This is a posthumous collection of Douglas Adams' writings. It's tragic because I hate to think of a world without Adams' wit and insight, because I hate reading the first handful of chapters of what would have been "Salmon of Doubt" and knowing with a sickening feeling in my gut that now it will never, ever be finished.

This is a collection for true Adams fans. If you are a casual reader who has never read Adams' work before, give this a pass. If, on the other hand, you have read all five Hitchhiker's books and the two Dirk Gently novels nothing will stop you from getting hold of this book, will it? Of course not.

There is a touching forward by Stephen Fry, as well as some biographical information about Adams at the start of the book. Then we have a collection of his non-fiction essays, depending on your interests you may or may not enjoy them. Some, especially the anecdotal pieces, really show all of the warmth and humor of his fiction writing. My personal favorite is his account of two dogs that weren't really his, but that spent a lot of time ignoring him in Santa Fe. The more technological pieces may pall on readers who don't share those interests, and some of them are quite dated now, as well.

The collection also contains some curious odds and ends, like introductions he wrote for various books, speeches or interviews he gave, and unfinished oddities recovered from his various computers after his death.

There are two short stories, both related to the Hitchhiker's universe, "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" and "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe." "Young Zaphod" is classic Adams, and feels exactly like a "missing scene" from one of the first three Hitchhiker's books, and any fans who haven't read it before will want to pick up a copy of this collection for this short story, if for nothing else, I'm sure.

Then at the end we have the first few chapters of what would have been a new Dirk Gently novel (although Adams was considering turning it into a Hitchhiker's book, what we have here makes use of the Dirk Gently characters and universe). These chapters are very rough and unfinished, but they're still brilliant and in a way that makes it all the worse - you want to know how he would have brought all the plot threads together, what else would have developed, how it would have ended. It's funny and it's engaging and anyone who loved "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" will absolutely love what's there and be left wishing for the rest. And of course none of us will ever know the rest.

Douglas Adams was one of the greats. He will be missed. ( )

An interesting little volume filled with Adams' musings about a wide-ranging array of topics. Some of the essays and articles here are quite good, and others are, well, not quite so good. But they are all written with Adams' trademark zany wit, and you certainly won't be bored.

The good:
As usual, his observations about the foibles of life, whether it's his mortification about having to wear short pants to school because they didn't make long trousers his size, or the story about the stranger stealing his cookies, are hilarious. And his passionate enthusiasm for his personal values, whether it's technology or the Beatles, shines through in every line and is therefore quite contagious. He has a way of turning a phrase to bring an abstract point down to earth, especially when it comes to his criticism of theism. And some of his analogies between evolution and computer science are quite illuminating, particularly his observation that computer code is analogous to the genetic code in showing how evolution operates by performing simple operations millions of times over.

The bad:
As an amateur biologist, however, Adams does tend to get carried away with the computer analogies---no, Douglas, your baby is not "rebooting." Combine this tendency with his otherwise virtuous enthusiasm, and, like many computer scientists, he carries it to the point of assuming that we are on the verge of creating "artificial intelligence," i.e., that in the near future there will be conscious computers. This failure to distinguish between the biological and the man-made plays right into the theists' hands---after all, that's the basic fallacy behind the argument from design (the Celestial Watchmaker and all that), Adams has just kind of done it in reverse. And his playing at being a naturalist is at times almost embarrassing---like when he wants to ride a manta ray, which would probably be pretty cool, and then feels all stupid when told he can't, or when he hikes to Mount Kilimanjaro in a ridiculous rhino suit (although he does recognize the pretension of telling developing nations that they preserve the resources that Western nations "exploited" during their own development).

As for "The Salmon of Doubt" itself, I haven't read either of the previous Dirk Gently novels yet, but I thought this one was shaping up to be, with more polishing, an interesting book. Of course, in its rough form, and with no ending, it is a bit unsatisfying. Overall, however, this collection is well worth reading, but unless you're an Adams collector you can probably stick with the mass market version (or visit your local library). ( )

This is a compilation of writing gathered after the death of the author. While the individual passages are of good quality there is no real flow.
After having read the book I would not have bought it ( )

Listening to the audiobook. This is a collection of pieces about Adams and by him that were rescued from his computers after his death. A lot of short pieces that are classic Adams. The title comes from an unfinished book he was working on--possibly another Dirk Gently novel. Adams was so much more than the Hitchhiker's books and it's sad thinking about how we won't have the chance to hear what else he had to say. ( )

This isn't really for the casual reader... it's a compendium of articles by Adams plus a (very) unfinished Dirk Gently novel. You wouldn't really come to this naturally from the hitchhikers books like the subtitle is trying to encourage. In fact the best place to arrive from would be the second Dirk Gently novel.
Anyway, after some scene setting early days stuff, this settles into some insightful writing by Adams. mainly for magazines and newspapers. I found the MacUser articles quite interesting as his views on what personal computing should be about were pretty good.
There is also a short story about the young Zaphod Beeblebrox, with a rather cliched sci-fi short story ending, plus the Dirk Gently work.
If you read the introduction, you are made well aware of how much of a work in progress this part of the book is, and essentially most of the ends are loose. Which, when you read it, is both disappointing and sad, because this novel appears to have been on the way to something very good. In the more finished parts, the writing is gripping and the mystery (if there is one) is enthralling, it seemed like a better book than the previous Gently novel.
Never mind, it was good to be allowed to see what Adams was working on when he died.

Douglas Adams' writing captured my teenage imagination, and did the same trick for my kids. It's a great pity this writer who was able to combine qualities such as humour, big ideas, satire and humanism into his work is no longer around, we need people like him. ( )