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: Absurd, bizarre, and extremely funny
Review: "Starship Titanic" may be a slight science-fiction novel, but one shouldn't expect Homer's "Odyssey" out of story based on about a paragraph of writing from Douglas Adams' renowned "Hitchhiker's Trilogy". Even if it lacks a deep story or meaningful characters, "Starship Titanic" still has many things going for it. For starters, it's a short book, clocking in at a reasonable 256 pages and it reads very fast. Second, it was written by former Monty Pythonite, Terry Jones (in the nude, no less, according to the introduction), which gives it such and absurd, off-the-wall effect that one cannot help but be amused and drawn in by this book.
The story of a wayward luxury spaceliner that finds itself (and a few unwelcome passengers) transported from its planetary system to the one that houses Earth. Some earthbound humans end up boarding the ship for the adventure and then try frantically to get the ship to take them back home when they realize it's leaving Earth. On top of that, saboteurs from the other planetary system have planted a super-deluxe bomb aboard to destroy the ship. The humans want to get back home, the designers of the ship want to prevent the bombing to save their economy, and everyone is trying to figure why they can't seem to get an upgrade to First Class even though they're the only people on the ship. It's unbelievable the level of absurdity that takes place in this book, but there is no doubting how much fun it is. There is a space battle against a species that tries fix everything it damaged after a battle even though they don't fire weapons that can do any damage; there's an intriguing sexual encounter between the Journalist from the other system and a human female in the desperate seconds before they think the bomb will destroy them all and the subsequent attempts by the Journalist to get that female to repeat the performance; and then there's the bomb, itself. Lacking a special memory crystal, the countdown for this bomb cannot by stopped. Yet, it seems possible to distract him from the countdown, causing him to lose his place and have to start over again.
Having yet to read Adam's "Hitchhiker's Trilogy" (now at five books), I cannot comment as to how this little tale fits into the overall arc of that story and how it meshes with his writing style. That being said, Jones' Pythonesque influence makes this one of the craziest books to come along in awhile and definitely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: an abomination
Review: Get out of print already, "Starship Titanic". Your very existence is an insult.
Rating:
Summary: A few good skits, a lot of wasted space.
Review: Based on a line from D.A.'s <u>Hitchhiker's Guide</u>, 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 <i>how</i> 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 <i>hate</i> 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 <i>long</i> 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: an abomination
Review: Get out of print already, "Starship Titanic". Your very existence is an insult.
Rating:
Summary: Worst book I ever read
Review: This is one, if not THE, worst book that I've ever read. If you're interested in the plot, go play the computer game instead of reading this book. Douglas Adams actually worked on the game, for one thing. It's like Myst meets Hitchhiker's Guide. It's fun, amusing, and it's got puzzles. The book, which he didn't have much of a hand in, is horrible. Really, trulely horrible. It's no wonder the game didn't sell all that well if this is what people read. This book is random, pointless, and not at all funny. I chucked it shortly after I got it. Of course, that meant I had to find some poor being to pawn it off on, so I donated it to a library instead. I actually feel sort of guilty about that, since it really was that horrible. What if *gasp* someone actually tries to read it?
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: Ugh! Not cohesive, amusing but not funny...
Review: I really wanted to like this book as I really like both Adams and Jones. Unfortunately the book is not cohesive. There are amusing lines and the potential for funny setups but it never really delivers. It needs more depth. By the time I was done with the book I was not only suprized that it was already over but also left with that strange taste in my mouth, like when you eat some new foreign delicacy that leaves you wondering "What did I just eat and do I like this?". This title is not at all worth the cover price. Only buy this at discount or better buy used.
Rating:
Summary: Complete Mockery Of Game Storyboard
Review: Introduction:
Loved the game, Disliked the book!
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I found this book to be a complete mockery of it's game origin. I found countless errors and pieces of conradictory information in this book regarding the starship and its crew and passengers that were hopelessly tried to be copied from the book in a failed attempt. But I found the begenning to be very creative and well tracked to the storyboard of the game plus a good ending. I also thought that some of the characters were poorly made including a nymphomaniac journalist and a (soon to be hopeless) couple plus the ship's crew (working bots) to have conradictory personalitys and vocabularitys to the identical ones in the game! Not only that but some of the technoligy is off-beat to the game including the end solution to get back to earth.
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Summary:
Bad storyline + facts not based on the game + nymphomaniac journalist + good beggening & ending - the touch and mind of the real Douglas Adams himself = the really dissapointing Starship Titanic book!
Rating: 
Summary: Well, I think it's fantastic
Review: Not that it's a perfect book by any means- I could have done with less romanticism. But the humor is absurd and freewheeling, and it's a good short read- just enough to wind down after a long day at work. A collaboration worthy of it's participants.
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