Dimension of miracles.

Dimension of Miracles is a bit fun, often very absurd, but not particularly engaging. For all the similarities, it is surprising that Douglas Adams never read this prior to writing the Hitchhiker's Guide. It even has one of the problems of Adams' series - that the main character is almost entirely acted upon, an unwitting bystander in his own story, rarely the actor. Adams overcame this by making Arthur Dent funnier and surrounding him with outlandish characters and situations. Sheckley provides the outlandish situations, but doesn't come through with the rest. He makes a last gasp at something profound to wrap it up, but it was all out of sorts with the rest.

I have just listened to this as an audiobook and rarely have anything to add about that, but this time I was incredibly impressed by the abilities of John Hodgman as a performer. Yes, that John Hodgman. I have enjoyed his writings and podcasts in the past, but I thought he was kind of a one-trick pony. I'm very pleasantly surprised with his versatility with characterization in this book.