Review: The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams

Sep 192010
 

A collection of articles, letters, essays and finally the draft of the latest installment of The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Salmon of Doubt. The book was edited and publish posthumously after the sudden departure of Douglas Adams.

The front cover of the UK first hardcover edit...
Image via Wikipedia

The book gives an insight to the man behind the Hitch-hiker’s Guide books, some background of his early years, his opinions, convictions, believes and love for science and technology. Douglas Adams has been writing for popular journals and magazines and this book includes some of his writings. As always, he’s funny, informative and thought-provoking.

The last part of the book includes what is believed would have become the 6th and last installment of The Hitch-hiker’s Guide had Adams completed it. Granted it wasn’t a finished work, overall, it wasn’t the best part of the series either.

For Douglas Adams fans and perhaps The Hitch-hiker’s affictionados this book is a good read. Otherwise, one might find the discontinuity and the patch-work of pieces in the book distracting and incoherent.

The book is forwarded by Stephen Fry and Simon Johns.

Meta;
Type: Mixed.
Categories: Articles, Letters, Science-fiction.
Edition(s) read: Audio.
Rating: 3.5/5.
Recommendation: Recommended for Douglas Adams fans.

Review: The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Sep 192010
 

Douglas Adams‘ epic saga of an Earthling and his pal going through the most absurd yet extremely amusingly ironic, sarcastic and downright hilarious adventures.

Cover of the original UK paperback edition of ...
Image via Wikipedia

The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (25th anniversary edition) is the most read book on my shelf and I’m not a fiction reader by any stretch of imagination. Adams has a way to present very complex and controversial topics with humor and sarcasm.

Adams explores many topics that are both of human and natural origins. There is no one particular primary theme as such, but the characters run into the most unexpected and absurd of situations. The author takes every opportunity possible to provoke the reader in some fashion while being superbly entertaining. He’s not shy of breaking the laws of physics rather he invents ways around their limitations. Devices such as the infinite improbability drive, invented a “smart ass” lab assistant, inverts the probability of one’s atoms spontaneously reappearing in some remote corner of the universe to offer instant teleportation to its users.

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Meta;
Type: Fiction.
Category: Science-fiction.
Edition(s) read: Book, Audio & Radio dramatization.
Rating: 5/5.
Recommendation: Highly recommended for everyone.

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