Rating: 
Summary: A very funny and entertaining book.
Review: I recently read this book and i have to say that it is one of the best novels i've read for a long time. The characters are perfectly created, the setting is perfect, and the plot is great. Eric Idle has written a great book. Bravo Eric!
Rating: 
Summary: flawed but ok
Review: Eric Idle's (Carlton's) theory of comedy unfortunately ultimately doesn't provide any answers, and his final theory itself is just a stupid joke. Which is a shame because i thought the topic was quite interesting. The ending was indeed lame. Comparing this book to Douglas Adams' work is appropriate, because Adams hasn't written anything worth reading since the third hitchhiker book. Having said that, Road to Mars is a quick read and there were some amusing parts, which fits most of my criteria for a good book.
Rating: 
Summary: Here's a constructive suggestion
Review: Go and buy Ben Elton's 'Inconceivable' instead. I don't think Amazon's got it yet, but the story is much stronger, and the ending doesn't suck.If you like your funny books to actually be funny, then wait for Inconceivable.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm sorry to express my non-conformist opinion........
Review: But I thought it was a good book. Being a truly fanatical Monty Python fan, I picked it up expecting spectacular results. Admittedly, those were not what I got, but I thought it was a good book. It's quite funny, and the incredible number of Monty Python related stuff that slips in is great fun, like when Carlton can't understand with the Flying Circus is all about, and John Cleese's name appearing twice, and Eric Idle making fun of himself. Bits of quotes appear as well. The characters are not exceptionally developed, that's true, and the Bill Reynolds narrator person is a bit odd, but it's just a fun book. It's not like reading "Crime and Punishment", people, it's just a nice book to sit down and read when you're bored or slightly hyperactive - so calm down it if wasn't a literary masterpiece. It dosn't have to be to be good.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed, But Good
Review: I must admit serious amusement and minor shock over the venom being unloaded on this little confection of Eric's. I mean hey, it's just a book. Chill out, kids. I own a copy of Hello Sailor and I can assure you all this is four million light-years better than that book. Eric has advanced mightily from that 1976 effort, moving on from the strange calculus of politics and sex (its main character's goal was to bed all the daughters of the British government's cabinet) to the richer, more rewarding issues posed by science, comedy, the future of humanity, and how the three relate to each other in turn. That having been said, I tried to give this book 2 1/2 stars but can't do so under this system. And in the interest of full disclosure, I am compelled to state I'm exactly the sort of person who would watch a test pattern with Eric on it (hey, I videotaped Nearly Departed, for cryin' out loud). I ran out to buy this in hardback. I am also a great flaming fan of Pratchett (sp?) and Adams as well as the Red Dwarf series and Blackadder. I feel the book is not as good as it should be, given Eric's prodigious talents, but not as bad as others would have you believe. In other words--wait for the paperback. The schooled Python fan should have fun with this one, as RM's flaws are flaws one finds in Python productions--the female characters are poorly drawn (especially the romantic lead). The only female characters that threaten to be interesting are Brenda Wooley and the Sammy character, but both are cliches and the latter is killed before she can be rescued from one-dimensionalism. In fact I find it a bit disturbing that the android has more depth and complexity to him than any of the women in the book. The Alex character is a blatant caricature of John Cleese, and this is a goldarn scream. (Come on--thinning hair, young daughter, distant ex-wife, hours on end with a shrinkbot, what am I supposed to think?) yet it fails to go far enough. This could have been a remarkable portrait of Cleese through the eyes of one who worked alongside him, and I feel Eric copped out--making obvious jokes, but retreating when it came time to draw blood or take it to the next level. A missed opportunity, but still better and more insightful than that odious Margolis bio of Cleese. The reference he makes to himself in the text is muffed, in my opinion, since he singles out a detail (the death of his father--Eric lost him at the age of two. He was an RAF solider who died not in WWII but a Christmas-season car accident) that only serious fans could be expected to know. Like Python, there are distracting subplots that go nowhere or fail to bear fruit, and it doesn't know how to properly end itself. You can also see Eric's special mark--here working against himself. He earned a reputation within the group for firing off wickedly funny one-liners. You'll find them in RM, too--my favorite comes on page 49 ("She was not available for other people's feelings"). Unfortunately, funny one-liners do not a plot make. (Exhibit A: Splitting Heirs). At worst, these sparkling one-liners feel forced into or pasted on the story, thus throwing a monkey wrench into the engine of the plot, bogging down the forward momentum of the story. The Road to Mars had been a filmscript for many, many years before it became a novel (I remember speaking to Idle about it in 1989--at that time, he said he was shopping it around Hollywood and envisioned Robin Williams, David Bowie, and Bobcat Goldthwaite in the film). Unfortunately it was the sort of script that made the execs fall about laughing and earned Eric reams of high compliments--but no green light. (For this sorry phenomena, see "The 50 Greatest Films Never Made", by Chris Gore. RM is not in the book). I suspect that out of sheer frustration, he adapted it as a novel. However, as a reader I felt he hadn't spent enough time and thought finesseing the filmscript into a proper reading experience. Filmscripts and novels are two different animals, after all. There are too many holes, things not explained enough or not explained at all, and things meant to work on screen that in text form just don't make it. Perhaps a graphic novel would have been a better option, I dunno. Even still, I did like the book. It was great fun watching Eric's wickedly clever, supple, nimble brain calculating the plot points into place. I read it in one sitting and had a good giggle. I have quoted and cited jokes in the book. I spent $ and I do not regret it. I had fun. If you can see it not as a sci-fi novel but a roller-coaster ride through Idle's magnificent mind, I think you'll all enjoy it much more.
Rating:
Summary: embarassingly ordinary
Review: as a huge fan of his other work, and of humourous scifi in general, i can hardly begin to tell you how disappointed i was with this book. his editor seems to have decided that it would be too hard to edit the manuscript into any kind of reasonable shape, and has instead relied on the author's fame to sell the book and win the readers. Some funny jokes, sure, and some well researched history, cool... but jeez, this was the classic celebrity's first novel in all its horror!
Rating:
Summary: Amusing...except I just don't get one thing...
Review: I enjoyed a robot's theory of comedy...even though I didn't agree with all of it. My criticism of Idle's book has to with the misogyny of the narrator, the historian. So, his girlfriend/wife left him...What does that have to do with anything in the rest of the book!
Rating:
Summary: Funny, clever and I can forgive him for the ending
Review: Good lord! Such venom over a pleasant little book. Come on people, it's not supposed to give you the meaning of life. If you hated the "theory of comedy" theme, hated the characters, hated the plot and hated the setting what the hell were you doing picking this up in the first place? My suggestion: read the liner notes next time so you can run away screaming when you disagree with the content. Idle has done a good job of writing a funny sc-fi book. Not a Python sci-fi book, but simply a funny one with all of his usual clever verbal humor. yes, he bungled the ending and didn't manage the competing plots very well, but my book reading satisfaction isn't derived wholly from the ending! It's an amusing read and I look forward to his next effort. But I'll read the liner notes first.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it for someone you hate
Review: But don't expect a 'thankyou'
Rating:
Summary: Just awful
Review: I'm afraid I have to side with those who were disappointed by this book. It promises so much but just doesn't deliver....and Idle just relies on so many coincidences to tie his story together. I actually got really angry reading this. Not a pleasant experience at all.
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