Fun to read. Sometimes it reminded me of Douglas Adams. But either the book wasn't quite as engaging as Adams's work, or the tsunami of Really Bad Things that happened shortly after I brought it home interfered with my reading moods, because I finished Book 1 and never started Book 2. This shouldn't deter others from reading an enjoyable book, I definitely recommend the first volume to Douglas Adams fans.

Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor serves as a companion novel to the British science-fiction television series produced by Grant Naylor Productions, a "gestalt entity" representing the show's creators, Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. This Gold America Books edition contains the first two novels, Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (first published in 1989) and Better Than Life (first published in 1990). The plot of the two books loosely adapts episodes from the first four seasons of the show with Better Than Life beginning immediately after the end of Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. Grant Naylor uses the novel format to explore their characters' backstory more than they could in half-hour episodes while expanding scenes far beyond the means available to them on the television series' budget and runtime. Fans of the show will enjoy this, though they should read it after watching the series as it contains spoilers, and it will appeal to those who enjoy similar works such as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. ( )

As a long-time fan of the show, I couldn't pass up the chance to read the novel that started it all. The problem with being a fan of the show first is finding a way to comment on the book as a standalone thing, not in comparison to the TV series that came after it. It's hard to draw the line at knowing how much I enjoyed the book for its own sake and how much I enjoyed it because it took me back to the days of watching British comedy on YTV at night.

On one hand, the humour in the book was great, subtle in some places and wonderfully over-the-top in others. I was reminded of Douglas Adams at some points, which probably speaks well for Naylor's ability to make the absurd seem normal and the normal seem pretty darn laughable when you get right down to it. On the other hand, as a whole the writing style didn't seem particularly distinguishable. I doubt I'd be able to look at a piece of Naylor's writing and go, "Aha, that was written by Grant Naylor, no doubt about it."

That being said, though, it isn't as though I didn't enjoy the book. When compared to the show, it added background information to characters, made them see a little less like characters and more like people with very strange but entirely believable personality quirks. And I certainly want to be able to read the rest of the Red Dwarf books whenever I'm able to, and not just for nostalia purposes, either.

This isn't a book I would recommend to someone right off the bat; I think it's best for fans of the show to read, really, or someone who enjoys space comedy (and there aren't too many of that kind of book around, really). Enjoyable, but not spectacular unless you already know you'll like it. ( )

Hilarious! ( )

I like the TV series but couldn't get into the book. ( )