A collection of essays and a well put-together but incomplete last Dirk Gently novel, I can see how this will always garner mixed reviews. Overall, I enjoyed this book as there’s something poignant about reading Adams’ words one last time that makes this a fond farewell, but the lack of an end to the Dirk Gently book left me disappointed and wistful, but the story was shaping up so well I’m glad to know as little as I now do. Maybe one for true aficionados but a touching book to add to a collection.

I went into this thinking I was getting a 300 pg Dirk Gently story... guess I should have read some reviews of it first... cuz that is noty what this book was mostly. It was interesting but just not what I was hoping for.

"Where do you get the ideas for your books?
- I tell myself I cannot have another cup of coffee till I've thought of an idea."

This book is such a beautiful tribute to the late Douglas Adams. The pieces in it are laugh out loud funny, deeply meaningful, and often poignant. Surely I am not the only person that cried reading "Sunset at Blandings"; the feelings that Douglas felt at losing one of his favourite authors are so reminiscent of what his fans must feel.

This book is absolutely wonderful. Douglas Adams really brings meaning to Life, The Universe and Everything.

Just finished listening to the audio version (read initially immediately after the ink was dry). Two things come to mind:
1. This is not Dirk #3, and
2. I miss DNA.
3. I was wrong to originally only award this a 4
42: I may have mentioned #2 before

(Numbering system courtesy of DNA)

This is most definitely not "Dirk Gently #3".
This is a motley collection of odds and ends found on Douglas Adams' many hard disks after his sudden death.
There is the beginning of a Dirk Gently story here that is going nowhere, padded with some stuff that just possibly might be connected to the plot, based on three sentences the author mailed to his editor. This whole mess runs to 79 pages. Very disappointing.
The rest of the collection I enjoyed. Letters, articles, speeches, interviews. The spirit of Douglas Adams, clever and funny, shines through. Still glad I got this in the library and didn't shell out any real money for it though.
And by the way, don't believe the subtitle "Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time" either, you get thirteen pages of Zaphod, that's it.

While many of the pieces included in this collection were, a) entertaining, b) somewhat informative, c) diverse, and d) well written peeks into the beliefs and personality of the author, the overall effect was also, e) incomplete. Of course that's to be understood, as it IS a posthumous gathering of magazine articles, interviews, and an unfinished 'Dirk Gently' story. One does wonder, however, if it was really necessary to publish "The Salmon of Doubt". Being as unfinished and maybe haphazardly thrown together as it sort of appears, do you think Mr. Adams himself would really have wanted to attach his name to this?
For all the good intentions involved, and the glorious little bits of wisdom and humor contained therein, "Salmon" still feels more like a tease than a satisfying conclusion.
It is understandable that fans of Douglas Adams may hunger for any scrap they haven't yet read by the man before his unexpected departure (Mr. Adams died suddenly, of a heart attack, in 2001), but overall, in my opinion, the assembly of the contents here feels rushed, desperately collected and lashed together, just so readers could feel as if it were that proper last goodbye. Is it? In my opinion, no. It is perhaps a sincere tribute put together by friends and admirers, but no, not a fitting conclusion.

Funny. Sad because he died and that’s sad. Also, the part that is the third book of the dirk gently series was so good and I wish it was a finished book. I also enjoyed most of the other excerpts and essays.

I bought this book as soon as the paperback edition was published and it lay unread for well over a year. Robert Louis Stevenson said that, “to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive,” and I felt to have one last Douglas Adams book to look forward to would be better than to actually read it. If you are holding back from reading this book for the same reason then you really are missing out. Every week I wasted by leaving this great book on the shelf unread could have been better spent in anticipation of looking forward to reading it again!

I have read and reread this book now and like all of Douglas’s writing it never fails to make me roar with laughter. Broken down into three sections - inevitably titled Life, The Universe and Everything - by Peter Guzzardi it contains speeches, interviews, magazine articles as well at chapters from the unfinished book that shares the title.

The Salmon of Doubt itself stops abruptly and contains many ideas that had not been fully developed, but there is enough material there to satisfy any fan of Douglas Adams and his work. It is clear that Douglas’s world famous procrastination was not the reason he struggled with this book; but the fact there are at least two books mixed in there. Parts of the text are quite clearly a Dirk Gently novel - not surprising considering the fact he is the main character - and other parts have the feel of Hitchhikers, which Douglas was about to rectify just weeks before his untimely death at the ridiculously young age of 49.

Part memoir, part random thoughts, part story ideas, and part salmon of doubt. This was quite interesting even if it didn't have a full story in it.

Although mostly a collection of interviews, a speech, and some random odds and ends of Adams' writings, it was very much worth the price of admission in that one gains a far greater understanding of the character of the man and a far greater appreciation for his wit. The tidbits of Dirk Gently and Zaphod Beeblebrox were entertaining as well, short as they may be.

A wonderful insight into Douglas Adams' brilliant mind. The tragedy of his untimely death looms over the entire book--when you read his excitement over new Macintosh computers, oh my god how excited and/or hilariously horrified would he be to see where technology is today? I long for more of his words and I am so disraught that every word he will ever write has been written. Life is cruel and unfair, but at least we can access this well-crafted collection of the last bits and bobs and know many Douglas Adams' fans grieve with us.

This collection of essays and interviews is just a genuine pleasure. Funny, interesting, and enjoyable.