September Fantasy Thread - SPOILERS - Dirk Gently's

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams is in transit at my library. Do you have your copy yet?

Nope, but if this is the next read, I shall procure my copy in a timely fashion.

I own a copy, but I'll have to schedule it into the reading scheme!

I've started this, am about 60 pages in. I'd forgotten how much Adams likes to meander through a story (and his sentences as well). Now I remember why I decided to listen to the Hitchhiker's Guide books, rather than eye-ball them. We've been introduced to several characters and are just finding out how they may be related, but I've no idea still where this is supposed to lead and what the story is about.

I've read this, but it was so long ago... I hardly remember anything, but I do remember enough to think it's not worth a reread.

I'm a few chapters in and am amused by it. It is rambling and sort of nonsensical but I'm sure it will get somewhere... eventually. I do think it's something you have to be in the mood for. I like the rhythm of the writing. Not something I usually notice.

Found my copy, and can now join in. Yay!

I can assure those who are struggling with the beginning, that all the loose threads do, eventually, make some kind of coherant sense. I know when I first read it that the five? six chapters each having nothing whatsoever to do with one another was somewhat offputting. But I've always found it worth continuing.

My review:

I wanted to like this book much more than I did. I found the first few chapters interesting and amusing. I liked the rhythm of the writing. But then it got confusing and ended up making no sense at all. Bits of plot were left hanging. Other interesting bits petered out. It's pretty sad to say that after I finished the book, I went to Wikipedia to read the plot summary to see if it helped me understand the ending. No such luck.

I gave it 5 out of 10 stars.

Some complaints. What was with the sofa? He could have done something fun with it but instead it was just cut up. And the ending made NO sense whatsoever. I had to look up in Wiki that there was supposed to be another part to the Coleridge poem that didn't get written because Coleridge got interrupted. Then how was that part not being written supposed to help? The alien was already there to fix his ship! Very disappointing ending.

I was the opposite. The book started slow for me, too meandering as I mentioned above. About halfway through I finally got into the mystery. I also found the ending somewhat abrupt and unsatisfying though. Maybe, because Weakes didn't get the whole poem, the alien wasn't able to possess him and he didn't make it to the space ship after all? Or, Weakes was possessed, but not wholly, like with Reg and Richard, so Weakes couldn't be forced to cause mankind's destruction?

I liked DNA'a comparison of Bach's music to the music the world makes, if you could only find the right way to hear it.

I just finished last night.

I've never been able to get through the Hitchhiker series. I love Adams' individual thoughts. Bits like the electric monk really make me smile, but sometimes I feel I'm in the middle of a whirlwind of ideas and have trouble fitting all the pieces together.

Morphy, your post came at the perfect time. I had about 70 pages to go and was beginning to flounder. After your post, I went to the Wikipedia article and things went 'click'. I loved the rest of the novel.

I didn't know that Adams had written a couple of Doctor Who episodes. I've added City of Death to my Netflix queue. (They don't have the serial Shada--at least not on DVD). Some of the tricks in this book seemed hackneyed to me--the anomaly of phones in a time machine working--yup, I knew that the TARDIS always worked that way. Now I'm wondering if Adams invented that and the current Who is giving a nod in his direction, or if that bit has always been part of the TARDIS cannon and Adams was giving a nod toward Who. Anyone know?

The couch being sawed up speaks to how Adams catagorizes people. Some people are enamored by the mystery and impossibility of it and design computer programs and search for answers. Other people just see an obstacle, saw it up and never think of it again.

It's fascinating to think that this is the ground breaking beginning of a style and ideas that seem over used now. Guess that's why this is in the 1001 Books.