I liked 'Salmon of Doubt,' personally. It felt a lot like a eulogy to me, and apropriate. There were reminders of how he thought, and why the way he thought was special. There were hints at all the work he left undone. The tragic loss of his premature death. What could have been.

It also left some sense of who he was, what he cared about and considered important, who his friends were.

On the other hand, if it weren't for the Salmon of Doubt, I wouldn't have realized Adams' genius writings on other (non-fiction) topics besides THHGTTG and Dirk Gently. In fairness, I could have found that out in other ways if I'd have looked, but thanks to Salmon of Doubt I've come to appreciate the man's writings and personality in a much broader way.

So I say it was a good thing overall. Even though it was also sad because it was the unfinished writings of a dead author I love.

You might like [0]. It's a lecture he gave about his nonfiction book Last Chance to See.

[0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZG8HBuDjgc

Same with Tolkien. His son collected a lot of notes and half-finished writing, and published them as a number of different books, like "The Book of Lost Tales".

It has moments where Tolkien's skill shines through, but it's much harder to read. I can't really recommend them.

The Silmarillion on the other hand, seems to have mostly been finished when Tolkien passed.

I thought the essays in Salmon of Doubt were fascinating though (half of the book was a collection of previously published essays)

i don't follow how it reflects poorly on the author. maybe it reflects poorly on our grasp of the creative processes.

Brands tend to get a bad reputation if they have some good quality products and some bad quality ones and only small print to tell them apart.

For something like Salmon of Doubt there was far more than small print to tell them apart, though. It was not a half finished book as much as a half finished fragment of one preceded by a substantial section that acted as an eulogy to Adams. As such I think it was worthwhile.

I agree with you that if a work is published and presented as just another one of their novels it is different.

Whilst I love his writing, the last couple of books I read of his were, in my opinion, poor and not worth releasing. I can understand why he'd have wanted this. Nasty illness.

A fair point.

I would have liked to see what his existing writing partners -- Neil Gaiman or Stephen Baxter, for instance -- could have done. But it's not what he wanted.

Terry Pratchett's "Long Earth" collaboration with Stephen Baxter came to its planned conclusion at least. I would assume that whatever PTerry had wished for his writing collaborators to continue on in his stead was already prepared for well in advance.