A review by jonwesleyhuff
Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley

3.0

Wandering, rambling and wordy, I can see how this book might not be for everyone. The cover on Goodreads is wonderfully old-school. Like many recent reviews, I came to this as part of Neil Gaiman's series of audiobooks. I found myself both enchanted and frustrated by the book. John Hodgman's reading is very good overall, and it compliments the smart and often witty writing. It was a lot of fun to listen to, and I'm glad I did. But, as a story, the book does suffer some. It's more of a loose structure for the author to indulge in some musings about life, the universe and everything. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but not all the musings are equally as interesting. And some of it does feel slightly dated in context. Not that it isn't relevant, but just that the same topics have been well worn since then so it feels a bit less fresh than it might have. It seems unfair to keep comparing it to Hitchhiker's, but the comparison is natural. And one thing that this lacks that that story has is a strong central story. This book is more overtly philosophical, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just very different because of it, and might not instantly appeal to Hitchiker's fan.

The book's structure means that there are a lot of ideas explored and put out there, but rarely ever is anything that resolved. All that being said, the ending is pretty brilliant, and it's an interesting ride overall. So definitely worth a listen/read.