Rating: 
Summary: Just amazing
Review: I had always been a casual fan of Douglas Adams, and it wasn't until his death that I really felt that should read all his novels. I have to say, that this book, though it is a compilation of articles he wrote as well as the makings of a Dirk Gently book, gave me great insight into a great writer. It never occurred to me how smart, funny, and talented DNA was until I read this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a good sense of humor and won't mind his out and out atheism.
Rating: 
Summary: Adams exposed
Review: The Salmon of Doubt is an awful book. You do have to feel a little sorry for Douglas Adams since, being dead, he didn't have much say in its publication, and at least half of the material comprises an unedited (one hopes) early draft for a new Dirk Gently novel, but ultimately he's to blame him for it; he, and no-one else, wrote every word, and with the notable exception of a couple of articles, pretty much every word is dire. Douglas Adams wasn't a born novelist, after all - he was a radio producer, scriptwriter and general gadfly about town whose enormous, but accidental, success with the radio show The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy obliged him to become a novelist. As a novelist, he certainly had some nice ideas, a keen eye for social observation, and an idiosyncratic - definitely witty - turn of phrase which sustained itself for the 120 odd pages of the penguin paperback, but had thoroughly worn out its welcome by the end of the second instalment. And there it really all should have ended. Instead Adams was compelled (no doubt for financial reasons) to promulgate further, increasingly smug and vapid, instalments of the Hitch-Hiker's series, two fully fledged Dirk Gently novels (again, the idea was good, execution irritating as hell), and with each the sense grew that Adams spent far too much time engineering clever-clogs grammatical constructions, and not nearly enough time concentrating on the novel he was trying to write. Instead of murdering his own darlings, Adams smothers the readers with them instead. Thereafter, career as a novelist seemed to die off, to be succeeded by a unremarkable career of op-ed pieces for broadsheets and computer magazines, together with creation of various pieces of software and computer games. These were the lofty heights attained by such an apparently gifted writer. This posthumously published book anthologises the post Dirk Gently aspect of his career. I can save those of you who have not caught up with Douglas Adams since Zaphod Beeblebrox a few wasted hours here: You've not missed much. Just two pieces are worth the paper they're written on; one is a plea for a new global standard universal AC adapter for all electrical appliances, the other is a lengthy ex tempore speech in which Adams, without recourse to his irritating brand of wit, sets out his extremely convincing, well-composed views on religion and atheism. Given my views on his textual over-engineering, I think it is no accident that this piece, which stands head and shoulders above anything else in this book, was spoken on the hoof, apparently without notes.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Bag of Musings from the Mind of a Comic Genius
Review: As a diehard Douglas Adams fan who discovered the Hitchhikers radio series during the initial radio broadcast oh so long ago, it was with some hesitation that I approached this book, the last output from Douglas Adams's mind. Although, Salmon was well worth it, it is a mixed bag of writings, musings and interviews. There are some absolutely brilliant parts that make the book well worth reading, e.g., nonfiction pieces such as "The Rhino Climb" and "Riding the Rays" or fiction works such as "The Private Life of Genghis Khan". The eponymous unfinished book presented at the end gives a mere glimpse of where Adams was going with "Salmon," but reading it, I could only imagine how much better it would have been when finished and what a loss the world suffered with his untimely death. Then there is the filler used to bulk out the book which detract from the better parts. Nevertheless, some of the other gems, including Adams talking about his atheism and his speech from Digital Biota 2, give a fascinating insight into Adams the person rather than Adams the author.
Rating:
Summary: Audio CD not worth the money.
Review: This has got to be the poorest mastering job I have ever found for an Audio Book. The actual contents are fine; the recording is good, the reading is good, and the material is moderately intriguing. However, it is without excuse that the 7 CD set contains only 1 track per disc. Do the producers really think that people want to listen to a book of letters, memoirs, interviews, and miscellany in a single (or 7 1-hour 10-minute) sitting(s)? It is unbelievable that the various chapters of the book have not been given individual track numbers. For my own use, before I could bear to listen to this audio book, I had to rip the entire 7-disc set and segment it so I could handle it in reasonable chunks. That took me 5 hours. Oh, and there is not even a Table of Contents. I had to find one on somebody's website, so I'd have some sort of clue what I'd find in this book. This is inexcusable and irritating, especially for an audio book that retails for $45. If this is how all of New Millennium's titles are, I'll never buy one again.
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven, but clearly Adams.
Review: "The Salmon of Doubt" is posthumous gleaning of Douglas Adams' several extant MAC-only (with a passion) hard-drives. Even heavily edited, it presents both the wheat and the chaff, which is the stuff of this genre. We are shown bits and pieces at various stages of development with clear flashes of the whimsical e'clat of "The Hitchhiker's" persona and intellect at work. Of further interest are the brief bio tidbits, the eclectic periodical offerings, the travels with a patient wife, the ongoing battle with the demons of procrastination, and the gangly sense of self amid the masses of unpredictable humanity. This book's central thesis is Adams himself, rather than any sort of fictional tale-telling by the author. As such, it might prove to be a background goldmine for any research paper assignment, an increasing probability given the place of the Hitchhiker's Trilogy in modern fiction. I got the same sense of an old friend, warts and all, from Richard Brautigan's "An Unfortunate Woman" which his daughter released twenty years after the author's death. In both books, enough of the polished wordsmith remains for the seeker of a last morsel to savor.
Rating:
Summary: Life, the Universe and Douglas Adams
Review: This is a fascinating book for anyone at all familiar with the works of Douglas Adams. (For the rest of you, well, you're at Amazon.com anyway, so zap over to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and get busy clicking.) The over-riding sense one gets from reading this collection of essays, letters, speeches and drafts is of a man whose brain never stopped humming with ideas and energy, someone who was not content with a casual approach to anything, but rather loved to fiddle and tease and prod and riff. Here, you will see that brain in action covering a wide assortment of topics, from computers to manta rays to P.G. Wodehouse. I have two main frustrations with Adams. One is that his ideas, while brilliant, tended not to have much stamina: My favorite of his books has always been Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The second Dirk book, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, was stale in comparison. And frankly, the last two books of the Hitchhiker series ought never to have been published. Given the format of Salmon, you won't see that here. Just about everything in it is fresh and alive and energetic. My other problem is Adams' persistent and dogged atheism. The reason I find this rather sad is that few other authors seem to have such an eye for what one might call the Divine Blueprint, the interrelation of all things from the tiniest particles to the Universe as a whole. Adams was keenly aware of the infinite beauty and complexity of Creation and yet stubbornly refused to believe a conscious Will could be behind it. Time and again, he managed to describe God's thumbprints without recognizing them for what they are. (Of course, plenty of folks may not agree with or care about my view, but this is my post.) Anyway, I've a pretty good notion that St. Pete let Adams into Heaven, if for no other reason than to relish the look on Adams' face when he got there and got the spiritual equivalent of a Babel fish put in his ear. Adams' talent and outlook are virtually impossible to explain to anyone who hasn't read his books. Like breakfast at Milliways, The Salmon of Doubt is a great way to round out your collection of Adams impossibilities. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Could my review title possibly do justice?
Review: The Salmon of Doubt, the working title of Douglas Adams's last unfinished novel has instead been given to this last compilation of his writings. We do get to read the working draft copies of those chapters, leaving behind a mystery of what could have been (and honestly, a mystery of what in the world a couple of those chapters were even talking about). I found the rest to be even more illuminating; consisting mostly of essays, letters, articles, and interviews that Douglas Adams wrote or gave throughout his life. It has actually been a while since I've read his works, and I can see now the wit and cleverness present in virtually every sentence, even without the wild and outrageous humor I expected when I was younger. Although I like his work, I've never considered myself an avid follower; so much of what he was doing with his life was unknown to me until reading this collection. The gain is mine now, because Douglas Adams is, for lack of a more profound way to express it, a really fun guy to read.
Rating:
Summary: HILARIOUS YET SAD
Review: This is the last book from the comic genius Douglas Adams, who died WAY too young. It will make you laugh your guts out, yet you may feel like weeping knowing there's no more to come. If you're a Douglas Adams fan, you MUST have it. If you're not, why aren't you? He was the greatest!
Rating:
Summary: The book to get inside a comic genius's mind!
Review: Fans of Hithhiker's Guide To The Galaxy will find this book to be a terrific insight into the genius that was Douglas Adams. You will probably be surprised that he had a very serious side. Unlike his more fantastical escapades, though, this book will probably force readers to shed a tear now and again. Pity we lost such an artist at so early a time. I feel cheated, as I am confident he would have composed a masterpiece regarding Sahaf, Blair and Bush! Just as was Adams, I am a devotee of MacIntosh computers. All you Windows-operated PC fans, read Adams's remarks about Mac computers and you just may come to understand the rest of us. I also was surprised to learn that Adams was most proud not of his fiction. He was proudest of Last Chance To See. Want to know more about that one? Read my review of it. For now, though, I think I'll have a pan-galactic gargle blaster and hitch a ride on that passing spaceship! Goodbye Douglas - lots of us down here still remember you even some 25 years later! So long and thanks for all the laughs!
Rating:
Summary: Douglas cannot be dead
Review: Everybody should read 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'!
That is both definite and demanded! This looked as though it had the promise to be better than the other two Dirk Gently books(truth be told, I wasn't a big DG fan). But this one looked as though it had real promise!
It's a shame that we will never get to read the completed text. True, I discovered DA later than some, but I have been a rather zealous for about fourteen years. This is a real kick in the pants for fiction, first Uncle Shelby, then Doug...
(or was it the other way around)
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