin ...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Nicky rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, humour, mystery

One of the most annoying things about reading the Kindle edition of this book was the fact that popular highlights show up and you can't turn them off, at least not easily. It drove me mad. It was inevitably the parts that you'd pick out as funny for yourself, not anything surprisingly good...

Anyway, I grew up with Douglas Adams' work in the background, on the radio while we ate or while me and my sister played after dinner and my dad tried to relax. He's a big Douglas Adams fan, though he stick ...more

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Mar 02, 2012 colleen the convivial curmudgeon rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, humor, group-read

2.5

So, I picked this up because it was a BotM in one of my groups and I was in the mood for something light and funny. I wanted real laugh-out-loud kind of humor, but, unfortunately, I thought there were only a few chuckles or wry grins, but I don't think one single vocal laugh in the whole book. Well, not for me, anyway. And most of the humor was towards the beginning and started petering out as it progressed, so... yeah...

As for the story itself - it's an odd little thing in which we don't ac ...more

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Jul 30, 2015 Ray rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, audio, sci-fic

I'm tempted to add another star. Not because the novel is good, but because, unfortunately... it has a lot of interesting ideas but it's way too hard to follow and doesn't just work.

It's really about the adaptation though.

And no I don't mean that Dirk Gently tv show, which is a loose adaptation at best indeed, but because I just listened to the BBC radio show. And that's what it's all about! Radio is of course Douglas Adams first love, and I will count that as 'canon' when it comes to Adams. It ...more

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Feb 01, 2007 Rory rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: British comedy fans

I recently re-read Dirk Gently, since the first time I read it was in the seventh or eighth grade, and so I really didn't remember much of it. I must say it is absolutely fantastic. It is one of the few books which as I read it I was imagining what you could do for a film version. I think it would be a fantastic work to bring to the big screen, particularly after the modest success of Hitchhiker's...

That said, I love Douglas Adams. The man was a genius at creating characters, and the Gently seri ...more

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Jan 06, 2012 Exina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, detective-stories

4 stars

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Jan 20, 2020 Undomiel Books (Rosie) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Unfortunately, I think this book confirms a great suspicion of mine; that the work of Douglas Adams is just not for me. I was never a fan of Hitchiker's, unfortunately, but as a huge fan of the Netflix series (don't hate me, folks) I really wanted to give the book a shot.

The plot is hugely different, so the show seems to have only been influenced by the eccentric titular character, but honestly...and I very rarely say this... the show's plot and character was better. Eeek! I'm sorry, but yes I' Unfortunately, I think this book confirms a great suspicion of mine; that the work of Douglas Adams is just not for me. I was never a fan of Hitchiker's, unfortunately, but as a huge fan of the Netflix series (don't hate me, folks) I really wanted to give the book a shot.

The plot is hugely different, so the show seems to have only been influenced by the eccentric titular character, but honestly...and I very rarely say this... the show's plot and character was better. Eeek! I'm sorry, but yes I've said it!

For me, Dirk seemed to really fall flat in this. He never even appeared until over halfway through, prior to which we had just heard a bit of backstory regarding his different name, which I felt served little purpose in the plot, and thus don't really get why it was necessary. When he did appear, he was a relatively 2D, mediocre character; nothing unlikable about him, but also nothing extraordinary about him. The only characters I truly cared for was the Electronic Monk and his horse, however once they serve their purpose to the plot, they kind of disappear, which was a shame.

Speaking of the plot...umm, what? I understand that the weird, eccentric wackiness is Adams' trademark, and I did appreciate the oddness of the atmosphere the book creates (it was one of the few things I did enjoy). However, no matter how trademark this may be, for any author, for me as a reader, it still needs to tie up in a logical matter. For a book based on a character whose life career is to investigate the "interconnectedness" of everything, nothing in this book seemed to connect. I have no clue how the end came to be, and I'm not convinced that everything tied up in a logical way, thus leaving the ending really unsatisfying for me.

The humour is also, personally not for me, however this hasn't affected my grading of the book, as this is personal preference, but I just thought it worth noting.

I think I'm going to call it a day in trying to get on board with Adams' work, I'm afraid. Credit to him as a writer, but he really isn't for me, and I think his literature lacks occasionally in fleshing out characters, and really nailing the balance between wacky plots and a satisfying conclusion. ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Adult Sci Fi (or Fantasy?) book with flash backs to a muddy river with a tower. [s]	9	34	Oct 20, 2020 06:38AM
Reading 1001: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency	2	6	Feb 11, 2020 11:21AM
Please correct this title's isbn numbers	1	5	Jan 05, 2020 04:10AM
Readicorns: Holistic Detective Agency	2	5	Apr 23, 2019 03:14PM
Am I the only one who thinks the two Dirk Gently books are better than the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?	14	87	Feb 13, 2019 11:29AM
SciFi and Fantasy...: "Dirk Gently" Finished Reading Spoilers	54	361	Sep 27, 2018 09:17AM

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About Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

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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 ...more

Other books in the series

Dirk Gently (3 books)

Books by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1-5)

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)

Life, the Universe and Everything (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3)

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)

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“Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.” — 3525 likes

“Don't you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn't developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don't expect to see.” — 884 likes

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