I am glad that I finally listened to this audiobook which I purchased several years ago. I knew that this book was unfinished but hadn't realized that the majority of it wasn't Adams' unfinished manuscript at all but instead a collection of interviews, articles, speeches and other short works of his. I found these very pleasant listening but due to the nature of the collection, there was a fair amount of repetition of some of Adams' favorite analogies/stories/anecdotes.

I was pleased though not surprised to learn that Adams was a fan of P.G. Wodehouse (as am I)!
( )

I love some of Adams' short pieces in this. He should have written more short stories and non-fiction. ( )

I love some of Adams' short pieces in this. He should have written more short stories and non-fiction. ( )

This was amazing. ( )

Don't be fooled, this is much more than simple the third instalment of the Dirk Gently series. The Salmon of Doubt contains a great collection of short stories, interviews, speeches, columns, insights, jokes and thoughts by the late Adams, including a great foreword and epilogue by Stephen Fry and Richard Dawkins respectively.

Oh, and then it has eleven chapters of the unfinished third Dirk Gently book.

Incidentally, I loved each and every bit of this collection, *except* the part on Gently. But then again, however much I love the HHGTTG, I was never fond of the holistic detective agency. ( )

I really enjoyed this read. I liked all the other Hitchhikers but not as much as this one. This one seemed special, very funny, not quite so mad. I would have loved to find out more about Gusty Winds, he had the makings of another five part trilogy.
So long, Douglas, thanks for all the laughs. ( )

This partially posthumous volume consists of a collection of magazine articles, newspaper columns, interviews and such like, along with one short story (about a young Zaphod)originally published in the Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book...a copy of which I own...and the (very) incomplete conflated text of three versions of the third Dirk Gently's novel. This novel was abandoned whilst Adams was still alive, in favour of a 6th Hitchhikers' novel. Adams had decided that the material/theme was better suited to the latter. Personally, I think a 3rd Gently's would have been much more fun than a 6th 'Hikers'. The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul is my favourite Adams novel and The Salmon of Doubt looked to be very much in a similar vein, structurally and stylistically. It's a great shame that we will never see an end to this fragment.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY

See the complete review here:

http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/334996/post ( )

It's really amazing the amounts of nostalgia that can build up in a person's system before it kinda explodes into a kind of reverse word soup full of interviews, introductions, epilogues, and snippets of novels we wish we had but they were never penned because the author up and died on us.

I'm writing of Douglas Adams, of course.

I almost didn't re-read this one because I remember it WAS mostly just magazine articles and interesting early computer-tech stuff and ruminations on science, god, and other random bits that fly out of this wonderful man's brain in tightly humorous one-liners that explain not only life, the universe, and everything, but also the way his mind works... and this is all DESPITE the fact that Mr. DNA may or may not have had a functional nose with which to sneeze out those humorous one-liners.

So am I rating this entirely based on a man's ability to be clear, funny, horribly learned, and dead?

Yes, but it's gotta be more than that, and indeed it is. I loved the man.

I grew up reading and re-reading HHGttG about a bazillion times with or without the cheese sandwhich, playing countless hours on the Infrogames title of the same name being simultaneously corrupted and flabbergasted by my inability to create NO TEA, and learning how to fly by distraction.

I even decided when I was fourteen that I'd grow a beard for the distinct purpose of giving some poor hapless creature a traveling burial site to not see the rest of the world through.

DNA is that kind of man to me.

This book reminds me of just how regular a human he is and it is an unabashedly wonderful nostalgia piece to boot.

Oh, and we also get a few short stories including Ghengis Kahn, a non-presidential Zaphod, and the opening to the next Dirk Gently book which would have been fantastic, I'm sure, had he written it.

*sigh*

Still, what a wonderful thing it is. Farewell, Mr. Adams. (Yes. I know I'm 16 years late. It's just that this book was compiled shortly after his death, so I feel it fresh. Sue me.) ( )

Ia dar 3 estrelas porque o começo do livro tem alguns contos excelentes, mas outros nem tanto e algumas entrevistas são bem longas e cansativas. Eu tinha uma expectativa sobre o livro e estava ficando desanimado. Até chegar no conto Beeblebrox e depois nos capítulos do Salmão da Dúvida. São muito bons e valeram a pena. Pena que o livro ficou inacabado. De qualquer forma, recomendo a leitura para qualquer fã do trabalho do D.A. ( )

A collection of essays and a well put-together but incomplete last Dirk Gently novel, I can see how this will always garner mixed reviews. Overall, I enjoyed this book as there’s something poignant about reading Adams’ words one last time that makes this a fond farewell, but the lack of an end to the Dirk Gently book left me disappointed and wistful, but the story was shaping up so well I’m glad to know as little as I now do. Maybe one for true aficionados but a touching book to add to a collection. ( )

This book is a miscellany, composed largely of material found on Adams' computer after his death. It is divided into three sections, appropriately titled "Life," "The Universe," and "Everything."

The first section contains personal musings and experiences. Adams writes about his school days, of climbing Kilimanjaro and diving in Australia (turns out Adams is a great travel writer), how to make a proper cup of tea, and numerous other subjects.

The second section concerns Adams' views of then-current technology. I wasn't as interested in hearing about his computer issues as readers of MacUser might have been at the time, but they are still reasonably entertaining. Particularly amusing is a piece from 1995 on internet advertising, where he talks about how discreet and tasteful it is in comparison to its printed counterpart. How things change.

The third section is mostly fiction. "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" was written with Graham Chapman and isn't very funny. "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" is very funny, as is the title story, the beginning of a new Dirk Gently novel, sadly unfinished.

There are also a number of interviews scattered throughout the volume. ( )

Posthumous works are always an iffy prospect; in most cases you're looking at an early draft which may well have horrified the writer if they knew it would be published in that form. For as much as we all look forward to more Douglas Adams stories, whether they be Hitch-hikers or Dirk Gently related, much of what is new is not of Adams's standard.

We get segments of a Dirk Gently novel-in-development, that Adams thought perhaps should have been a hitch-hikers story. All-in-all, any Adams fanatic should probably avoid "Salmon of Doubt". ( )

I should throw this book across the room. It is good. It is worth reading, but we should be forewarned that the portion of the book The Salmon of Doubt that it takes its title from was not only cobbled together from various drafts (it was), but that it remains unfinished. Had it been finished I would have given the book five stars.

I still enjoyed and it was a good farewell for someone taken from us so abruptly. If I ever find that editor I'm going to snap my towel at them. ( )

I had to be a Dirk Gently completist and read this one before I started watching the show. I loved reading more about Douglas Adams and his interests. What is included here from the computers of Adams as 'The Salmon of Doubt' is a very solid, funny, uncompleted book. Many laughs on each page. I think it would have made a great addition to the Dirk Gently books. I will always consider Douglas Adams' death at 49 a great tragedy of literature. ( )

It was with some trepidation that I added Douglas Adams' "The Salmon of Doubt" to my reading list. While I enjoyed "Hitchhiker" I found most of his following works didn't really live up to the original. But the completist in me won out and I decided to read this last volume, and found that I mostly enjoyed it.

The book is a collection of odds and ends, mostly, pulled from Adams' computer after his death. It includes humorous observations, essays, speeches and several chapters from an unfinished Dirk Gently novel.

I had a good chuckle over parts of the books -- particularly when Douglas' essays were personal and I actually liked the start of the Dirk Gently novel. I found the midsection, which mainly consisted of a series of essays on technology to be super boring though. Without that part, I'd probably give this a higher rating. ( )

I enjoyed the collection of interviews and shorter writings of Douglas Adams. Found the short piece of 'Salmon of Doubt' disappointing though that could be due to the incompleteness. ( )

Posthumously published books are always risky, because you are not getting the author's editing but that of someone else. Things found in the bottom of an author's drawer are also risky, because there may be a reason they were in the bottom of a drawer. That being said, this, while not being Adams at his finest, did include some excellent observations on life, the universe, and everything, along with some stuff that wasn't up to par. He might not have actually wanted this published, and certainly wasn't ready for the final bit, the bits of his last Dirk Gently novel, to be put out there. In fact, he stated himself (as acknowledged in this work) that he wasn't sure it should be Dirk Gently at all, because it was more like Hitchhiker's Guide. All in all, it was an easy read with a good bit of humor that would almost certainly didn't need to be published. The best parts were in the interviews, and those had already been published elsewhere, though not in a collection. If you are a die-hard Adams fan, it might be better to stick with the stuff he considered complete enough to publish, rather than this work which appeared to be an attempt to make more money from a dead author. ( )

This incredible book is actually a recolection of interviews, speechs, newspapers' articles by Douglas Adams and the manuscript of what the book "The Salmon of Doubt" would be if the author had not suffered an early death. It's pure genius... And although it's sad to think that such a man ended it gives me much joy to think that his words and thoughts will stay forever. This is a book for anytime. I can't wait to have my own copy. ( )

This made for a bizarre and entertaining reading experience. It was basically a hodgepodge of short stories by the author and various interviews of Adams. Some of them were very funny and others informative. Douglas Adams seems like a fascinating dude. Then (and without much warning), The Salmon of Doubt (TSOD) started. At first, I thought it was just another of the previous stories but then it occurred to me that this one was lasting longer.

And then things started to get repetitive and I realized that Adams had used all the previous material for this rather longer short story called the Salmon of Doubt. The story was okay and did a fine job of sucking me into the plot and characters but I think the publishers made a good decision to include all the other materials because that was vastly more interesting. But also, it made TSOD all the more interesting to see how it had been inspired. ( )

Well... it wasn't the third Dirk Gently book. At least mostly not. That is to say, it did include a few chapters of the unfinished third book, but primarily it was, well, an epilogue to a life that ended way too early. It was the contents of Douglas Adams' computer, collected together by friends and family after his all-too-sudden death, as well as a few writings from people who knew him.

It doesn't sound like a great read, does it? But it really, really was. There were lots of little bits of non-fiction writing, which I -- having never read his non-fiction -- greatly appreciated. It was also, in some parts, a biography written by a friend, and you really feel his loss. And no, there's not a whole lot of moaning and groaning about it, because it's not necessary to realize what a great person and author the world has lost. What he wrote, and the stories about his life, do that perfectly well on their own.

A MUST READ for anyone who likes his other works. The individual essays will appeal to anyone with a quirky, intellectual, but not stuck-up sense of humor -- think Monty Python -- but given the biographical stuff, I would recommend reading his other works first. ( )

I love the works of Douglas Adams: for me, he is the best humorous writer since Cervantes and so, it feels almost traitorous to write a bad review of his final book. None the less, that is what I find myself in the position of doing.

This tome was cobbled together by publishers keen to squeeze every penny from the Adams brand. It consists of items written for newspapers and magazines plus a literally cobbled together version of the book that Adams was working on up to his demise. The articles are witty and raise the odd smile but, cut adrift from their natural moorings, they begin to pall. Then we get to the novel. Again, we see flashes that remind us as to why we admire Adams but, the stitching together of three different drafts is hardly ideal and the stitching does burst open from place to place.

The over all affect of reading this book was to increase my sympathy for Douglas Adams. I did not know the man, other than by his works, but he appears to have been a tremendously inventive chap who came up with HHG2G and was NEVER allowed to forget it. If we are to be brutally honest, it was a series that should have stopped at a trilogy but, I imagine, that the pressure from his publishers to keep churning out more, so long as sales could be maintained, must have been enormous. When he, finally, managed to break free, he remained in the science fiction mode with Dirk Gently and, he was off on another series that he could not escape. Whether the Salmon of Doubt would have ended up as a great work, we will never know but, to publish the rough version as an epitaph seems an act of pecuniary, rather than humane, concern. If you are a Douglas Adams nerk, then get this book; if, however, you want a good book, re-read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: now there is talent at its peak! ( )

This contains his last (unfinished) Dirk Gently novel and some pieces done for interviews and other journalism. They were salvaged from his computer files, posthumously.
I found it hard to read, as I was so sad that this was the last Douglas Adams' stuff there would ever be. I reread it four years later. ( )

Short stories on the following themes; frustration about computers, absurd humor, atheism, word games. ( )

A posthumous collection of Douglas Adams' essays, interviews, column, stories, and the beginning of an unfinished novel. The part of the novel that is here is really funny.

The rest of the writing tells a lot about Adams that you don't learn from his novels. ( )

There were some parts of the Salmon of Doubt that I found interesting, funny, and enjoyable, but on the whole I found the book rather tedious to get through. I'd still recommend it though to any Douglas Adams fans. ( )