Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: I happened upon this book by chance. Don't know why I bought it. I'm not a sci-fi fan. I didn't even care for the Hitchhiker series. But it turns out my purchase of this book was one of those rare, gleeful instances of sublime chance when you stumble over something FANTASTIC! I've never seen the TV show (it's British, right?) so I can't say whether you'd be disappointed in it by comparison, but even going in cold I found this book to be stunningly clever, outrageously funny, and just...charming. I made my husband read it. I made my son read it. This was several years ago, and yet we're still quoting dialogue to one another and doing the "Rimmer" in odd (though appropriate) moments. Go ahead and buy the sequel "Better Than Life" because it's equally good and you won't be able to resist finding out what happens to Lister and company. Why these books aren't blazingly HOT in the US is a mystery to me because they definitely have mainstream appeal. Whenever I find someone else who has read them I up their "coolness" factor.
Rating:
Summary: Red Dwarf
Review: I bought this book because it sounded interesting and funny. It was both. You can easily read it in a day or two. It is light on the "techno-babble" and all you need is an open imagination to enjoy it. The last few chapters is a total surprise! It was the first book I have truly enjoyed in a long time. It actually made me smile.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste, don't bother with it
Review: I love Red Dwarf the TV series, it's smart and funny. But this book is just depressing. And they have a nerve to compare it to H2G2. Please do yourself a favor and stay away from it.
Rating: 
Summary: A sci-fi farce with a really bizzare ending
Review: Red Dwarf is a sci-fi farce. Although it is not terribly done and does have some famously funny moments, the finale is a too weird and inconsistent. A recommend for those who need sci-fi humor, but everyone else should probably skip it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!!!!
Review: Well maybe not wonderful but is pretty funny and the television show is not that bad either. Both the book and the show remind me alot of Dougles Adams
Rating: 
Summary: Slow down there - hazard ahead
Review: If you're like me, you picked up Red Dwarf because of the numerous comparisons to Doulgas Adams' Hitchhiker's guide series, and the compliments from British television viewers. David Lister (the hero) is no Arthur Dent. Rather than lampoon Earthling culture (read Anglo) like Douglas Adams, the team of Grant & Naylor try to send up a more specific variety of personalities - the loser with a simple heart, and the incompetent egomaniac. Not only are these characters not terrifically funny, but hard to relate to. The result is a very dark plotline with the best laughs being offered in Naylor's description, rather than the actual plot or dialog. I got three really good laughs out of this book, and that's about it. And the ending (which I won't divluge) - all I can say is "Sheesh!" While the television series may have been a classic (check your sources,) the book I read is hopefully not a worthy indicator of the shows' humor or quality. (P.S. - I caught the series on Sci Fi the other night, and other than the odd laugh, it's a fairly accurate video rendition of the book. If it's your thing, enjoy, but it just isn't that funny.) Read any one of the Hitchhiker's guide books again, or Adams' excellent non-fiction "Last Chance to See" which should be a better representation of the type of humor mixed with pathos that Grant & Naylor were trying for.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT COMEDY I loved it.
Review: I loved this book it was the greatest Single peice of literature ever written. I don't wanna spoil it but Rob Grant and Doug Naylor hide some secret messages in the book. They even predict the Great Irish CHeese Famine of 2000. I like this book so much I wrote a letter to Grant and he said I can be his adopted son. He throws rocks at me which I don't like. But then he said I had to work in a Brewery. SO I left and I said " This ain't my gig foolio" and all was well. The aliens left messages too but I receive them through my ocular implant. Maybe these orchards still use DDT. Im not sure. Email me. I can help with the aliens. The cheese coloured cat with brownies so told me.
Rating:
Summary: They should have scrapped the show and kept up w/ the books
Review: I found "Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers" when I was a junior in high school. Instantly, I fell in love with it. I must have read it three or four times before I discovered the second novel, "Better Than Life," which I inhaled with as much enthusiasm as the first. Then I waited with baited breath for the third book to come out. Which it never did. Disappointment abounded as I eagerly checked the bookstores every few months for the new installment. Eventually I gave up. It wasn't until two years later, when I was flipping through channels late one night, that I discovered that these books were, in fact, based on a television show! This floored me, since most novelizations of tv shows/films are utter smeg. I soon became a huge fan. However, none of the 52 episodes ever grabbed me quite the same way as these two books did. Makes me wish that G&N scrapped the show altogether and concentrated on the books. Naylor and Grant made a fantastic team and it's such a tragedy that they won't be writing any more books together. Their solo efforts leave much to be desired. Rob Grant's "Backwards" had great characterizations and dialogue, but had very little plot or direction. Doug Naylor's "Last Human" had a rip-roaring plot, but the dialogue was hackneyed and the characterizations had the consistancy of cardboard. Sigh. Where is Ace Rimmer's dimension jumping ship when you need one?
Rating:
Summary: Great comic adventure tale
Review: No sense ruining a good story by telling you how it turns out. Better to describe it, so you can tell whether or not it fits your tastes. This is a hilarious, laugh-out-loud sort of book, appealing to the same tastes as the "Mash" series does, but in a dry, British sort of way. It's written in a deadpan, tongue in cheek style not unlike Terry Pratchett, but more sci-fi, like Douglas Adams. In fact, it has quite a bit in common with "Hitchhiker's", and I think that Marvin and Kryton would probably get along marvelously well. Perhaps this is something of a developing genre, the male comic adventure in space unquest. If that's the case, I might lump in "Venus on the Half Shell" (Kilgore Trout, nee Farmer). For those of us who catch this through BBC Prime or PBS, and didn't have the opportunity to watch the original broadcasts in sequence, this book is a boon. Believe it or not, starting in the middle, I was able to watch a dozen episodes before reading this book and discovering that little incident with the stasis field. Talk about your "AHH! That explains it!" moments. You have a whole new incentive to watch that late Saturday night PBS rerun when you actually know the complete story. It just seems like coincidence layered on top of infinite impossibility..... until you recognize the cosmic plan at work here. If you buy this book, you might as well buy the sequel, because you won't want to stop, and that way you won't get stuck wanting to know how it turns out and not being able to find part 2. For me, the book was very true to the TV show, and neither one ruined the other for me. If you've seen all the shows in sequence, then maybe the book won't be as much of a treat-but my guess is that most literate fans of the show will like the book. You don't need to have seen "Red Dwarf" to enjoy the book. I loaned it to a co-worker with a sense of humor and he's having a great time with it-without ever having seen the series.
Rating:
Summary: Must read!
Review: I read this book years ago and I'm still laughing. Get this book ASAP.
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