Douglas Adams Starship Titanic

Rating:
Summary: A few good skits, a lot of wasted space.
Review: Based on a line from D.A.'s Hitchhiker's Guide, and the computer game spinoff. Terry Brooks, of Monty Python fame. About the Starship Titanic (surprise surprise!) which seems to undergo SMEF - Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure.
I'd gotten my hopes up before reading it, since it is a collaboration between two people whose humor I hold in very high esteem. But it just...fell flat. It's sort of amusing. But not. Several of the gags are ones which would make good skits (One of the characters reminds me of the skit where a couple goes to a marriage counselor, and the wife winds up hooking up with the counselor.) but horrible book premises. And Brooks seems to think that the funny name gag is just mega-hugely-HIGHlarious! Maybe if it was being read out loud or something - but if a name takes me a full minute to pronounce, I don't care how silly it is, I'm just going to skip it. While Adams' hand is obviously visible, it isn't enough to turn the trick. It's simply yawnworthy. Not hard to finish, but that's just because it's a quick read. Besides the lack of real humor, I think I hate some of the characters. I mean, the way that they're presented, it's obviously meant to make them comical - but they just come off as shallow, self-involved, manipulative. And I find myself asking the question - "Why do these people stay in these relationships?" He tries to save it in the end by explaining some of their actions - but it's too little, and far far too late. I should see signs of these emotional patterns long before page 230 of a 240 page book. While Adams might not make his characters mega-super-heroes, but he at least makes them generally sympathetic. Or understandable. 3/10

Rating:
Summary: The funny side of space opera
Review: It seems a bit silly to try to review Starship Titanic. When Terry Jones of Monty Python fame writes a novel based on an idea by the late and always great Douglas Adams, well, need anyone say more?

Nonetheless, I will. For what it's worth, the style is distinctly that of Douglas Adams, though I've never read Terry Jones in written format so I don't know how he reads. Theirs was obviously a productive collaboration. Now, to be a blunt reviewer, the book is not perfect. The early pages are a bit light on humor. This is not compensated for by brilliant literary symbolism, character development, or any other terms that English professors know about but I can't think of right now. Frankly, he overdid the corny names gag for the aliens. But most of the book involves human characters and nameless robots.

Fortunately, Jones hits his stride after a few dozen pages and then things move along nicely. It's pure humor, but still manages a few plot twists, some sex, and some violence. It's a bit randier than the normal Douglas Adams fare, but check out the author portrait on the inside back cover for a real surprise. The only other complaint I have is that I finished it in one sitting. One can never have too much Hitchhiker's Guide, I mean Monty Python, um, I mean Starship Titanic.

P.S. After glancing at a few reviews, it is obvious that some people are missing the point. The storyline's origin is from a snippet in the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Although it was developed into a novel and a video game at the same time, each should be treated in its own right, and not evaluated as a derivative of the other. I haven't played the game, nor did I know of its existence until reading the introduction. See my above comments regarding the quality of the Novel, Starship Titanic.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Panic!: Not good, but better than it should be.
Review: The best part of this book is the three and a half page introduction written by Douglas Adams. This isn't to say that the rest of the book isn't good; it is, a light and entertaining read. But Terry Jones never quite captures the careless levity that is the trademark of the Hitchiker Trilogy. In fact, while reading the book certain dialog and situations appear stilted, and it's only if you realize that most of these areas are the result of incorporating material from the computer game of the same name does it become more excusable.

Still, the result is a book that, while entertaining to read, wouldn't be particularly entertaining to read again. The short length of the book produces a feeling more of relief than regret, a sure sign of a thin plot.