Don’t Panic is one part a biography of Douglas Adams and one part a guide to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘s assortment of works. The biography part stops about three quarters through the book, and the guide doesn’t start until about halfway into it. All of it is written with Neil Gaiman’s particular style of wit and humor. I had no idea what to expect when I started the book.
First, do I recommend this book?
Yes and no.
I only post reviews of books I recommend to someone, but they don’t always fit every reader of this blog. Don’t Panic was fun, clean, and definitely not Christian. Douglas Adams was a nihilistic agnostic, perhaps even atheists, but the book didn’t say which for sure. If you haven’t read or listened to or watched any of The Hitchhiker’s stuff than you will probably get lost or bored with this book. Even if you have read the books, you will come to learn that none of the radio shows, TV shows, or the movie cares much for what the books said. That was the way Douglas Adams wrote all of it too. After all, he wrote the radio show, the TV show, and part of the movie with hardly the same storyline. So if you like linear thoughts and tidy plots, don’t even bother with this or any of The Hitchhiker’s stuff. In fact, if you don’t get British humor, you just won’t enjoy this either. This is like Montey Python, but with a complete pessimism that anything in life can actually amount to anything. If you are a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, this is a lot of fun to read. I found myself laughing to tears (they actually dropped an inflatable whale in the Thames to promote the series!?!).
I’m going to write a review to The Hitchhiker’s Series next week to expand on what I learned from this book as a guide, but this post will focus on the biography aspect. I had debated with should come first on my blog. You need to read at least the first Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy before this book, but since this book helped informed my review of the Hitchhiker’s series, I did the review of Don’t Panic first. So read the review of the Hitchhiker’s books next week to get more of my thoughts on the Hitchhiker’s world itself. I’ll just focus on the biography part here.
Douglas Adams, in this book, is nearly as colorful of a person as one of his own characters. He is brilliant but unable to hold a job other than writing. He is wildly successful without writing all that many books. He misses every deadline and hates the actual task of writing, but is continually asked to write more. Sometimes he has to be almost tricked into it. I typically read biographies to learn how to live life well, but honestly, Douglas Adam’s life can’t be copied. He is a mess of odd parts and random luck, both good and bad.
I really enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s voice throughout the book. I have read a lot of biographies that get bogged down with all the people in the person’s life. Neil Gaiman paints a humorous portrait with broad strokes and funny examples. The reader gets a feel for who Douglas Adams was as a person rather than a dissected specimen. The irony of Douglas Adams’ life is brought out. I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the book even more than the guide portion.
As you get farther into Douglas Adams’ life, the book switches focus on his career and you lose some of the insight into his family life or personal life. Instead, it focuses on all the product that came out during and after Douglas Adams’ life.
My choice of books for this blog has been for young adults who enjoy fantasy fiction or writers of young adult fantasy fiction. I do think Don’t Panic would be a good fit for that audience, even though it is neither written for young adults and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is Science Fiction, sort of. I think of The Hitchhiker books as classics that young adult fans of speculative fiction should add to their to-read lists. Therefore, after reading that, read this one too.
What do you think?