RTC. Bookclub book of the month September.

Started with promise but was ultimately too scattered and not funny enough to be great. The whole part about Dirk's background and real name seemed unnecessary. And ultimately Dirk pans out as a pretty minor character. I'm a much bigger fan of his Hitchhiker books. This one was just marginally okay.

Bilimkurgu ve fantastik ögeleri birbirine bağlayıp bunu keyifli bir şekilde anlatmayı başaran bir kitap, Kutsal Dedektiflik Bürosu. Kitap boyunca gerçekten yer yer çok eğlendim, yer yer ilginç bulduğum noktalar oldu ve her şeyden öte hayalgücüm çok farklı seviyelere ulaştı. Eh, bunu söyleyerek kitabı "kutsal" hale getirmiş olmak biraz abartı olur. Kutsal Dedektiflik Bürosu elinize alıp kafa dağıtmak için harika bir kitap. Eğer derinliğine inerseniz hayal kırıklığına uğramanız olası, eğer yüzeysel bakarsanız kitaptan keyif almamanız hayli olası, o yüzden geriye kalan tek seçenek anlatılanları hiç sorgulamadan onunla beraber serüvenden serüvene uçmanız. Daha sonra o serüvenler birleşip mantıklı hale geldiğinde sizi tatmin eden bir sonuca ulaşabiliyorsunuz.

Kitapla ilgili övgüde bulunacağım ilk konu karakterler. Gerçekten her bir karakteri ilgiyle okuduğumu söyleyebilirim. Bazı karakterler bunların arasından sivrilip çok daha eğlenceli hale geliyor. Açıkçası yer yer anime seyrediyormuşum hissine kapıldığımı bile söyleyebilirim. Diğer karakterlerin hikayeleri ise hiç aşina olmadığımız bir konuyu işliyor. Özellikle o karakterlerin yaşadığı hissiyatı okurken gerçekdışı bir durum gerçekten oluyormuş hissine kapıldım. Ayrıca bu iki farklı kategorideki karakterlerin birbiriyle etkileşimi o kadar ustalıkla işlenmiş ki hiçbirisi sırıtmıyor, kitapta ilerledikçe karakterlerin hikayeye katkısı çok daha mantıklı hale geliyor.

Kitabın bir diğer güzel yanı ise bilimsel açıdan güzel noktalara değinmesi. Gerek kuantum alanına dair düşünceler olsun, gerek zamanın kendisine olan atıflar olsun, gerekse farklı dünyalarda yaratılan farklı işlevlere sahip cihazlar olsun; bu detayları okuyup irdelemek bu kitabı değerli kılan özelliklerden birisi oldu benim için. Mesleki uğraşlar açısından çok güzel bir yaklaşım açısı bulduğum bir alıntı paylaşıyım:

"Eğer bir şeyi gerçekten anlamak isterseniz, bunun en iyi yolu onu başka birine anlatmaya çalışmaktır. Bu şekilde insan olayı kendi zihninde düzene koymaya mecbur kalıyor. Öğrenciniz ne kadar yavaş ve aptalsa, siz de açıklamayı o kadar daha basit bir şekilde yapmak zorundasınız. Ve bilgisayar programları yazmak aslında budur. Karmaşık bir fikri, aptal bir makinenin bile anlayabileceği küçük adımlar şeklinde düzenledikten sonra, o şey hakkında kendiniz de gerçekten bir şeyler öğreniyorsunuz."

Kitabın sorunlarına gelecek olursak eğer, bunların en başında çeviri geliyor. Normalde çeviriye çok yermeyen birisiyim ama bu kitapta rahatsız edecek hatalar ne yazık ki fazlasıyla bulunmakta. Bazı kısımlarda çevirmen, orjinal kitaptaki cümleyi tıpatıp aynı şekilde çevirmeye kalkışınca okuyucu için o cümleyi anlamak adeta işkence hale gelmiş. Kitabı okurken belli bir noktadan sonra hem bu hataları görmezden gelmeye başlamam hem de bazı yerlerde çevirmenin harika iş çıkarması kitaptan genel olarak keyif almamı sağladı yine de.

Bunun dışında kitab��n sonuyla ilgili birkaç tuhaflık var. Bu tuhaflığın ikinci kitapta açıklanmasını bekliyorum açıkçası. Bunun en temel sebebi kitabın sonlarının gerçekten biraz aceleye gelmiş olması. İkinci kitap, bu kitaptan farklı bir konuyu ele alıyorsa müthiş hayal kırıklığına uğrayacağım.

Genel olarak kitabın ağır ve ilginç başlayan başlangıcından sonra bahsettiğim eğlenceli karakterlerin hikayeye girişi ile kitaptan epey keyif aldım. Beni birçok kez güldüren ve aynı zamanda düşündürüp sorrgulatan bir eser oldu Kutsal Dedektiflik Bürosu. Ayrıca Douglas Adams'ın en meşhur kitabı olan "Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi" kitabını şimdi daha da çok merak ediyorum. Bilimkurgu-fantastik-komedi birleşimi bir kitap okumak isteyen herkese bu kitabı kesinlikle tavsiye ederim.

Inexcusably unread for 37.5 years, remedied over a couple of days at the beach.

Adams' first fiction foray into a world other than the one(s) created for the Hitchhiker's Trilogy is a treat: a detective story filled with the same bizarre happenings and twists, described and narrated in Adams' inimitable comedic style. Unlike the Hitchhiker's books, however, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was written to be a stand-alone story, with a definite beginning, middle, and end. In many ways, this was Adams' first attempt at writing a proper novel--and he succeeds wildly. I was immediately captivated by the character of Dirk Gently, and drawn headfirst into his swirling, wildly-skewed version of reality, where everything is connected to everything else--so much so that something innocent randomly said on page five can (and does) become critically important on page 205. Don't bother trying to figure out the plot before the book ends, because you won't be able to do it. This is a detective novel, yes, but a Douglas Adams detective novel, where spaceships, time travel, Bach, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, tea, pizza, and ex-boyfriends are so intricately linked that your head will be swimming by the time you finish the last sentence. But the dizziness is well-worth the effort.

I still don't really understand how the ending of this book worked, and trying to describe the plot would be like trying to build a submarine out of cheese. Instead, I'll just share some quotes from this book that I especially loved, because Douglas Adams is the only author in the history of the world who is capable of creating them.

"'A horse?' he said again.
'Yes, it is,' said the Professor. 'Wait - ' he motioned to Richard, who was about to go out again and investigate - 'Let it be. It won't be long.'
Richard stared in disbelief. 'You say there's a horse in your bathroom, and all you can do is stand there naming Beatles songs?'"

"Richard stood transfixed for moment or two, wiped his forehead again, and gently replaced the phone as if it were an injured hamster. His brain began to buzz gently and suck its thumb. Lots of little synapses deep inside his cerebral cortex all joined hands and started dancing around and singing nursery rhymes."

"On the wall was a Duran Duran poster on which someone had scrawled in fat red felt tip, 'Take this down please.'
Beneath that another hand had scrawled, 'No.'
Beneath that again the first hand had written, 'I insist that you take it down.'
Beneath that the second hand had written, 'Won't!'
Beneath that - 'You're fired!'
Beneath that - 'Good!'
And there the matter appeared to have rested."

"'Welcome, by the way, to my offices.'
He waved a vague hand around the tatty surroundings. 'The light works,' he said, indicating the window, 'the gravity works,' he said, dropping a pencil on the floor. 'Anything else we have to take our chances with.'"

"'Don't you listen to anything you say? The whole thing was obvious!' he exclaimed, thumping the table. 'So obvious that the only thing which prevented me from seeing the solution was the trifling fact that it was completely impossible. Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.'"

I have loved Douglas Adams ever since he wrote the Hitchhikers series and I obsessively consumed the entire set in a matter of days. His writing style drives me crazy, and I always wonder, how can anyone write like that? Is it even possible? I mean, it clearly is, because he DID write like that, but still. He puts together ideas and concepts in such a fantastical manner, it seems like he is perpetually on something. The unreal fantasy in this book reminds me a lot of the Lemony Snicket series, which is also something I absolutely adored.

This touches on time travel, ghosts, paradoxes - I mean just look at the cover. It is ALL the science fiction with none of the boring overused tropes. I finished reading this in two days flat and the only reason I wish I hadn't was so I could go back and take it slow. Actually relish the sheer witty craziness or crazy wittiness.

I did go back and read parts of it. Well, most of it. Okay, I went back and read the entire thing. Slower. And since I knew the ending this time round, I read it all in a different light.

So yes, I do recommend reading this. And I recommend reading it twice.

I enjoyed the TV show, especially the first season and based on that experience, I wanted to read the book. I'm just glad I've watched the show first because if had read the book first, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the show.

One of the most annoying things about reading the Kindle edition of this book was the fact that popular highlights show up and you can't turn them off, at least not easily. It drove me mad. It was inevitably the parts that you'd pick out as funny for yourself, not anything surprisingly good...

Anyway, I grew up with Douglas Adams' work in the background, on the radio while we ate or while me and my sister played after dinner and my dad tried to relax. He's a big Douglas Adams fan, though he sticks mostly to the radio stuff, thinking that has more life.

I do enjoy Douglas Adams' writing, but I didn't find Dirk Gently as compulsive to read as Hitchhiker's Guide. There were a lot of good bits -- things I might pull out as memorable quotes -- but it didn't come out that memorably as a whole. The quotes are memorable without the story surrounding them. They're sort of bon mots that felt sort of pasted in, for the most part.

It's fun, don't get me wrong, and it was excellent train reading: entertaining without needing my full focus.

Funny - I enjoyed this!

I recently watched the pilot episode of Dirk Gently and loved it. So, naturally, I picked up the book. Now this order of doing things is often frowned upon by many people, including me, but sometimes things just happen.

The reason I'm telling you this is that I was slightly let down by the book, having seen (a version of) Dirk Gently in action before reading about him. There just wasn't enough of the detective in the book, while he (both versions) is such an interesting character. And yes, it was a fun little book, but felt a bit random and not as interconnected as it should have been, considering the holistic approach Dirk promotes.

Also, having looked into some other reviews before writing my own, I have to say that

a) I'm not going to touch on the Pratchett vs. Adams thing, but the seemingly random scenes in the beginning of the book and the time it took to actually reach the main character did remind me of many Discworld novels (nothing original about that technique, just saying).

b) The Doctor Who connection - it's certainly strong, then again I'm a Doctor Who maniac. But I think it's safe to say that those of us who can't wait until the next Doctor Who episode (September!) will certainly enjoy Dirk Gently's company.

I'm tempted to add another star. Not because the novel is good, but because, unfortunately... it has a lot of interesting ideas but it's way too hard to follow and doesn't just work.

It's really about the adaptation though.

And no I don't mean that Dirk Gently tv show, which is a loose adaptation at best indeed, but because I just listened to the BBC radio show. And that's what it's all about! Radio is of course Douglas Adams first love, and I will count that as 'canon' when it comes to Adams. It's the medium that Dirk Gently was meant to be experienced with.

So if you are asking, this is one of those cases in which case the book isn't better, but the you have to check out the radio drama--