Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

If you liked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy you will most likely enjoy this book as well. If you like Terry Pratchett offerings, you will probably feel right at home. If you like droll, mostly understated British humour you will find this a very delightful read indeed. I have been a long time fan of Doug Adams, but somehow overlooked this particular novel until I saw the BBC mini-series of it. What a treat. Thank you, BBC. Mr. Adams certainly knew his way around fantastic and/or absurd situations. Perhaps not as fantastic as Hitchhiker's Guide. At least not until toward the end. Still, it's science fictiony enough for the imaginative. I doubt if I am alone in appreciating his facility with the English language. How many authors do you know who could use the phrase "exuberantly prolific loquacity" in a sentence and make it read utterly normally. Personally, I doubt if I have ever even used two out three of those words and certainly not in the same sentence. My advice: don't skim. Take your time to allow all the gags to sweep over you. They are on every page.

I love all of Douglas Adam's books so it will come as no surprise I enjoyed this one too. As with all his other novels, the central character in this one is a bit of a wacky, eccentric sort who has a few gifts and has decided to play detective in order to capitalize on the gullability of his clients. I just loved reading this book and the other "Dark Tea- time Of the Soul". They are just great, easy to read, funny, enjoyable and light fun reads that make me wish so much that Douglas Adam's had remained alive longer so we could have had even more pleasure enjoying his unique way of constructing a good yarn. I wont go into the plot here, many paople know this book backwards as do I. I have read it a multitude of times over the years and intend to carry on doing so every couple of years. Just enjoy it, it is an utterly unique style of book, juts like all the others in the Hitch-Hikers series. Thanks for reading my review!!

The first book in what promised to be a fantastic series, stands on its own as a fine example of what a good writer Douglas Adams was. It's plotting and characters are memorable, and there are moments that are laugh-out-loud funny. The problem is not with this first book. It's a more mature piece of writing than Hitchhiker was, and more cohesively done--but it really didn't have as good a follow-up. If you want to see anything that even resembles the two television series that are available, you won't find it in this book. Whoever produced those apparently only read the jacket blurbs and not the actual novels. Which is too bad. Because the books ARE better than both British-made and American-made films. The books will startle you by how utterly divorced they are from both. They did Adams a real disservice by doing that, but don't miss this novel because it isn't like the movie. This one is very, very good.

Let's be perfectly clear - while these novels attempt to be genre-busting, they are mostly Fantasy novels, with a fair amount of mystery, but not much. Gently does indeed make deductions, but it's established early on in the books that he's psychic, and it's established halfway through the first book that the universe he lives in is a magical one. I feel like I was duped into reading a couple of fantasy novels. They are funny, however, and worth reading for Adams's wit, colorful descriptions, and light-hearted take on society. = Spoilers = Taken individually, each book has its flaws. The first one hinges on time travel, and employs a traditional time travel cop out to resolve the predicament the characters find themselves in. The second book is less a mystery for Dirk to solve and more of a supernatural adventure that he's thrust into. His involvement in the resolution is accidental, and while he does follow a trail of clues, he does so more as a device to expose the grander story to the reader than as an active participant in the plot.

Unfortunately Douglas Adams was taken from us after just two books based on his Dirk Gently character. That is a loss humanity may never fully appreciate. I would consider this one my lesser favorite of the two Gently novels with “The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul” being my fave and at or near the top of my “deserted island ten” book list for years now. But this is our introduction to Dirk Gently. The very antithesis of Sherlock Holmes. His zen method of driving. His cigarette coughing him awake first thing in the morning. His Jaguar built during those magical years when Jaguars needed more maintenance than petrol. Adams will forever be loved for his Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series but had he more years on this little blue green marble the world may have came to have loved Dirk Gently every bit as much as Arthur Dent.

Assisti à série na Netflix e fiquei apaixonado! O livro é excelente, leitura cativante e envolvente! Recomendo a todos. Leitura imperdível

Excellent

Great book. If you have a slightly weird sense of humor, you will love this book. If you are a patron of science, you will enjoy reading it. And if you love science and have a slightly weird sense of humor, you will read this book over & over again and each time another bit will fall in place, you will laugh another laugh you missed the previous time around. If you are a young person, all the more reason for you to read this book. You will be intrigued by some of the time sensitive information in the book. Enjoy! Its okay to smile and laugh out loud. The people around you may think you are a bit weird, but you knew that already. Didn't you?

E' un libro di Douglas Adams ed in quanto tale non servirebbe aggiungere altro. Consiglio questo libro a tutti coloro che hanno letto e gradito l'opera più famosa di Adams: Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. Anche in questo libro si nota subito lo stile inconfondibile che caratterizza gli scritti di Douglas Adams, col suo umorismo inglese spesso un po' non-sense, ma sempre molto intelligente e mai banale.

GOOD