Pagetitle: Jason Cain

Review

Rating: 7

I have been a huge fan of Douglas Adams since I discovered his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books when I was about 13 or 14. I find his unique brand of oddball humor very entertaining, and have read Hitchhiker’s Guide several times. Like his other fans, I was shocked and saddened to hear of his death of a heart attack at age 49 in May, 2001.

The Salmon of Doubt serves as a kind of tribute to Adams put together by some of his friends after his death. The bulk of the material consists of a collection of interviews, speeches, letters, columns, and other short pieces on a wide range of topics including the Beatles, evolution, Macintosh computers, and a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in a rhinoceros suit. Also included are two short fiction pieces, “Young Zaphod Plays it Safe” and “The Private Life of Genghis Khan”. I had read these before but enjoyed reading them again anyway, particularly “Genghis Khan”.

The final third of the book is a portion of a novel Adams was working on when he died, pieced together from several different drafts. It takes place in the world of Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective, although Adams hinted he might turn it into another Hitchhiker’s Guide book. I enjoyed it, although as may be expected it suffers from some rough transitions and no real conclusion. Still, the editors have done a good job of taking bits and pieces scattered across several drafts on different computers and putting together a coherent story (as coherent as any story Adams wrote, anyway).

Reading this book was bittersweet for me, because while I was laughing out loud at the content the thought that Adams won’t be around to provide more laughs was in the back of my mind. Still, I think any fan of his work would enjoy this book, and even non-fans might find it an interesting introduction to the strange and wonderful mind of Douglas Adams.