The Dirk Gently series was Douglas Adams' other science fiction series apart from his more famous "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." This edition contains both Dirk Gently novels, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul" in one fat hardcover edition. Although I'm normally not a fan of omnibus editions for novels, since there are only two rather short-ish (about 250 pages) novels in the series, the omnibus works well in this case. And since both books are quite fantastic, you'll want them both, anyways.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency:

It's difficult to sum up this book. Despite being less outrageously insane and more down to Earth - or at least, Earth-centric - than Adams' more famous "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, there's still a whole big general mish-mash of things going on here.

Let's see - we have the Electric Monk, who is programmed to believe anything, even "things that they'd have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City." There are two ghosts - one human, one not. There's an eccentric old college don. Quantum physics. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Time travel. A botched alien invasion. A rather amusing bit about a horse in a bathroom. An immovable sofa. And, just for good measure, a dodo.

And, of course, on top of all this we have the title character - Dirk Gently. He's a self-proclaimed "Holistic Detective" determined to find the"whole solution" to the "whole problem" mainly through a complex system of detecting and triangulating vectors of interconnectedness of all things. And if this often means tracing them to a beach in the Bahamas all in the name of finding one little old lady's missing cat, then so be it! (Wait till you see the bill for his services!)

You might think he's exploiting gullible old ladies, but don't worry - they never actually pay him. Gently is over-the-top, obnoxious, insane and very, very entertaining. It's probably best though, that he's not the viewpoint character of the novel (that role is reserved for a more Everyman-ish computer programmer) but Gently certainly steals the scene whenever he does appear.

It must be a testament to Adams' genius that he can take all these disparate events and *really* find an interconnectedness to them to tie the plot together in a satisfying way at the end. If you're a Samuel Taylor Coleridge fan you'll find even more to enjoy in this.

Also, of course, the whole thing is absolutely hilarious. If this is you're first time reading anything by Douglas Adams' you'll quickly see that he's got some wonderfully funny turns of phrase and a knack for humorous observations. He's also got a penchant for wonderfully mad characters. All in all this is a greatly enjoyable read. Highly recommended. One of my favorites 5/5

The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul:

Has a great title. Has Dirk Gently, who is always enormous fun to read about. Has Norse gods, an out-of-order soft drink machine, an exploded airport terminal, and a dirty fridge.

Still completely enjoyable to read, this novel loses something when compared to the first, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" - the conclusion was less satisfying and it seemed to "lose steam" towards the ending. Still a great read, however. Very fun, humorous and entertaining.

Also, you know how people are said to only use about ten percent of their brain? Turns out the rest is full of penguins. (4/5) ( )

This books contains "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul". I enjoyed reading both of these again. As books in some ways these are better than Adams' better known Hitchikers books. ( )

This is the book that introduced me to Douglas Adams. I got this from a coffee shop that sells some used books, because I recognized his name from Neil Gaiman's blog. I'm so glad I did! The book is hilarious, even ridiculous, and so much fun to read! It made me laugh out loud in several parts, and I thoroughly enjoyed the two novels. ( )