The back jacked of this book promised me it was "Funnier than Psycho" and "Shorter than War and Peace." Now, I thought that these were jokes. I assumed that that tag was cute and that it would be quite funny. In fact, funnier than Psycho is about as good as the humor was. It was there, but rarely very funny and generally simply kinda cute. It was in fact shorter than War and Peace.

I didn't expect much for plot. It is a Douglas Adams book after all, but I had hoped for decent characters. Unfortunately there is so much going on that none of the characters has a real chance to develop. The shifting character perspective didn't help either. The book was quite short, and chapters told from multiple character points of view don't really have enough room to let the characters grow, just paint the bare bones plot.

The ending was just bad. Not that what happened was bad, but it seemed that Adams' editors told him he needed to cut 50 pages, and he subsequently decided to cut 50 of the last 55. The action was jammed together, not fleshed out, and a little hard to follow. For as mediocre as the rest of the book was, the ending was a let down.

I don't think I'd recommend the book to anyone except the most devoted Adams fan. Unless your reading goal includes being able to say "Yeah, I've read ALL of his books," I don't see any reason why you should pick this up.

Ok? I guess?
Its not BAD, its just.... ehhh?
Some bits were good some were bad, some were just plain and boring
I felt like maybe the book was too short? like suddenly at 80% EVERYTHING happens

I'm not sure whether this is the effect of not being jammed into half a train seat by someone twice the size of me, but The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul seemed less funny but more absorbing than the first book. It helped that it included Norse gods, I think. I had no idea that Douglas Adams had tangled with them.

On the other hand, I don't really think that as much seemed to happen, somehow. Less plates seemed to be spinning. I think that was a good thing for the narrative, but it seemed to make the second book different in tone from the first... (And then I wonder if that was just because at no point did I have to stuff my Kindle back into a bag and run to get off a train because I was about to miss getting off at the correct station. I suspect I'm more influenced by the circumstances in which I read books than I realise.)

So... on some levels, I enjoyed this more than the first book, and on some levels, less. Quite an odd feeling.

I do like the nine tenths of the subconscious being given over to penguins.

Adams tedy nabízí opravdu šílené jízdy... Při čtení nejde nemyslet na Pratchetta, jeho styl psaní a nedostižné dílo Dobrá znamení, DTČSD je ale přímočařejší, s menším množstvím odboček i postav, zato ale přidává sci-fi detektivní zápletku. Taktéž oproti předchozí Holistické detektivní kanceláři tady nedostaneme na konci všespojující moment, nekončící proud všelikerých scének je ale více než dostačující - mezi nimi je nutné zmínit boj o ledničku, trampoty s orlem, speciální kliniku, získání kafe i knihy (a jinde zase novin), přechytračení opraváře aut atd. atp. Do toho severští bohové, britské kulisy a hlavně holistický způsob vyšetřování. Po dočtení pravda několik nejasností zůstává, jindy tak pomocný internet mlčí (resp. nabízí jen další otázky) a spokojím se tak s několika zajímavými teoriemi ("Hoši od soudu se na ně mrkli, zauvažovali o hlavních bodech a řešení se jim zalíbilo. Bylo jednoduché, nepravděpodobné a přesně takové, jaké kápne do noty koronerovi, který rád jezdí na dovolenou do Marbelly stejně jako oni."), ale že je mezi postavami Loki mi už nikdo nevezme - vždyť přeci umí měnit svou podobu, že...