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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun read. I know it's Adams signature style but a tad confusing at times which made it a bit hard to pick up in between times. Very worth the read simply for the almost flippantly presented moments of wisdom to be gleaned.
Douglas Adams had his Star-Wars-like success with *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.* Dirk Gently was his Jar Jar Binks.
This is actually my third attempt at reading this book. I tried reading it once in junior high and again in college. Both times I lacked the patience to get very far into it, and now I know why: for the first half of it, *nothing* happens. When your book is only 260 pages long, you probably shouldn't take 130 pages to get to the plot. There is a chapter in the beginning about boring college dons at a commemorative banquet that is itself overly long, boring, and painfully difficult to get through. The title character himself takes about that long to appear, and when he does, he's frightfully uninteresting, the very opposite of compelling. "But isn't he so zany and clever!" Gently's zaniness and cleverness come off as entirely contrived.
The plot (once it finally lumbers onto the scene) is random and nearly impossible to keep up with. I had to go and read the Wikipedia summary of the book after I finished it to try and understand what the hell had just happened. The only reason I give this book two stars instead of one is because a few parts were genuinely funny. They were few and far between, but they were there.
If there's a silver lining to Adams' tragic and untimely death at the age of 49, it's that he never finished the business of inflicting a third Dirk Gently novel on us. RIP in peace, Mr. Adams.
This is actually my third attempt at reading this book. I tried reading it once in junior high and again in college. Both times I lacked the patience to get very far into it, and now I know why: for the first half of it, *nothing* happens. When your book is only 260 pages long, you probably shouldn't take 130 pages to get to the plot. There is a chapter in the beginning about boring college dons at a commemorative banquet that is itself overly long, boring, and painfully difficult to get through. The title character himself takes about that long to appear, and when he does, he's frightfully uninteresting, the very opposite of compelling. "But isn't he so zany and clever!" Gently's zaniness and cleverness come off as entirely contrived.
The plot (once it finally lumbers onto the scene) is random and nearly impossible to keep up with. I had to go and read the Wikipedia summary of the book after I finished it to try and understand what the hell had just happened. The only reason I give this book two stars instead of one is because a few parts were genuinely funny. They were few and far between, but they were there.
If there's a silver lining to Adams' tragic and untimely death at the age of 49, it's that he never finished the business of inflicting a third Dirk Gently novel on us. RIP in peace, Mr. Adams.
I think my expectations were a bit too high for this book, didn't enjoy it quite as much as I thought I would
Audiobook featuring a full BBC production with a great cast! Perfect for the commute. 😊
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very enjoyable, but I think "Hitchhikers Guide" is funnier. Regardless, Douglas Adams was brilliant.