Douglas Adams changed the face of science fiction (to a uniquely and irresistibly funny one) with his cosmically comic novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and its classic sequels. Sadly for his countless admirers, he hitched his own ride to the great beyond much too soon. But for anyone who ever laughed out loud at the absurdist adventures of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, chuckled knowingly at the daffy definitions detailed in The Meaning of Liff, or experienced the wonders of encountering endangered species in Last Chance to See, here's a wonderful opportunity to revel in the droll wit, off-the-wall humor, and keenly inquiring mind of Douglas Adams just one more time.

Culled posthumously from Adams's fleet of beloved Macintosh computers, this selection of essays, articles, anecdotes, and stories offers a fascinating and intimate portrait of the multifaceted artist — as a devout Beatles and Bach fan, radical atheist, enthusiastic technophile, crusading conservationist, and of course delightful wordsmith.

Join him on an excursion to climb Kilimanjaro...dressed in a rhino costume; peek into the private life of Genghis Khan — warrior, conqueror, and world-class neurotic; root for the harried author's efforts to get a Hitchhiker movie off the ground in Hollywood; thrill to (and laugh at) the further exploits of private eye Dirk Gently and two-headed alien Zaphod Beeblebrox. In the immortal words of The Hitchhiker's Guide, "Don't panic!" — though our friend Douglas Adams is gone, he's left us something very special to remember him by. Without a doubt.

"The pieces here bounce with charm....A beautiful sendoff, Douglas, wherever you are." Kirkus Reviews

"[A] fitting tribute to the master of wacky words and even wackier tales....Salmon leaves no doubt as to Adams' lasting legacy. (Grade: A)" Daneet Steffens, Entertainment Weekly

"[E]clectic fun....Those who have never read Adams probably are better off starting with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Get to know Adams's work, then come back to The Salmon of Doubt and get to know the man." John Grochowski, The Chicago Sun-Times

"Surprisingly, for such a ghoulishly opportunistic-sounding project, Salmon is a lot of fun....Taken together, the disparate pieces paint a loving portrait of Adams....Salmon whets readers' appetites for a literary meal that will never come." Tasha Robinson, The Onion AV Club

"It's hard to classify this cornucopia, selected by Christopher Cerf from Adams's papers after his untimely death, but Hitchhiker fans will want it." Library Journal

"Although Adams expressed misgivings about writing [the titular novella] as a Dirk Gently novel...the fragment works quite well as written....The fragment included here makes it evident that Adams's proclivity for procrastination and untimely death resulted in the loss of an highly entertaining novel." Steven H. Silver, SFSite.com

"It is plain from the editing that Cerf had to extract nuggets from fragments, but even minor Adams seems like a message from an old friend." John Mort, Booklist

"Guzzardi has done a good job....[The Salmon of Doubt] is perforce a book full of bits and bobs....Which is hardly going to offend people who thought, correctly in my opinion, that his collaboration with John Lloyd, The Meaning of Liff, was one of the funniest little books ever written." Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian (U.K.)

"Worth reading and even cherishing, if only because it's the last we'll hear from the master of comic science fiction." The Newark Star-Ledger

"You are on the verge of entering the wise, provoking, benevolent, hilarious, and addictive world of Douglas Adams. Don?t bolt it all whole — as with Douglas's beloved Japanese food, what seems light and easy to assimilate is subtler and more nutritious by far than it might at first appear." Stephen Fry, author of The Liar and Making History: A Novel

From the unfathomable imagination of Douglas Adams — his internationally bestselling final book; a zany collection of essays, articles, anecdotes, and stories.

On Friday, May 11, 2001, the world mourned the untimely passing of Douglas Adams, beloved creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, dead of a heart attack at age forty-nine. Thankfully, in addition to a magnificent literary legacy—which includes seven novels and three co-authored works of nonfiction—Douglas left us something more. The book you are about to enjoy was rescued from his four computers, culled from an archive of chapters from his long-awaited novel-in-progress, as well as his short stories, speeches, articles, interviews, and letters.

In a way that none of his previous books could, The Salmon of Doubt provides the full, dazzling, laugh-out-loud experience of a journey through the galaxy as perceived by Douglas Adams. From a boy’s first love letter (to his favorite science fiction magazine) to the distinction of possessing a nose of heroic proportions; from climbing Kilimanjaro in a rhino costume to explaining why Americans can’t make a decent cup of tea; from lyrical tributes to the sublime pleasures found in music by Procol Harum, the Beatles, and Bach to the follies of his hopeless infatuation with technology; from fantastic, fictional forays into the private life of Genghis Khan to extended visits with Dirk Gently and Zaphod Beeblebrox: this is the vista from the elevated perch of one of the tallest, funniest, most brilliant, and most penetrating social critics and thinkers of our time.

Welcome to the wonderful mind of Douglas Adams.

From the Hardcover edition.

Douglas Adams was the author of the five novels in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (yes, you read that right!); two Dirk Gently novels; Last Chance to See (with Mark Carwardine); and The Meaning of Liff and The Deeper Meaning of Liff (both with John Lloyd).