POR FIN LO HE TERMINADO!!! Ha sido mi Mortirolo particular!!
Me ha costado horrores y eso que las primeras paginas prometían, bueno las 20 primeras.
Segundo libro que leo de este autor y este incluso me ha gustado mucho menos que el del autoestopista galáctico... La verdad es que hasta mas del 50 % no entendía que estaba leyendo!! Luego poco a poco se va mas o menos entendiendo pero ni con esas, todo muy poco gracioso (ummm creo que este humor no va conmigo). 1/10.
No se si darle una última oportunidad al autor con el 2º del autoestopista...
Sinopsis: Dirk Gently es un detective muy peculiar. Sherlock Holmes afirmaba que, cuando se ha eliminado lo imposible, lo que queda —sea lo que sea— es la verdad. Dirk Gently, sin embargo, jamás elimina nada, y menos que nada, lo imposible. Y para resolver sus casos prefiere recurrir a la física cuántica antes que a las huellas dactilares. Así pues, cuando le encargan la búsqueda de un gato perdido —un misterio por lo general muy fácil de desentrañar—, Dirk acaba encontrando dos fantasmas y un Monje Eléctrico venido de otra dimensión, y descubre un terrible secreto que puede acarrear la destrucción de la humanidad. También averigua la imposible, improbable, increíble y aterradora razón por la que un experto en ordenadores tuvo un sofá atascado en la escalera de su casa durante tres semanas. Pero ¿qué sucedió con el gato? El gato, infortunadamente, murió.

Douglas Adams' underated masterpiece leads Dirk Gently from a search for a missing cat to unlocking the secrets of time travel and saving the human race from total extinction.

I thought no-one could write a better comic novel than 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' until I first read this. I've subsequently re-read this novel countless times and it never fails to entertain, I'm still finding references to literature and popular culture that I've previously missed.

That a novel can be re-read despite the reader knowing what is about to happen is a testement to any novel but this one can be re-read with a suspition that something different will happen this time!

Hysterical. If you liked The Hitchhiker's Guide but thought it could do with fewer spaceships, try this. If you're shaking your head in bafflement, thinking "Fewer spaceships? Do you want to ruin the whole thing, woman?" try this. If you've never read any Douglas Adams at all, try this. If you like things that are good, try this.

On the other hand, I am pretty sure my best friend hated it, and she does often like things that are good, so maybe it's not for everyone. But try it anyway.

"He was rounder than the average undergraduate and wore more hats. That is to say, there was just the one hat which he habitually wore, but he wore it with a passion that was rare in one so young. [...:] By means of an ingenious series of strategically deployed denials of the most exciting and exotic things, he was able to create the myth that he was a psychic, mystic, telepathic, fey, clairvoyant, psychosassic vampire bat.

"What did 'psychosassic' mean?

"It was his own word and he vigorously denied that it meant anything at all."

I love this book. I love it far, far more than is in any way reasonable. It is possibly Douglas Adams' strangest work, and it is far and away my favorite. It makes almost no sense unless you read it twice or more. And a good knowledge of the content and historical context of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is essentially required to understand many of the jokes and much of the plot.

Because, as it turns out, the linchpin upon which history turns, upon which depends the whole of human history before and to come, is the fact that Coleridge never wrote the second "altogether stranger" part of Kubla Khan.

This discovery is the culmination of an intricate, madcap skein of detecting into the interconnectedness of all things by "holistic detective" Dirk Gently, computer programmer Richard MacDuff and his ghostly employer Gordon Way, an Electric Monk, a rogue Time Lord turned Cambridge professor (the book started life as a Doctor Who script), a horse in the bathroom and a thousand thousand slimy things. Beginning with an inquiry into an inexplicable bout of housebreaking, proceeding to impossible magic tricks, a murder, a sofa that can't be where it is, the mathematics of music, aliens, and time travel, the story is packed with whimsical trivialities which turn out to have the most profound significance — in line with the titular detective's much-professed belief in the interconnectedness of all things, but especially nice beaches in the Bahamas. Although it may appear nonsensical, all is in the end tied together — but if you blink, you'll miss the explanation of how the sofa got up the stairs.

Dirk Gently is a much darker book than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but it's also much richer, with a flavor a little closer to Terry Pratchett (and particularly to the brilliant Good Omens) than to the wacky, almost slapstick Hitchhiker series. Adams' omnipresent punnery and clever narrative is absolutely delightful, if subtle enough that one must sometimes pause to figure out just what sort of trick he is playing. The joy Adams took in whimsy and wordplay is palpable on almost every page. This may be the best-written of his works, and to my mind it is also the funniest. It is a quick read, and well worth the few hours it'll take to read twice. Or five times, if you love it as much as I do.

Infinitely dull for long stretches, punctuated by brief flashes of humor and incomprehensibility, with an ending that's fairly amusing. Time well spent? No, not really. Recommended for lovers of dry British humor that can stomach even the driest of Monty Python sketches.

4.5/5 stars! Very funny, very British, and overall good fun!

Something terrible has happened! Richard MAcDuff's boss Gordon Way has been murdered! And Richard is considered the prime suspect! Gordon's ghost wanders the outskirts of London and Cambridge, desperately trying to make contact with anyone and anything. Susan, Gordon's sister, is trying to cope with her brother's death and is trying to figure out why Richard, her boyfriend, is been acting so strange lately. Reg, Richard's old professor, is trying to figure out why a horse showed up in his flat, though that's not too troubling of an issue. And Richard needs to clear his name and prove his innocence. His only hope? An old acquaintance of both his and Reg's--the enigmatic detective Dirk Gently, who has a penchant for quantum physics, and for not being very frugal with money.

Oh, and there's and Electronic Monk, owner of said horse, who believes in everything who is very lost.

I haven't read read Douglas Adams since I was in high school, when The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was one of our required reading for (I think) summer, and it was such a delight to get back into him. He's a very easy read for the most part. His pacing is quite quick, you never lose interest in anything. And his comedy is absolutely great. You won't laugh at everything, but you will definitely laugh at something. Adams' comedy is not only in the jokes he tells with narration, though the comedy mostly comes from that; it is also in the characters' interactions and dialogue with each other and in the realization about certain scenes and themes within the book. Like I said, the comedy is all very British. I grew up watching all of the Monty Python movies and entire TV series, so while I haven't seen every avenue of British humor, I am certainly acquainted with it to a certain extent. Adams' comedy is reminiscent of Monty Python, but it certainly all his own. The one criticism I had towards the comedy is that sometimes the build-up to some of his jokes were a bit lengthy. The punchline was always good, but not ever build-up needs to be that extra long.

All of the characters were a delight and aided the comedy too, especially Dirk. You really don't see Dirk until towards the middle of the book which made me a bit crossed (as the Brits say). We do see a good amount of him after he is introduced, but it made me wish he had been introduced earlier. Reg and Richard were the next funniest members of the cast. In fact the funniest thing about Richard is that he worked with Mac computers. HAH! *slaps my knee*

Anyway, much of the comedy with Richard was in what was happening to him via plot. Reg's comedy was mostly like Dirk, things he said and did. Susan was funny in the moments Adams made her be, however this is where I have another criticism. I wish we had seen Susan more. She was such a fun and important character and I really liked her. She was kind of the straight (wo)man in the entire group. Gordon was funny too, but not as much as everyone else.

I will say that some parts of the plot, such as some of the science stuff, made me a bit confused. I must confess that I'm confused as to why Gordon died and why his killer killed him and what his killer was ultimately going to do after Dirk, Richard, and Reg saw him off towards the end. Also, the ending scene with Richard and Susan and Richard not knowing about Bach made me scratch my head. Adams certainly knows his quantum physics and computer science and applies it well, but I think I am just not knowledgeable about it enough to understand. If you're like me in that regard, then you can just fly through some of the science bits and you'll still be able to enjoy the story and humor. The plot is straightforward, but some of the events just left me head scratching.

In terms of sci-fi, other than the quantum physics and computer science stuff, there isn't too much other sci-fi elements. It isn't as heavy as your space operas or military sci-fi and that's just fine for me. There is some philosophical stuff, but nothing meant to be a world-spanning and deep as something like Dune or Stranger in a Strange Land. There's actually some history stuff and English poetry from Samuel Taylor Coleridge that I enjoyed, I might even pick up some of his stuff.

This was a really fun read. My co-worker who lent me this said you don't have to read any of the next books to enjoy the story, but I still have questions so I might pick up the next book in the future.

Douglas Adams has never failed to make me glow with delight, with no disappointment aftertaste on re-read.

I shouldn’t be such a fan. I’m tone deaf about a lot of humor. Fantastical, whimsical romps rarely work for me. Adams hits every note right, is an exception who stretches my boundaries, was a treasure we lost far too early.

A bit underwhelming. As I was reading, I realized I was liking it less and less. I don't think it amounted to much in the end, unless I missed something critical? I was going back and forth between audiobook and the kindle version, so there is a possibility of oversight on my part. Much like Galaxy Hitchhiking, I thought it was too goofy for my liking. I'd also put it in the same category as Strugatsky's "Monday Starts on Saturday".

Not nearly as good as Hitchhikers guide. It fell a bit flat for me actually.

Een soort van bizarre humoristische detective met geesten en andere paranormale activiteiten: what's not to like?
Wie een soort detective-versie verwacht van The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy komt bedrogen uit: het absurditeitsniveau ligt toch wel beduidend lager.
En wie denkt de inhoud al te kennen doordat ie de tv-serie al gezien heeft, komt óók bedrogen uit: de tv-serie lijkt langs geen kanten op het boek, de naam "Dirk Gently" is werkelijk de enige overeenkomst.
Hoewel ik niet weg was van dit boek, was het best een ontspannend tussendoortje. Toegegeven, ik begrijp niet helemaal hoe de ontknoping in elkaar zit, maar ach, ik ben dan ook niet Dirk Gently.

Brilliant ideas again.

Sometimes I wish that Douglas Adams was one of my best friends and we could talk hours and hours about space and time travel. Still, thank you for existing once upon a time.

First off, this novel is exquisitely well-plotted. All the elements of the mystery are set up perfectly and subtly, so much so that it's easy to miss them, and everything is explained satisfyingly in the end. Beyond that there's something funny on almost every page, and Adams is able to get at big themes in a meaningful way: the beauty of life, the interconnectedness of all things, the need for (and impossibility of) certainty, the way that what we believe at any given move is constantly shifting.

Here's one funny passage that illustrates Adams's talent for a great setup and punchline:

"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?"

You can guess how the horse got in.