The Road to Mars

Rating:
Summary: No no no
Review: If you like Douglas Adams you WON'T like this book, simply because Mr Adams writes well while Mr Idle is still learning. The ending is ludicrous, the terrorist plot appears to have brainstormed by fourth-graders, and this 'meaning of comedy' business is just plain annoying

Rating:
Summary: After a bumpy start, the books is funny and suspenseful.
Review: When I first began to read the book, I was expected more silly humor along the lines of "Monty Python". Mr. Idle, and the rest of the world have matured a bit though. Nevertheless, as I settled into the novel, I truly enjoyed it. Carlton, the Bowie-class robot, is truly the hero of the novel in his attempt to define what comedy is, and save his human masters from terrorists. I can picture this as a movie, as Mr. Idle has referred to in his interview, but the book is a good, easy read. If you like Douglas Adams, then you will like "The Road to Mars".

Rating:
Summary: Stinker
Review: Problem is, if you put a bit of a twist at the end of your book, you have to make sure that your story still holds up. No good having a surprise ending which makes all that came before just look like landfill, or bookfill, which this is. Buy something else.

Rating:
Summary: The One Star Rating is Too High
Review: There should be a "0" or "Bomb" rating available. This is truly one of the most lackluster books I have ever read. Or one of the least luster-equipped. It is luster-challenged; however you want to put it.

It looks as if Mr. Idle thought very carefully about theories of comedy and then used a pub napkin to sketch out a plot to wrap around the theories.

Very disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Oh dear
Review: I think Mark Hulber should have read the book before giving it 5 stars. It promises so much but never delivers.

Rating:
Summary: Not funny
Review: Not funny...at least not before page 45, which is where I stopped reading. Dry as dirt. The book is in part about an android's graduate thesis on comedy. Unfortunately, it reads like an android's graduate thesis on comedy.

I returned the book to Amazon...the first book I've ever returned anywhere.

Want to read something funny? Check out Bob Zmuda's biography of Andy Kaufman. You won't be laughing at every page, but even at its slow points, it's 10x more interesting than "Road to Mars".

Rating:
Summary: This was so terribly disappointing
Review: The Road to Mars jumps between two storylines. The first is a fairly in-depth discussion about the purpose of comedy in the Universe. This is triggered by a character in the second storyline, a droid named Carlton, who is writing a thesis on the very subject. Carlton's work is being studied 80 years in the future by Professor Bill Reynolds, and it is through Reynolds' eyes and his study of Carlton's work that the story of Alex Muscroft and Lewis Ashby unravells.

Initially, I found the Alex/Lewis story quite entertaining. Unfortunately, this narrative is constantly derailed by the 'meaning of comedy' throughline, which I found disrupted the flow of the novel and eventually became thoroughly annoying. I found myself constantly skipping pages as I tried to avoid this ridiculous sideline. Perhaps I'm underestimating its importance in the novel as a whole, but it really didn't hook me in at all. Idle has clearly taken a simple story, and tried to add depth by using it to comment on comedy's place in society. He should've stuck to the more engaging Lewis/Alex story. Had he done so, he may have managed to save it, for while as I said I initially found it entertaining, the climax of the story is so utterly ridiculous I threw the book away in disgust. Idle spends 296 pages building up a terrific tale, where the reader expects some pretty heavy-duty stuff to take place, only to destroy it all in a 'what, is that it?' ending. When the plot is finally revealed, you find yourself backtracking through the story and thinking, 'if these characters were real, why would they do it this way? Surely too much has been left to chance and coincidence'. Contrived I think is the word I'm looking for.

Of course the book suffers the ultimate flaw. It's told, as I said, by Professor Reynolds 80 years in the future using Carlton's records as his ONLY reference. So how can he depict situations that Carlton wasn't present at? If Carlton didn't hear it, see it, or find out about it, then how can Reynolds tell us about it?

Give it a miss.

Rating:
Summary: Review of a review
Review: I haven't read the book yet but I was intrigued by the review by Craig Gustafson. He has obviously put a lot of thought into the topic.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I was very impressed with Mr. Idle's book. He used a lot of big words in it. There are some smaller words; "it", "the" and "and" appear frequently. When is the movie coming out?

Rating:
Summary: Sci-fi fun!
Review: A cross between Monty Python and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Engaging story. Great characters. And some truly insightful thinking about the roots of comedy. Wonderful. Highly Recommended.