The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

by Douglas Adams

Hardcover, 319 pages

English language

Published Aug. 13, 1988 by Simon and Schuster.

ISBN:: 978-0-671-62583-2
OCLC Number:: 473534784

(135 reviews)

When a passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, shoots up through the roof engulfed in a ball of orange flame, the usual people try to claim responsibility. First the IRA, then the PLO and the Gas Board; even British Nuclear Fuels rushes out a statement that the situation is completely under control, that it was a one-in-a-million chance, that there was hardly any radioactive leakage at all, and that the site of the explosion would make a nice location for a day out with the kids and a picnic, before finally having to admit that it hasn't actually anything to do with them at all....

No rational cause can be found for the explo- sion—it is simply designated an act of God. But, thinks Dirk Gently, which God? And why? What God would be hanging around Terminal 'IWo of Heathrow Airport trying to catch the to Oslo? Soon he is involved (pleasantly) with an attrac- tive young syornan who has survived the blast, and (unpleasantly) with a couple of angry, bickering gods, as well as a whole series of apparently unrelated challenges to his detective abilities that would have baffled Sherlock Holmes—from the mysterious death of a client whose head is found revolving on a rock LP record to the hostile atten- lion of a stray eagle....

Funnier than Psycho, more chilling than Jeeves Mes shorter than WIT and Pence, the new Dirk Gently novel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, is Douglas Adams' most ambitious (and delightfully puzzling) novel to date, pitting Dirk Gently not only against the Laws of the Universe, but also the Norse Gods.... --jacket

24 editions

jonn reviewed The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently, #2)

Great for Adams's fans, a bit stretched for the normal people.

4 stars

Surreal, but a bit jumbled. I liked it, but could have been a short story.

The topic discussed the most was the topic of cheating the systems' constraints and the backlash of consequences.

It's somewhere between 3¹/₂ and 4, but I'm giving it 4 because it is seriously underrated. Of course, it's less of a banger compared to the first book, but there's no need to go Gentle Giant fan on it.

Gentle Giant was a British progressive rock band that released a number of albums so novel and captivating, almost nobody have understood them. But those who did, at least to a degree, got very upset when they have started making music that was just good, if not a little poppy. It led to the bands eventual demise.

Granted, Douglas Adams neither cares, nor cared for the people calling his works "rambling" or his thinking too shallow (or indeed …

Surreal, but a bit jumbled. I liked it, but could have been a short story.

The topic discussed the most was the topic of cheating the systems' constraints and the backlash of consequences.

Granted, Douglas Adams neither cares, nor cared for the people calling his works "rambling" or his thinking too shallow (or indeed too deep, by those boasting about their ignorance), I still feel it would be a bit unfair to reduce the overall rating of the book by rating it as 3.5.

Paul Oldham reviewed The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Rambling, and disappointing

2 stars

I bought this book for a second time (it turned out, although I still can't find my original copy but it is allegedly lurking somewhere in the house) and read it after a recommendation from someone on Mastodon but as I read it I remembered how disappointed I'd been the first time.

Fundamentally I think there's an interesting plot idea here but Adams' unravelling of it is confusing and assumes the reader knows as much as he does about Norse mythology and hence he can't be arsed to explain.

lijadora reviewed Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently, #2)

Review of 'Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A good pass time, funny & witty.

reverse reviewed Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently, #2)

Review of 'Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Good, but not feeling as naturally well paced as the first book.

matt reviewed Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently, #2)

Review of 'Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Not as funny as the previous book. As with the late Adams in the Hitchhiker's series, he goes completely off the rails in the final act and leaves a rather unsatisfying ending.