Don’t Panic

It’s not anyone’s fault that I didn’t enjoy this book any more than I did; it’s actually to the credit of Mr. Gaiman and everyone else involved that I enjoyed it even this much. You see, I don’t like non-fiction and, as a general rule, don’t read it. For me, non-fiction gets way too bogged down in facts and too quickly forgets what makes anything worth reading in the first place; ie: a narrative thread to hang onto and someone relatable to root for. Biographies, of which “Don’t Panic” is sort of one, gives you the second part, the “someone to root for,” but too often gets lost on the path to it’s narrative thread by having to stick to the chronological facts exactly as they happened. I gave “Don’t Panic” a try, however, because A) it’s written about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” one of my favorite books and book series and B) it’s written by Neil Gaiman, a certified genius and one of my favorite writers. If Gaiman couldn’t find a way to make the story of one of my all-time favorite stories interesting, then such a thing just wasn’t possible.

Apparently, it’s not possible. Mr. Gaiman does his absolute best here, letting his own sense of humor run free against the landscape Douglas Adams created and he drops in all sorts of deleted bits of Hitchhiker’s dialogue amidst the quotes from friends and collegues, but it seems here that Gaiman is so dedicated to giving Adams’ story (and the stories he wrote) it’s due, that he forgets, or perhaps doesn’t feel he has permission to, delete the parts that are just too dry (read: boring) to keep the narrative interesting. Because make no mistake, this book includes EVERYTHING that has ever happened in the world of making The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy one of the best and funniest radio shows/books/video games/movies, etcetera and soforth and so on in the history of the known universe, and while you will learn much about the vagaries of Adams’ world-famous procrastination and the corporate ins and outs of the BBC and Hollywood, you will also find yourself nodding off in points, or if not nodding off, certainly wishing the current chapter would come to an end and that the next chapter would be about something completely different. Mr. Gaiman has a deep love and appreciation of Douglas Adams and his work and if you share that love to the same extent, you will find much to enjoy in this book. However, as someone who was mainly interested in the rocky road of the Hitchhiker’s Guide with a bit of Dr. Who and Dirk Gently tossed in for good measure, there’s an awful lot about conservation specials and climbing Mount Kilamanjaro in a Rhinocerous suit that was set way beyond my interest level. Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Gaiman has probably written as good and entertaining a book about Douglas Adams as you could possibly want or expect, but the chapters devoted to projects outside the ones the title led me to expect grind the whole thing down to a screeching halt. This is a book for the truly serious Douglas Adams afficianado; the merely curious should find their entertainment (and their towels) elsewhere.

I read the Hitchhiker and all its sequels many years ago. As a result, the details are long gone from my memory. Gaiman writes to the reader who has memorizes and retained every possible detail involved. So, I was bored or lost much of the time. I did enjoy reading about Douglas Adams.

I know gaiman is the current wunderkind of writing so I was hopeful that he could do something sensational for a biography of Adams, who wrote some wonderfully fun science fiction… Gaiman writing about Douglas Adams, and the hitchhikers guide… What could go wrong?
Perhaps it’s my expectations? Perhaps it’s the sea of names of men I’ve never heard of? Perhaps Adams was just boring but occasionally wrote some funny stuff, perhaps Gaiman can’t write biographies, or just couldn’t build Adam’s world… Whatever. Disappointing. 15% finished and I doubt I’ll return.

If you have ever stood in a field staring up at the myriad stars in the night sky and wondering just how it came to be that the humanoid life-form known as Douglas Adams managed to dream up such infinitely improbable adventures, or if you have ever stood in front of a vending machine that has just provided you with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea, then in all likelihood you will enjoy this book.

Neil Gaiman has taken time off writing his own fantastic adventures to share with us his research into the life and times of Douglas Adams. I for one am very glad that he did as the story he so masterfully unfolds is both sympathetic and enlightening. Gaiman manages to shed not a little light on Adams’ creative process and life, from the rigors and panics of his early days of script writing for Doctor Who then the Hitchhiker’s radio series all the way through to the very end of his career. Gaiman does a marvelous job of not only telling the tale but also revealing something of the man who said, ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.’

Adams was a unique writer and a comic creator of genius. He died all too young, but this book is a great tribute to a life fully-lived and to a very human humanoid.

Gaiman is an incredible author, and does justice to Adams’s professional career. This book is not only accurate, historical, and factual, but also adds much of the wry humor which of necessity dogged Adams throughout his life. How else would his books have ever been written? For any fans of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or Dirk Gently, this book is a must. Buy it. Read it. Then read it again.

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