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Someone from the UK, please help...


MJ

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Big fan of your work, Tingler!

 

As MJ suggested above, however, I missed the first two episodes when they were available outside the UK, so would very much appreciate it if you could see your way clear to putting them up as well.

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Speaking of Douglas Adams, I'm listening to the radio play of Dirk Gentley's Holisting Detective Agency at the moment. It's good stuff!

 

BBC Radio Plays are always good, and this one has lots of famous and talented actors in it. Including... Andrew Sachs!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks again for putting these up - I'm loving listening to them.

 

By way of reciprocation, I have put up some MP3s of the audiobook of Last Chance To See, read by Douglas Adams.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=92f50053e615f6a3af924764f9977b1d5e875c895a4edd39b8eada0a1ae8665a

 

They're not my recordings (can't remember where I got them) and there are some very small jumps between chapters, but they're a great listen nonetheless.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I figured I might as well post it in here, as most of the Douglas Adams-fans will look here sooner or later. The cover of the next Hitchhikers-book has just been released:

 

andanotherthingcover420.jpg

 

Written, as most of you will know, not by Douglas Adams (which is, of course, impossible) but by Colfer, a best-selling novelist (his books are mostly aimed at children). Of course, the announcement brought angered fans all over the world, for obvious reasons, but I wonder how people here think about the book. It's not that I don't think Colfer is able to make some Adams-like jokes (I never read a Colfer-book btw), it's just the fact that this is marketed as the 'missing end' to the series, that Douglas never got to write. I think I would have less of a problem with it if it would be a book 'based on the characters by Douglas Adams'. This looks like they gave J.K. Rowling the choice if Frodo gets to destroy the ring or not. It's just wrong on so many levels. I wouldn't have a problem with more movies or a new tv-series where they add new stuff, but books just seem more...private, somehow. Really, really nasty feeling about all this. And nice of them to make Colfer's name cover half of the cover, but don't seem so worried to point out who created the series in the first place. I wonder what they are selling here, Douglas Adams' 'new' book or the next funny book by Mr. Colfer...

 

Oh, and I must be one of the only guys in the universe who liked how the series ends now. Very definitive, and brilliant last words.

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I wouldn't say this makes me angry, more sort of bemused. What's the point? All I can say id if other people like fine, but I wont be buying it.

 

Regarding Colfer's name being more prominent than Adams', if it were the other way around then the publishers would be accused of trying to dupe people into thinking this was a new work by Douglas and trying to hide the fact that the author was someone else.

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Me and Gabez have already had a bit of a chat/argument about this. I'm on the side of 'angry Adams fan'. I don't think this book is necessary, and given the choice I would've much rather had another movie. Adams is just too unique to even attempt to copy.

 

Strangely enough, I don't have quite as much reservation for the third Dirk Gently radio series, which is pretty much doing the same thing. The difference is that Adams was working on Dirk Gently 3 for years, and there's a lot more written than was published in The Salmon of Doubt for Dirk Maggs to go on.

 

Let us also not forget that the only book so far based on an Adams work but not actually written by him is Starship Titanic by Terry Jones, which was awful, despite Jones usually being an excellent writer and Adams still being alive.

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I'm a big fan of the Dirk Gently-series. I don't really like how Dirk Maggs handled the end of the radio series (you know, the 'new' episodes), but I guess he didn't have a lot of choice on how to handle the situation. Dirk Gently is amazing though, I never was that big a fan of the book, but the radio series really added a lot to the world of Dirk Gently.

 

I wonder if the third series is ever going to happen though. Dirk Maggs won't be doing it, so unless someone else picks it up, it probably won't see the light of day. It's a shame, the third series was the one that was going to be the most interesting. A lot of rumours of a Hitchhikers-crossover (which was Douglas' own idea), of which the start was visible in the second series. A real shame. Here is my source: http://www.douglasadams.se/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14860

 

On the same forum (which is fairly accurate regarding Douglas Adams-info), there are some rumors of a sequel to the first Hitchhikers-movie being made as a DVD-movie, based on the radio version a bit more. There's even some concept art floating around. If this new book is a succes, I guess chances are we will start hearing more about it.

 

But yeah, book isn't needed. I'll skip it. New radio/television/cinema-stuff: Bring it on.

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I wonder if the third series is ever going to happen though. Dirk Maggs won't be doing it, so unless someone else picks it up, it probably won't see the light of day. It's a shame, the third series was the one that was going to be the most interesting. A lot of rumours of a Hitchhikers-crossover (which was Douglas' own idea), of which the start was visible in the second series. A real shame. Here is my source: http://www.douglasadams.se/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14860

 

I had no idea about Dirk Maggs leaving Above The Title, especially so abruptly. That is deeply shocking and a real shame.

 

(emails CV to Above The Title...)

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...

 

Wow.

 

This is the first I'm hearing of it. And I'm... a bit shocked. That's terrible. I don't want to read it, I really don't. I might... but I don't want to.

 

It'd be like someone other than Terry Pratchett writing a Discworld novel. Or even your Rowling analogy, if someone wrote another Harry Potter book. I can't believe someone had the nerve to do this.

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And nice of them to make Colfer's name cover half of the cover, but don't seem so worried to point out who created the series in the first place.

 

I find the situation far preferable to the other option, which would be to put Douglas Adams' name huge on the cover as if he had somehow written this book from beyond the grave. Far too often dead authors' names are carried on by ghostwriters, turned into a brand name. Good to see that they went the honest route here.

 

(Adams' name is right at the top of the cover, and is the first thing my eyes went to when I saw the image, so I disagree that they failed to credit him, too.)

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I really am amazed at the angry reaction to this. What's the big deal? Colfer won't be impersonating Adams; he has his own unique and distinctive style. Maybe it's because I'm already a big Colfer fan, but I think this is great news.

 

I don't see it like someone else writing the 8th Harry Potter book. It's more like Sebastian Faulks writing the new James Bond book, Devil May Care. Anyone can see that these are distinctive titles by separate authors.

 

And I do think it's important that Adams' widow is 100% behind this and chose Colfer to write the book.

 

Honestly, you people are reacting like Colfer has just suggested nipple-piercing in a nunnery!

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