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‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: Salmon of Doubt – Volume 1’ – Advance Trade Paperback Review

To start things off, I want to say this: Douglas Adams is my hero, both literary and otherwise. His work has influenced so much of what I enjoy in the world of entertainment, and the newest Dirk Gently series, The Salmon of Doubt, particularly marked my interest, especially since The Salmon of Doubt was slated to be the title of an upcoming Dirk Gently project. That it coincides with the BBC America series, as well, is a welcome addition, since the first season of the show was particularly well done.

That brings us to the series itself, which takes the Adams-like premise of messing around with time and reality to the next logical conclusion. Bringing in a bit of the old and a bit of the new, The Salmon of Doubt uses this plot device to wrap the characters from the IDW Publishing series and add in the familiar faces of the television show.

This does bring me to a point, however, and it’s one I’ve spoken of often in regards to Dirk Gently. It takes awhile for everything to make sense, which means that for the first few pieces of the work (episodes, issues, chapters, etc.), nothing makes sense and everything is just kind of weird. There are a million things happening to a lot of people, and why they’re all here and what is actually going on isn’t explained or even given any thought, seemingly. Then, after a bit, all the pieces fall into place, and you realize that what you were experiencing this entire time was a brilliant, complex thread that didn’t fully sink in until everything made sense all at once.

This has been true for every previous Dirk Gently work, and with Arvind Ethan David (who helps to shepherd the television series, along with the book’s executive producer and television series writer Max Landis) at the helm, I have total faith that this series will follow the same path. Unfortunately, I think that this series is still at the point where things are coming together. It’s by no means bad, but it just hasn’t hit that critical point just yet. It very much feels like the best is yet to come.

That being said, the series has been plotted in a fantastic way by David, and the artwork by Ilias Kyriazis is terrific. He manages to both capture the visuals of Dirk from the comics, as well as Sam Barnett, Elijah Wood, and the others from the television series. He has a tough task, tackling the strangeness that is the world of Adams, but is doing a fantastic job.

I really can’t wait to see where this series winds up. It feels very close to the stage where things start coming together, and when it does, it’s going to be one of the most satisfying things I’ve read in a long time.

Russ Pirozek, Fanbase Press Contributor

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