Rating: 
Summary: Hitchhiker's Guide to Reality
Review: This book, and its predecessor "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", are heavily under-rated due to the major success of the Hitch Hiker "trilogy" by Douglas Adams. But in a way, they're the better ones. Especially this one.I won't bother telling the story, because frankly I cannot. Now, I've been reading this book in about monthly intervals for years, but I still find something new each time, and I still have trouble keeping track of the story. Don't let that keep you, though. Yes, it *is* mildly confusing, but it all works out after a couple of times of reading, and it's great fun from first time, page one. Besides, it's worth the effort: there's many a topic for an evening of thinking in there. But that's not what you buy it for. Then there's the business of the Norse Gods walking the Earth, just like your average John Smith. Sort of. Thor naturally makes more of a nuisance of himself, but anyway, the notion of everything that the human race ever chose to believe in being true, and staying true long after we've ceased to need it to be true as well, is an astonishingly moving one. "Immortals was what you wanted, and immortals was what you got", complains one of them bitterly. And rightly so. What would you do if you were an immortal, omnipotent being whom no-one believes in anymore? Chances are, you'd sell your immortal soul to appear in a soft-drink commercial. Once you accept the fantasy part of it, it all snaps in place with logical precision, and even going to Asgard becomes an accepted way to spend the evening. But that's also not what you buy it for. The most outstandingly entertaining thing about the book is, of course, the humour, which is more like what you buy it for. Douglas Adams is an expert for making a pun in a couple of words and leave you laughing longer, and louder, than many other humourists could in an entire page. The incredible lightness of it all is only apparent if you ever tried to write humourous stuff yourself, and thus know how hard that is. No wonder that there are so precious few books from this author. And no wonder that many try to emulate him, and fail. Still, this isn't entirely comedy, and that's a good thing, too. Yes, the Hitch Hiker books give a couple of insights into Life, the Universe and Everything as well -- but the Gently books give more of it, and more practically applicable examples of it, even to those of you who know where their towels are. One of my favourite examples is the way that one of the (mortal) key characters, Kate Schechter, explains how her name is spelled: "Two E's, two C's, two H's, and also a T, an R and an S. Provided they're all there, the bank won't be fuzzy about the order they come in -- they never seem to know themselves." Okay, it's funny, but there's more to it than that: it's the kind of humour you can only really understand with a name like hers -- or mine --, which makes me wonder how someone with an instantly spellable name like Douglas Adams, of all people, found out about it. All in all, this is everything you could want: Hugely entertaining, but in an intelligent way, and not boring however many times you take to it. A must-have-read!
Rating:
Summary: As good as the Hitchiker Trilogy
Review: This book, like most of Adams' books, is one of the best ever written. Especially funny were the pizza problem and the whole ordeal with Holistic Detective Dirk Gently's fridge lurking about.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, once again
Review: This is humor as only Mr. Adams would do it- good thing, because his brand of laughs is the best sort. It's not of the same tone of the Hitchhiker's series, but IMHO, I was a bit relieved at the what I found here, which was more sophisticated wit. Still, Adams hasn't lost his ability to make the most mundane things amusing (pizza...penguins...refrigerators) and all of the characters are, of course, delightfully quirky. They also seem to be intelligent and not left to the hands of Fate quite so much as Arthur and his gang. My point- read this, whether you're a new Adams fan or an age-old one. You won't be disappointed. You may even be pleasantly surprised.
Rating: 
Summary: Gods walk among us
Review: This is the 2nd Dirk Gently novel and like the first it is good fun , with Adams trademark sense of humour. An explosion at Heathrow is called by the press an Act of God, and it turns out to be more than tabloid hyberbole, as Dirk Gently soon discovers.
The feel of the novel is reminiscient of Thorne Smith's 'The Night Life of the Gods'. But although Adam's style is always enjoyable, the novel seems a little thin; all wit and little substance. Given Adams notorious bouts with writer's block maybe his publishers were unwilling to wait for it to be properly polished.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book. two tumbs up!
Review: This is the first book by Douglas Adams that I've read and it won't be the last. The book starts out with a big explosion, which brings us to the main characters Kate, Dirk, Thor, and Odin. Kate was brought into the story by the explosion because almost seconds before she was trying to help Thor buy a ticket to Oslo. Thor is the son of Odin who acts like a child. Dirk is a private detective working on a case that deals with the gods. The book was hilariously funny, the deranged eagle, the street light thing, and Thor being glued to the floor were some of the more amusing things. Adams is a great author, who has a great vocabulary and an imaginative mind, but he writes kind of confusing so you have to read it more than once to get every detail.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly captivating read.
Review: This was the first book I read by Douglas Adams, after hearing about his famous Hitchhiker's Guide and only being able to find this one at my local library. The story onfolds as Heathrow Airport explodes just adding to our protagonist Kate Schechter's ridiculously bad luck. She then goes on a search trying to find the tall burly Norwegian man she just met before the explosion. Meanwhile, Dirk Gently; our private investigator begins to investigate the case of the exploding airport. The story keeps unfolding until we are immersed by the Norse Gods whose power and notoriety has diminished in the modern world. This book kept me interested through out the whole story. It also got me hooked on Adams's other novels.
Rating:
Summary: DO pick it up, pick it up, pick i-
Review: This, I believe, is one of the funniest books I have ever read. I think this may indeed rival Hitchhikers Guide. The style of humor is definitely different, so if you're expecting the same kind of thing, then you may be a bit let down. However, the more earthbound (or Asgard-bound) humor pulls you in. After a while, Adams goes on to throw the characters into some very strange situations, and the result is almost always hilarious (sometimes in a sick kinda way). Plus, if you read the book, then the heading to my review will make sense.
Rating: 
Summary: contractually obliged
Review: Two things must be said: (1) Douglas Adams shouldn't write sequels. "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "The Resteraunt at the End of the Universe" are equal in quality because they really comprise one book; later books in the series, the true sequels, rapidly go downhill. "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" was genuinely fresh and funny; the first sequel has gone downhill already. The book is NOT about Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency. At any rate, it oughtn't be. Strange things happen but no holistic explanation is to be found. Try Dirk Gently's Ad Hoc Detective Agency instead. (PS: "The Meaning of Lif," another original work, is also worth acquiring.) (2) Adams should start thinking up new titles that aren't pinched from the two hitch-hiker books mentioned above. Honestly! He might as well have a sticker on the cover saying, "No New Ideas". The second star is awarded because Adams is still funny (although he was much funnier in the previous book), certainly more so than his immitator, Terry Pratchett. It's just that I've never seen him be funny in the service of so little.
Rating:
Summary: men in white coats
Review: Whatever you do, do not read this book in public; you could get taken away by two men in white coats who did not realize the fit you are having is just uncontollable laughter.
Rating:
Summary: Well written but confusing story line.
Review: When Dirk Gently, not-so-master-detective, is on the case, who know what can happen? The story opens with an explosion in an airport. This introduces the female lead character and basis of the story. While moving through the story you learn that the old Norse Gods were actually real, but as their human believers dwindled, their powers became less and less. As a large scam between the most powerfull god, a human lawer, and an advitiser rocks the world of the gods, Dirk Gently must smooth everything out, or else the balence between the God's world and the human world will tip, and the angry Gods will run amuck!
While this story is supremely written, a couple parts need to be reread a couple times so you can follow the story line. Adam's familiar humor and observations are just a prevalent, and just as funny as always. If you like this twisted story line as a break from all the other predictable Fantasies, this book is for you!
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