I am not going to write a full review of this book.

I think Douglas might have a problem with endings.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Dirk Gently #2) by Douglas Adams just hasn't quite worked for me as much as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. While this is a solid story I definitely preferred the full cast dramatization I listened to for book one. I would like to try the tv adaptation one day in the future.

This book is grittier than its predecessor "Dirk Gently's hollistic detective agency" , though it follows similar themes.
We follow Dirk as he tries to solve the murder of his former client, (who he presumed to be insane, as the man was raving about a monster with a scythe coming to kill him- but was actually very very sane) as it turns out, he was actually being chased by a monster with green eyes and a scythe.
Dirk discovers this when the police find his client's head revolving ungracefully on a record, stuck singing the words “don't pick it up, don't pick it up…”
Throughout one day Dirk has his nose broken, tries to find cigarettes, gets chased by a giant Eagle, loses his secretary to “an act of God”, (she gets turned into a coca cola machine), uncovers a conspiracy concerning a hot potato and how his client is inexorably involved, follows some homeless people to Valhalla, has his street destroyed by the eagle that turns out to actually be a fighter jet, and finally gets rid of his old fridge- which unfortunately turns into a new god. (But fortunately, he kills the monster with the scythe and its accomplice)

The charm and humour of this book series is due to Dirk’s belief in 'Inter-connectedness of all things', which always turns out to be true.
Dirk improbably meets people involved in the case around him and believes in the ridiculous, and since life is utterly ridiculous, he's always a step ahead of everybody else.
This quote pretty much sums up his methods:

n  n    "The impossible did not bother him unduly.
If it could not be possibly done, then obviously, it had been done impossibly. The question was how?"n  n

This makes Dirk a very enjoyable character to follow through his misadventures and exploits.
However, as with the first book I will need to look up the synopsis of the book to clear up some unexplained questions I have, as the writing style is clever and reveals and explanations are often buried confusingly within the book.
This book is definitely not as good as the first one, I felt that it was all building up to something good, but the explanation was so confusing that it fell flat.
It was funny, though. I did laugh out loud several times.

my review of the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy

⭐️3.2
14+
cws: violence (descriptions of bloody wounds/injuries, murder etc)
su1cide references (short scene: they meet an old woman who wants to off herself, but it's very satirical/dark comedy- esque.)

Dirk Gently is a "holistic detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. He bills for everything but claims that he cannot be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients ever pay him. I can't speak for the first book, since I read out of order, but he certainly doesn't get paid in this one.

I so wanted to give this book five stars. I love Douglas Adams' humor, and his Hitchhiker's series will always be one of my favorites and a go-to. This, however, fell flat after the first half. The set up was pure Adams' British humor. Ridiculousness for ridiculousness' sake, but then when we get to a point where things must be explained it just falls apart.

It seems the Dirk books are about seemingly unconnected narrative threads eventually meeting up and becoming connected, but that didn't happen here. There is an ending of sorts. This was about Thor and Odin, Norse Gods, who have been misplaced and have lost, not only their powers, but also their marbles! Adams attempt to pull the threads together simply caused more confusion for me and the novel felt very unfinished.

I think there are parts of this book that could be read alone as an example of Adams' genius, but the novel, taken as a whole, was not successful. I will still read the first because I am a bit of a completest and it was a mistake on my part to read out of order, but I won't be expecting much.

i really love douglas adams's writing. not much else to say!

Adams' bizarre book is more of an adventure than a mystery, and more of a picaresque than an adventure. It's true, this plot wanders and is flimsy at times, but Adams always makes up for it with clever insights and hilarious jokes. Minor events mushroom at the end to unexpected relevance, a very bold literary move that would be a sign of laziness if these moves didn't work and we didn't recognize Adams' competence as a writer from the execution of his humor throughout. Fantasy readers and Adams' fans will have an easier time with some of the leaps in logic (such as what happens to a god when nobody believes in it), and most readers shouldn't expect a hardline plot after the first hundred pages of inaction and wild action. You go along with Adams because of his creativity, exhibited in such things as derogatory horoscopes, depressed deities and a philosophical calculater. His writing style is so absurd that, unless you don't hitch onto the entertainment value and profound ramifications, you ought to appreciate the absurd plotting that works as its product.

HILARIOUS. Great writing. FUNKY plot. Crazy

The one and only sequel to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is funnier, at least in the first half, and no less eccentric than its predecessor. A favorite highlight here is the female lead character attempting to explain the concept of "humor" to the director of a psychiatric institute.
Unfortunately in the second half humor is all but forgotten as Adams attempts to satisfactorily tie together all the crazy plot elements - attacking eagles, stubborn vending machines, murderous demons, bumbling Norse gods, etc. - with some measure of coherency, and succeeds only to a degree.

AMAZE-BALLS. Douglas Adams's best work, hands down.

So last year I read all of The Hitchhiker's Guide books and loved them, though by the last one you could tell Adams didn't want to write them anymore. I adored Adams's humor and style, so I was excited to read the two Dirk Gently books. The first book suffered for me a little bit because over the first third of the book was very disconnected. But in this one you can see the connections through the various plotlines early on. In some of Adams's other books, the plot seems to jump around randomly, and while random-ness does abound here, it's much easier to see its greater purpose, and how everything fits together, which is why I found the story itself more engaging.

And then Adams brought in one of my favorite tropes- bringing fictional characters to life. Fictional characters from my favorite brand of mythology, Norse. And Thor was just SO Thor. I knew at that point I was going to love this.

Maybe the mystery itself wasn't as well built as the mystery in the last one, but honestly, I enjoyed the ride a hell of a lot more, the mystery didn't even matter that much. The characters were well-developed, and I liked Kate way more than any of Adams's other female characters. Dirk is still a jerk, of course, but a lot more sympathetic than in the last book, and I loved seeing his methods and the way he approached things.

Honestly the only complaint is that the ending is a bit rushed. In fact I went back a few pages to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Having heard things about how Adams approached deadlines, it makes me wonder if maybe he ran out of time, so just wrapped everything up quicker than originally planned. That or he felt the book was getting too long (it is longer than any of the Hitchhiker books, though on par with the first Dirk Gently). Or maybe he just wanted it to be like that. We'll never know.

Now I'm a million times sadder about him dying so young :( With this book being so original and so fun, I would have loved to see what else he could do, especially since he pretty much told everyone asking for more Hitchhiker's "fuck you" in Mostly Harmless. Douglas Adams's humor and style was such a gift and literature definitely needs more of it.

If this title does not speak to you, then perhaps this book is not for you. I loved it.

Dirk Gently is still not on the level of Hitch-hiker's Guide, obviously, but this sequel is a better read than the first. Easier to follow, and very funny, the story is intriguing. I do wonder though, with the irreverent Norse gods hanging around, did this or American Gods come out first?