The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Mass Market Paperback, 247 pages

English language

Published Aug. 13, 1988 by Pan Books.

ISBN:: 9780330309554

(1 review)

When a passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, shot up through the roof engulfed in a ball of orange flame the usual people tried to claim responsibility. First the IRA, then the PLO and the Gas Board. Even British Nuclear Fuels rushed out a statement to the effect that the situation was 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 wasn't actually anything to do with them at all.

No rational cause could be found for the explosion -- it was simply designated an act of God. But, thinks Dirk Gently, which God? And why? What God would be hanging around Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport …

When a passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, shot up through the roof engulfed in a ball of orange flame the usual people tried to claim responsibility. First the IRA, then the PLO and the Gas Board. Even British Nuclear Fuels rushed out a statement to the effect that the situation was 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 wasn't actually anything to do with them at all.

No rational cause could be found for the explosion -- it was simply designated an act of God. But, thinks Dirk Gently, which God? And why? What God would be hanging around Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport trying to catch the 15:37 to Oslo? --back cover

1 edition

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.