Book Name : Dirk Gently 1 - Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Author : Adams, Douglas
No. of Pages : 304
Summary : (Taken from
Wikipedia)
Dirk
Gently's plot is non-linear, partly because time travel is one of the
main elements of the story.
Summary : (Taken from
Wikipedia)
Dirk
Gently's plot is non-linear, partly because time travel is one of the
main elements of the story.
Four
billion years in Earth's past, a group of Salaxalans attempts to populate the
earth; however, a mistake caused by their engineer – who used an Electric Monk
to irrationally believe the proposed fix would work – causes their landing
craft to explode, killing the Salaxalans and generating the spark of energy
needed to start the process of life on Earth. The
ghost of the Salaxalan engineer roams the earth waiting to undo his mistake,
watching human life develop and waiting to find a soul that it can possess. The
ghost finds it can only possess individuals that fundamentally want to do the
same task it is trying to accomplish itself. Otherwise, it is only able to
influence the individual in subtle ways.
In the
early 19th century, the ghost discovers Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, and influences the writer to
add a second section to "Kubla Khan" and
alter parts of "The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner" to describe how
to correct the problem that destroyed the landing craft in the distant past.
The ghost then begins seeking out someone whose hardship can be influenced by
Coleridge's work. It later discovers that Professor Urban
"Reg" Chronotis at St Cedd's possesses a time machine disguised as
his quarters. In the late 20th Century, during the annual St Cedd's dinner
reading of "Kubla Khan", the ghost influences Reg to use the time
machine to perform a bit of trickery for a young child at the dinner, while the
ghost lures another Electric Monk into Reg's quarters. Upon return to the
present, the ghost finds the Monk unusable for its purposes. The Monk then goes
off to kill Wayforward Technologies II's CEO, Gordon Way, due to a
misunderstanding.
The ghost
later tries to influence Richard MacDuff, a former student of Reg and current
employee of Gordon Way, who was also at the Coleridge reading. Richard finds
himself breaking into the apartment of Susan Way—his girlfriend and Gordon's
sister— to erase an answering machine message. His actions lead the police to
consider Richard a suspect in the murder of Gordon. Richard discusses this with
his former college friend Dirk Gently, who claims
to be a "Holistic Detective" believing in the "fundamental
interconnectedness of all things". Currently on the case of a missing cat,
Dirk examines Richard and finds him to have been in a hypnotic-like state, and
determines that Richard was temporarily possessed. Richard recounts the events
from the Coleridge reading, including Reg's trick; Dirk, after consulting with
a child, concludes that the only way the trick was possible was with a time
machine. The two approach Reg, who admits to this fact.
Meanwhile,
the ghost has found Michael Wenton-Weakes, a recently-fired editor of an arts
magazine. Through subtle influences the ghost makes Michael read Coleridge's
works and convinces him to kill Albert Ross, the editor who replaced him. Both
now have sought to erase those that supplant them, and the ghost is able to
fully possess Michael's body. The ghost, in Michael's body, arrives at Reg's
quarters while Dirk and Richard are there, and demands Reg use his time machine
to return back 4 billion years in the past. They travel back, and
ghost-possessed Michael, using a makeshift environmental suit, sets up to
repair the damage to the Salaxalan craft. While they watch, Richard receives a
call from Susan from the 20th century on Reg's phone, a quirk of the time machine
due to the phone company. Richard learns of Ross's murder, and Dirk quickly
surmises the ghost's plan, which if successful will erase the formation of life
on Earth. Realising Michael was influenced by Coleridge's works, Dirk instructs
Reg to take them to the 19th century, allowing Dirk to interrupt Coleridge long enough to disrupt the ghost's possession and prevent
the second part of "Kubla Khan" from ever having been written.
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