Customer Reviews

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul/Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being a long-time fan of Douglas Adams and his "Hitchhiker Series" doesn't automatically mean you will fall in love with Dirk Gently, but...

If you have any love of Norse Mythology, and enjoy a great Detective story...you will love these stories immensely.

Lurking refrigerators, redheaded housekeepers, Odin, Thor, jets, the birth of new Gods, Valhalla, cripsy linen sheets, exploding desks at airports, missing passports, pregnant cats, Coke machines, time warps, hot potatoes, rock groups, soothsayers, strange horoscopes, greed, history, mythology, and of course at the center of it all is the humor of Douglas Adams.

These are two of the most thoroughly enjoyable stories to be found on tape, and I give it 5 stars, it never flags, it holds your attention to the last paragraph of the last page. And it is especially nice to hear them read in the author's own voice, unabridged. Every little jewel is included, nothing is lost in the transition from print to spoken story.

After reading the five (!) books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, I turned to his two books featuring Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective. Although it took me a bit of time to warm to these stories, I wound up liking them even better than the HhGttG trilogy, much to my surprise. This audiobook version of these two excellent books is everything you would want in such a thing - unabridged and read by the author. On the downside, it is slightly pricey, and on the way far downside, it is out of print, and therefore a little hard to find. (Here's hoping that is remedied soon.) The late and much lamented (by me in any case) Douglas Adams was a writer of rare talent. He could write books about great subjects such as the origin of life and the meaning of existence, and make them riotously funny and entertaining. I believe that the only thing that will keep him from being recognized as a major writer is that he wrote science fiction. Too bad, because science fiction or not, his stuff was superb.

I love the Dirk Gently books. They combine the silliness and whimsy of Adams' Hitch-hiker's Guide Books while grounding them on earth and cementing them with an engaging mystery plot.

If you like Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaimon, (or Good Omens ; ) ) You'll love this book. It's full of the digressive musings Adams is known for. (Long Dark Teatime of the Soul begins with ruminations on airport signage)
He still (even though restricted to the Planet Earth) maintains his detached objectivity while describing the peculiar habits we have become used to. In Long Dark Teatime he gains this perspective through the eyes of forgotten gods still sentient and lonely after having been forsaken for the gods of tomorrow. Bored, they start to make trouble.

I HIGHLY reccomend you pick up either of these books. I have the audio version for my long ride to work where I rotate between this and a few mysteries and science fiction titles. This is, hands down, my favourite story for that setting and is also one of my favourite books period.

Dirk Gently is probably Douglas Adam's best written book and has an extremely well defined plot. The humor as good as ever, I laughed out loud on many occassions. The notion of "fundamental interconnectedness of things" that Adams introduces in this book is quite powerful and yet quite humorous. The problem of the stuck couch in an impossible position, missing cats, ancient professors in universities, an electric monk - a multiple set of oddities all fall into place into a great pattern.

I found Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul a bit boring. It is interesting in parts but on the whole there's much new stuff in what Adams says.

On the whole the book is a great buy - if you liked Hitchhiker's series at all, you would most certainly love Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Guaranteed.

A previous reviewer has noticed that this work is really nothing like the Hitchhiker's Guide books. While this is true, this does not make this a bad book. It is just that it is almost in a different genre.

If you were expecting the hilarity that is the HGTTG series, you may be surprised. But if you enjoy detective stories that make you think, you'll love these books. Just realize that Adams often doesn't expressly tie up all the loose ends: he expects the reader to be able to reason well enough to figure it out.

... agency.

Well,I love his other books, you know. hhgttg (hithchikers guide to the galaxy) trilogy, In fact it's my favorite book. But this one SUUUCKS!! I can't remember how many times I fell asleep while tring to read this monstrosity. I still haven't figured out why the horse was upstairs to begin with, and now,I really don't care.