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I really like this book and its sequel The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul. Not quite up there with Hitchhiker's (for me) but still very good. I haven't re-read them in a while. May do, I could do with something light.
I think Adams did have an issue of "too many ideas" at times, which he solved in Hitchhiker's by constant funny asides from the Book. The issue, which may have had an impact I don't know, is he was famously bad at hitting deadlines. I believe someone from his publisher literally came over and took his work in progress manuscript for So Long and Thanks for All the Fish when he had failed to meet the umpteenth deadline. Notably that book as less of the Book in it.
But possibly the biggest cause of it feeling a little like disconnected strands is that a lot of the time travel stuff was re-purposed from an unfilmed Dr Who script that Adams wrote.
One of the things I like about Adams writing is that a lot of his jokes, which I merely thought of as funny when I was young, I now realise are astute and clever too. I like his explanation of hypnosis for example, or the decision-making software. There are lots of examples in Hitch-hiker's too.
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