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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

douglas adams richard dawkins stephen fry simon jones christopher cerf

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Rescued from the Macintosh of the late Douglas Adams, "The Salmon of Doubt" gives listeners the opportunity to linger and frolic one last time with the uniquely entertaining and richly informed mind of the author. Unabridged. 2 cds.

7 pages, Audio CD

First published May 28,2002
Series
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

This edition

Format
7 pages, Audio CD
Published
January 1, 2006 by Phoenix Audio
ISBN
9781597770064
ASIN
159777006X
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Dirk Gently

    Dirk Gently

    Dirk Gently bills himself as a "holistic detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item ...

  • Thor

    Thor

    ...

  • Kate Schechter

    Kate Schechter

    ...

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for douglas adams

douglas adams

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Douglas Noel Adams was an English author, humourist, and screenwriter, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG). Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy developed into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime. It was further developed into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.
Adams also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990) and Last Chance to See (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series Doctor Who, co-wrote City of Death (1979), and served as script editor for its seventeenth season. He co-wrote the sketch "Patient Abuse" for the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. A posthumous collection of his selected works, including the first publication of his final (unfinished) novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.
Adams was a self-proclaimed "radical atheist", an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, and a lover of fast cars, technological innovation, and the Apple Macintosh.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
33(33%)
3 stars
35(35%)
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0(0%)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Qoelet
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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First read shortly after publication, I vaguely remember being disappointed that there was so little Dirk Gently there. Upon rereading, I have the same disappointment.

Contains some nice bits and bobs published elsewhere, from reviews to anecdotes, and 10 chapters of what would likely have coalesced into a third Dirk Gently novel. Like earlier installments, it starts as individual unrelated fragments, unlike those, we never get to see the whole.
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AyyyItsNaru
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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I stopped reading this book. I enjoyed the first part, but I think this book is really for people who know and love Douglas Adams and want a little bonus of reading all his book introductions and opinion pieces in one place. I might come back to it after I've read some of his other work.
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Faustinus
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Very very fascinating but also very very sad. I think some of Adams' best writing is found within this work. Sadly, the publication of this book meant that there would be no more new Douglas Adams books.
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Ca7chi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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The Salmon of Doubt is a hard book to categorize. It contains various items from Douglas Adam's hard drive downloaded after his death, along with some items from other sources, and his half finished novel The Salmon of Doubt. It was compiled and published after his death. The book as a whole is an interesting look into the mind of a man who, although remembered for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is so much more. If you want to truly know all the facets of his mind, this is the book to read. He was not only a great wit, but a concerned environmentalist, and philosopher. Highly recommended for any Douglas Adams fan!
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Saichiz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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2.5 stars

Since you come into this book expecting Douglas Adams, and what you get is only somewhat Douglas Adams, it was a huge let down. The man's writing is very distinct, and while the little bits that are his are good, the other bits aren't.
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Herobrina
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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It's really hard to rate a text that is a compilation of snippets that was intended to eventually be a book, but that the author never completed.

This reliquary is constructed of some well-not-quite-eulogies of Douglas Adams, and some quotes, snippets and letters that he wrote and some of his magazine articles. The entire first half of the book comes across as a portrait of a man we have come to know through his work, with some semi-biographical pieces such as his time spent in the America walking borrowed dogs, his passion for The Beatles and Procol Harum, his thoughtful journey into Atheism, and that time he dressed up as a Rhino to climb Kilimanjaro. I was fully amused to listen to his wish-lists for future technology, that spookily predict many aspects our modern day mobile cloud-computing world and fibre optic networks, even though they were written in the 90s.

Bumbling into the more Dirk Gently end of the book, I was amused to find myself listening to the voice of Arthur Dent, Simon Jones. Having been brought up on Hitchhiker's Guide (TV and radioplay versions) this seemed quite fitting. I'll admit that knowing this was ostensibly a Dirk Gently book, I should have at first considered... "the interconnectedness of all things". I was caught off guard with a frisson of real honest to goodness goosebumps as random descriptions in the text tied back to other anecdotes, turns of phrase and backstory from Adams's life. Either that or I was just cold... gusty winds may exist.

I'm not sure how this would go down with people who are not fans of the author, but the book is a nice quiet farewell to the man.
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AppaTico
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Certainly a gem for all Douglas Adams fans, containing a collection of articles, speeches and short stories with a broad topic ranging from such as hiking up Kilimanjaro in a rhino-suit to how computers' keybords will look in the future. If you're familiar with Douglas's writing style, you'll recognise that he uses similar techniques when writing both long novels and short chronicles. The book is an opportunity to not only enjoy the writers ideas one last time, but also to get to know the person behind those ideas better.

The beggining of what was supposed to become a new Dirk-Gently book doesn't dissapoint, and it lures you in to a world of hollistic complexity, only in the way that Douglas Adams can.
My personal opinion is that the book is a casual read. Because it consists of unrelated material, it's easy to get into any page at any time and there's no need to rush the read.

Another sidenote is that the book can be enjoyed by readers who are not familiar with Douglas Adams or his work. It can be a good way of getting to know the author and his writing style, but, of course, the book is most appealing to Douglas Adams fans who appreciate his character and know a thing or two about the guy.
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theemunator
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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While reading this, I've had one thought running in my head the whole way through: I wish I could've met Douglas Adams.
Whether he's telling about the time he walked around Africa in a rhino suit for charity, teaching Americans how to make a proper cup of tea or giving a speech about the possibility of an artificial God, Adams was able to make almost anything a pleasure to read. A wonderful insight into the mind of a man I'll never get to meet.
I'm only taking off points here because the unfinished version of the third Dirk Gently novel given here didn't quite work, but then again Adams knew that too. Shame we never got to see how this project would have ended up.
So long Douglas Adams, and thanks for all the fish.
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