Reviews
essential reading. It was a solid reread, probably better suited for the youth, but still makes an impact.
I want to give a shout out to my eldest daughter for bringing home an omnibus of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series shortly before our library closed due to the Cornonavirus. I heard the other two on audiobook, but had never read this one since I thought the second not good enough to carry on. I was sorely mistaken, in the most happy way imaginable. This was so much more fun than the second one and while not everything made me laugh, a number of scenes had me laughing out loud.
It starts 5 years after the last book, but a couple of million years before the first book, and, in a tangled bit of events involving the space-time continuum and various and sundry other things, Arthur Dent becomes embroiled in a race to save the universe from complete destruction. In a plot and galaxy seemingly without reason, this book is FUN and ties together brilliantly. Just writing about it made me realize I'd under-rated it with only 4 stars.
Keyifle okunası bir bilim kurgu. Okurken pek çok yerde güldürüyor. Devamını ve farklı versiyonlarını da merak ettim.
How me and this book came to be is a convoluted story that begins many years ago, when I was young and frequented fandomsecrets @ LJ. There, I saw many times this book being referenced as being a fantastical read from their childhoods and whatnot. I grew interested in it by the constant mention of it. Around that time, it was announced that Eoin Colfer would be writing a sixth book for the five book trilogy, and seeing how much I enjoy Colfer's writing, my interest increased even more. Among other factors (Like the fact that Douglas Adams penned scripts for Classic Who), I came to itch having a copy of the book in my hands, and I got it. I ended up losing it twice, also. Somehow, the book still came to me again. Excitedly I quickly ran through the pages of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, laughing or at the very least giggling at nearly every line, because Douglas Adams certainly had a way with words. The way he more often than not drifts away from the main plot, to make clever remarks on something else may be annoying for some people, but I certainly found it delightful. I read The Restaurant at the End of The Universe immediately after I had finished the first, and as a direct continuation of the story, it kept being wonderful, some concepts (Meet your meat, was it?) reminding me of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, or the second episode of New Who (The End of the Earth). It took a few tries for me to get started in Life, the Universe and Everything, because real life interfered with my reading, and then I would have to return to the few last pages of Restaurant to understand what was happening. From this book I found especially amusing how Arthur and Ford ended up in the place their adventure started... millions of years before. Oh, and the Somebody Else Problem concept too. The book I liked the least (If rated separately, I would have put only a three on it, while a four or five would be for the rest of the books) was So Long and Thanks for All The Fish. Love stories do not sit very well with me, but it was really good how Fenchurch turned out to be the girl who in Hitchhiker's had just discovered the secret to happiness, was it? From this book, I think Agrajag was the part I liked most, because it was really, really unfortunate, and really wonderful how he basically tells us how the next book will end. A special mention to Marvin in this book. To be honest, I didn't really appreciate how Fenchurch was quickly erased in Mostly Harmless (Which mind you, this title is one of the parts I enjoy the most about the first book), but in this one Random was certainly an interesting character. Also, ohh, Stavromula Beta. It ended in a very depressing note, certainly. This collection of books is a great and brilliant journey through a mostly nonsensical universe, with highly fun characters, even minor ones will stick with you. I enjoyed it greatly, and would certainly reread all five of them for many times to come. Now, all I want to do is to read the Dirk Gently series, and The Salmon of Doubt. And Another Thing... Yes, I want to read that one too, for the sake of completion.
The adventures of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect continue throughout this book, searching for the Ultimate Question.. and learning the art of flying by throwing yourself on the ground and missing the floor x)
Really fun in any form.
Well, this got rather existentialist.
Let's just say that i'm an anti fan of the writer's sense of humor. I get that some remarks were actually quite smart, but it wasn't funny. It's not a bad thing but when things were getting too silly for things not to be a joke, it felt like i was dictated to laugh, with those points as cues, and i hate that. Adams used so many pages joking instead of elaborating that none of the plot engaged me. I feel like i just read a try-hard's practice sheet on bad experimental jokes. so glad it was over.
Wunderbar absurd! Der Anfang war grandios, aber ich muss auch sagen, dass es gegen Ende deutlich an Humor abgenommen hat.
I'm currently reading this book, recommended by a friend at work and it's turning to be very good. I like the craziness of the situations and the strange humor. So far it's very entertaining!!
3.5⭐️ Enjoyable, and certainly different. Odd, as it clearly is supposed to be. I found myself struggling to get through it, mainly because I felt like the plot was revealing itself in bits and pieces. With no clear line from beginning to end, the story feels a little like running through a house and opening various doors, exploring the rooms inside and then moving to the next door. I arrived at the end of the hallway able to recognize the shape of the house I’d explored, but still a bit uncertain about the ways in which it all connects. Still fun, laugh-out-loud funny at times, and quirky. I will probably read the next book, but I’m not in a rush to do so anytime soon.
yeah this did not age well
3.5⭐️ This book is like the screwiest of screwball comedies, set in space and complete with a robot that has the personality of Eeyore. There really isn’t much plot or character development but the writing is so hilarious and full of little brain tickles that I didn’t really mind.
Not particularly character driven or entirely appealed to emotion, yet enticing nonetheless, and whimsically adventuresome.
Almost painfully British. Solid humour, would recommend.
This book lacks the lightness and zaniness of the previous Hitchhiker books. I basically read it because I wanted to see how the whole thing ended, and now I know. Probably should have stopped at "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish".
** spoiler alert ** OK JUST SLIGHTLY ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN BECAUSE THEY SAID THE ANSWER TO THE UNIVERSE 42 AND THAT’S BEEN MY FAVORITE NUMBER FOR A LONG TIME AND MAYBE THAT’S A COMPLETE COINCIDENCE BUT THIS WHOLE BOOK IS ABOUT COINCIDENCES SOOOO I MEAN. Besides that, I thought it was generally ok-not quite my humor but I actually laughed out loud a little at some parts and I have to say the audiobook is a great way to take this in because the narration of things like the computer is so funny. I probably won’t read the next book honestly and I was a little annoyed how suddenly the book ended but it was okay as a whole also sorry for bad punctuation.¡
Has not aged well
It’s a light read filled with comedy . It’s a great book for passing time or get over your reading slump. The characters are peculiar, full with flaws that make them who they are and give the ironic side to the plot, and the book is very well written! The book has tons of critics to society that still applies to today’s date, but, in the book, they appear on the jokes that are made, giving that comedy / funny side. Love the reading and the author !
Struggled to finish this one. Being a lover of Sci fi I thought I would have really enjoyed this but I just Coul not get in to it.
Confusing but fascinating
Just fantastic fun with a great sense of humour
Don’t panic. Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
Longtime fan. Have to read this every 5 years or so. Perhaps an acquired taste, but it combines two of my favorite things; British humour and books. Nonsensical, funny space fiction punctuated by creative word sequences and astute observations.
Highlights
"Oh, the Paranoid Android," he said. “Yeah, we'll take him.”
radio head mention
Irreverent, absurd, brilliant, and just so much fun to read.
virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone.
the telephone cleaners weren't so useless were they huh?
There was an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine.
I wish to hear that full story...
Almost the exact same thing that happened in Chapter 1 with Arthur's house happened in Chapter 3 with Earth! LOL!
“But that's not the point!" raged Ford. “The point is that I am now a perfectly safe penguin, and my colleague here is rapidly running out of limbs!"
“It’s all right, I've got them back now," said Arthur.
This planet has-or rather had-a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
“That ship hated me,” he said dejectedly, indicating the policecraft.
“That ship?” said Ford in sudden excitement. “What happened to it? Do you know?”
“It hated me because I talked to it.”
“You talked to it?” exclaimed Ford. “What do you mean you talked to it?”
“Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself in to its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the Universe to it,” said Marvin.
“And what happened?” pressed Ford.
“It committed suicide”
“Science has achieved some wonderful things, of course, but I’d far rather be happy than right any day.”
“And are you?”
“No. That’s where it all falls down, of course.”
“Pity,” said Arthur with sympathy. “It sounded like quite a good life-style otherwise.”
“Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now.”
“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.”
“Why, what did she tell you?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen.”
“Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it.
Zaphod Beeblebrox was amazingly good at his job.”