Douglas Adams - The Salmon of Doubt: Special Edition

Pros: One last book by Douglas Adams. (mostly).
Cons: One last book by Douglas Adams. (mostly).

This book, like anything else done by Douglas Adams, is a masterpiece. For those of you who don't know who Douglas Adams is let me give you a quick sum up. He's English. He started his career in life in radio and created the "Hitchhikers Guide" series...

Pros: As eclectic a mix as you can imagine, a fitting tribute.
Cons: Not what it first appears.

From the beginning with an enthusiastic note from the Editor you can see that the "Salmon of Doubt" is a book that has been collected by fans of Adams's work, for fans. I must admit to being sceptical of the foreword by Stephen Fry and was surprised to ...

Pros: A real glimpse into a wonderful mind.
Cons: Also a reminder that Douglas Adams won't be here anymore.

I’m going to open this review with my favorite passage in The Salmon of Doubt. In the book, the essay is called “Radio Scripts Intro,” for the obvious reason that it’s the introduction from the compilation of radio scripts from the ...

Pros: Hilarious, insightful about Adams' life
Cons: Incomplete ending (Adams died)

This is Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,last book. He died last year at the age of 49. Had a heart attack at the gym. Anyway, the book is funny. The short stores in the "Life" section are hilarious. The book is a compilation of...

Pros: Just when I thought I'd never read any more unpublished Adams prose, here some is!
Cons: A bit maudlin, due to Adams' death. And the title story is, of course, incomplete.

If I have to explain my title, you have no business reading this book. First go read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" -- all five books of the trilogy. Then read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul"....

Pros: Great collection of articles and a glimpse into Adams' life
Cons: Much was already published in other collections

Salmon of Doubt is a collection of short stories, articles, speeches, and an unfinished novel that w ...

Pros: Douglas Adams on life, the universe and everything
Cons: the Dirk Gently story included is far from complete, DNA is no more

Douglas Noel Adams, born 1952 in Cambridge (giving him a good nine months headstart over that other DNA that was all the rage a little later), is not, it must be said, the funniest man alive. The reason for this, of course, is that he escaped ...

Pros: Douglas Adams is great.
Cons: Douglas Adams is gone. :(

I picked up The Salmon of Doubt to be completist. However, I was under the impression that it contained an unfinished Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy story. It doesn't. Not really. What it does contain is a short biography of the late ...

Pros: Getting to know who Douglas Adams' was.
Cons: Not very entertaining at parts

In fall 2001, author Douglas Adams, writer of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” died. Peter Guzzardi, his editor, and others took on the task of making a compilation of the man's works. They collected over 2700 works. Some were just letters, others ...

Pros: um, it's Douglas Adams
Cons: not very coherent

Summary:
There isn't really much to summarize here. The book is a collection of magazine articles, letters, and first drafts of stories for future books by Douglas Adams. It also contains a biography and some extensive contributions by Adams's editor and several fans.

My Comments:
As much as I love Douglas Adams' work, I'm just not so big of a fan that I want every scrap of writing he has ever written. Some of the stuff in the book is fun and interesting and I must admit that it is nice to see a bit more of the preservationist side of Adams rather than just the humor. But, this book is really more of a compilation of dissimilar material for the extreme Adams fan. If you absolutely have to have everything that Adams ever wrote, you'll probably want this book. If you are more interested in Adams's novels you may not find this quite so interesting.