I didn’t intend to read another after the last book which was a huge disappointment; but this one was billed as a hodge-podge of Adams’ stuff discovered in his computers after his passing.  I thought it was worth a look-see, at least.  And I’m glad I did.

The prologue has a bit of a biography and bibliography that is mildly interesting but does serve to put down a basis for what comes after. There’s an Introduction by Christopher Cerf who must’ve been a close friend.  The rest of the content was culled from many sources by many people and, I think, was well-curated. 

There are letters that Adams wrote, replies to some of those letters, editorials, musings, interviews, speeches, and lots and lots of musings.  There is the text of a letter he wrote to Disney Studios over the difficulty they seemed to be experiencing making Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy that is almost worth the price of the book alone.  Hilarious!  There’s the text of a sketch he wrote for the Graham Chapman TV show in 1975.

The short story “Young Zaphod Plays It Safe” is also included.  This story appeared in just a few other publications so some readers might have missed it.  It’s pretty funny and I appreciated being able to read it again. It had one of the funniest lines I’ve read:  “Before launch, the material structure of this section had been battered, rammed, blasted, and subjected to every assault its builders knew it could withstand, in order to demonstrate that it could withstand them.”  Jeez, this is classic hilarity.

“The Salmon of Doubt” was a working title for what might have become a Dirk Gently story.  There are eleven healthy and generally funny and entertaining chapters never seen before.  I wish I could read the end.  Truly, we lost a comic genius too soon.  ~~ Catherine Book

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