The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
THE ULTIMATE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE (Douglas Adams) - Four Stars
I think everyone that likes to read should make a point to read their favorite books again at least once a decade. For one, I think any great book contains too much to grab 100% of it on your first read. For two, over time you develop both as a reader and a person, leading to new understandings and different interpretations of the material.
Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-three, I probably read the first four books in the Hitchhiker's "Trilogy" at least a half-dozen times a piece. I found them wildly hilarious and endearing. Earlier this year, I realized it had been probably a decade (at least) since I last read the series, and made it a point to go through the books again. I discovered there was much more to them than I initially thought.
I had some trouble deciding how to format this review. I didn't want to review each book separately, because the first three books are so obviously each part of a larger, whole story. I didn't want to review all five books together, because the last two are very different in style from the first three. In the end, I decided to review the first three together and the last two independently.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
The first book is by far the one I have the most memorized, assisted in no small part to the wonderful 1981 BBC Mini-Series. The plot is well-known by many: incredibly average Englishman Arthur Dent is saved mere seconds before the Earth's destruction by the space-faring Vogons (because we were in the way of a new hyperspace bypass) by his friend Ford Prefect, who is an alien from a planet near Betelgeuse (and who gained his unusual name because his computer misidentified the dominant life-form on Earth as automobiles). Alone in space, they are rescued by Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's childhood friend, Galactic President, all-around rogue and ne'er-do-well, who has just stolen the most impressive spaceship in the galaxy. Zaphod's flight crew consists of Englishwoman Tricia McMillen (an astrophysicist whom Arthur failed to succesfully hit on once at a party) and the robot Marvin, who has one of the universe's largest brains and is, therefore, one of it's most depressed entities. Zaphod wants to find and rob the mythical planet of Magrathea, a place where (supposedly) custom planets were designed and built for the very, very wealthy. Once there they discover that the Earth was actually the universe's largest supercomputer, designed to discover the true question to life, the universe, and everything (the answer to life, the universe, and everything being, of course, 42), and was destroyed only a few minutes before its several billion-year program was set to finish running.
There's much more than that, of course. That's only a sparse outline of the first book. One of the things that astonished me when re-reading the books is that the plot is densely detailed, and surprisingly lucid considering the borderline insanity and breakneck pace the stories are infused with. Another thing that surprised me was how much of a quality science-fiction story the first three books are (since the plot arc pretty much goes unbroken across all three). I remembered the books as being riotously funny, but Adams did not give the science fiction angle short shrift in order to throw in a few more gags.
The first three books are all wonderful, and stay fresh and original throughout because Adams' prodigious imagination hardly ever repeats itself.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
As is explained in the first book, the dolphins were the second smartest creatures on planet Earth (humans were third). Moments before the Earth was destroyed by the Vogons the dolphins escaped to an alternate dimension by their own means, leaving a farewell message to mankind that is also the title of this book. Fish is a bit different from the first three. It's a happier book and, basically, a romance novel, one of the most effective I've ever read.
Arthur finds himself back on Earth or an Earth-clone (long story, read the first three books) where the Vogon destruction is nothing more than a big hoax played by the CIA. He falls in love with a girl named Fenchurch (referenced in passing but not named in the first few chapters of the first novel), who is one of the only people on the planet who, like him, feels that things are not quite right in the world. Arthur's and Fenchurch's romance is not only charming but believable: they act like I've seen real people in love act, something I can rarely say about other novels or movies.
And this story is about Arthur and Fenchurch. Ford and Marvin make a brief appearance at the end, but Zaphod and Trillian are absent from the story. The book deals less with space travel, turning its sci-fi gaze onto time travel and alternate realities, which sets up the fifth book nicely. All in all, a challenge to Hitchhiker's as my favorite book in the series.
Mostly Harmless
The book is much different from the rest of the series. There's a bitterness and anger underlying every chapter. The humor is there, but is more muted and dark. The sci-fi aspect is stronger than ever, and while Adams gets a little tangled in his myriad alternate realities, the concept of The Guide 2.0 and its purpose is a brilliant conceit.
Ford and Arthur are the main characters in this one, with Trillian coming back for an important sub-plot. Trillian brings along a daughter, Random, who is possibly the least fleshed-out major character in the entire series and rarely feels like anything other than a plot device to keep things moving. I am also highly critical of the unceremonious abandonment of Fenchurch, who is done away with in the first couple of pages and never mentioned again. The ending of the book is bleak, but it is by no means a cheat and nicely ties up many loose plot ends.
All in all, the series comes highly recommended. However, the reader needs to be prepared for the drastic changes in tone in the last two novels.
Adams himself was dissatisfied with the final result. He confessed to having personal drama during the creation of the novel (my guess is that it involved a woman, just from the tone of the book and the way the female characters are treated), and stated an intention to write a sixth book in the series. Tragically, Douglas Adams died of a sudden heart attack at his gym in Montecito, CA (outside Santa Barbara), in 2001 at the age of only 49.
However, the sixth book, And Another Thing..., found life after all in the hands of Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series. It was written with the full support of Douglas Adams' estate and his widow, Jane Belson, and will be released on October 12, 2009: the 30th Anniversary of the publication of the first Hitchhiker's book.
I think everyone that likes to read should make a point to read their favorite books again at least once a decade. For one, I think any great book contains too much to grab 100% of it on your first read. For two, over time you develop both as a reader and a person, leading to new understandings and different interpretations of the material.
Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-three, I probably read the first four books in the Hitchhiker's "Trilogy" at least a half-dozen times a piece. I found them wildly hilarious and endearing. Earlier this year, I realized it had been probably a decade (at least) since I last read the series, and made it a point to go through the books again. I discovered there was much more to them than I initially thought.
I had some trouble deciding how to format this review. I didn't want to review each book separately, because the first three books are so obviously each part of a larger, whole story. I didn't want to review all five books together, because the last two are very different in style from the first three. In the end, I decided to review the first three together and the last two independently.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
The first book is by far the one I have the most memorized, assisted in no small part to the wonderful 1981 BBC Mini-Series. The plot is well-known by many: incredibly average Englishman Arthur Dent is saved mere seconds before the Earth's destruction by the space-faring Vogons (because we were in the way of a new hyperspace bypass) by his friend Ford Prefect, who is an alien from a planet near Betelgeuse (and who gained his unusual name because his computer misidentified the dominant life-form on Earth as automobiles). Alone in space, they are rescued by Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's childhood friend, Galactic President, all-around rogue and ne'er-do-well, who has just stolen the most impressive spaceship in the galaxy. Zaphod's flight crew consists of Englishwoman Tricia McMillen (an astrophysicist whom Arthur failed to succesfully hit on once at a party) and the robot Marvin, who has one of the universe's largest brains and is, therefore, one of it's most depressed entities. Zaphod wants to find and rob the mythical planet of Magrathea, a place where (supposedly) custom planets were designed and built for the very, very wealthy. Once there they discover that the Earth was actually the universe's largest supercomputer, designed to discover the true question to life, the universe, and everything (the answer to life, the universe, and everything being, of course, 42), and was destroyed only a few minutes before its several billion-year program was set to finish running.
There's much more than that, of course. That's only a sparse outline of the first book. One of the things that astonished me when re-reading the books is that the plot is densely detailed, and surprisingly lucid considering the borderline insanity and breakneck pace the stories are infused with. Another thing that surprised me was how much of a quality science-fiction story the first three books are (since the plot arc pretty much goes unbroken across all three). I remembered the books as being riotously funny, but Adams did not give the science fiction angle short shrift in order to throw in a few more gags.
The first three books are all wonderful, and stay fresh and original throughout because Adams' prodigious imagination hardly ever repeats itself.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
As is explained in the first book, the dolphins were the second smartest creatures on planet Earth (humans were third). Moments before the Earth was destroyed by the Vogons the dolphins escaped to an alternate dimension by their own means, leaving a farewell message to mankind that is also the title of this book. Fish is a bit different from the first three. It's a happier book and, basically, a romance novel, one of the most effective I've ever read.
Arthur finds himself back on Earth or an Earth-clone (long story, read the first three books) where the Vogon destruction is nothing more than a big hoax played by the CIA. He falls in love with a girl named Fenchurch (referenced in passing but not named in the first few chapters of the first novel), who is one of the only people on the planet who, like him, feels that things are not quite right in the world. Arthur's and Fenchurch's romance is not only charming but believable: they act like I've seen real people in love act, something I can rarely say about other novels or movies.
And this story is about Arthur and Fenchurch. Ford and Marvin make a brief appearance at the end, but Zaphod and Trillian are absent from the story. The book deals less with space travel, turning its sci-fi gaze onto time travel and alternate realities, which sets up the fifth book nicely. All in all, a challenge to Hitchhiker's as my favorite book in the series.
Mostly Harmless
The book is much different from the rest of the series. There's a bitterness and anger underlying every chapter. The humor is there, but is more muted and dark. The sci-fi aspect is stronger than ever, and while Adams gets a little tangled in his myriad alternate realities, the concept of The Guide 2.0 and its purpose is a brilliant conceit.
Ford and Arthur are the main characters in this one, with Trillian coming back for an important sub-plot. Trillian brings along a daughter, Random, who is possibly the least fleshed-out major character in the entire series and rarely feels like anything other than a plot device to keep things moving. I am also highly critical of the unceremonious abandonment of Fenchurch, who is done away with in the first couple of pages and never mentioned again. The ending of the book is bleak, but it is by no means a cheat and nicely ties up many loose plot ends.
All in all, the series comes highly recommended. However, the reader needs to be prepared for the drastic changes in tone in the last two novels.
Adams himself was dissatisfied with the final result. He confessed to having personal drama during the creation of the novel (my guess is that it involved a woman, just from the tone of the book and the way the female characters are treated), and stated an intention to write a sixth book in the series. Tragically, Douglas Adams died of a sudden heart attack at his gym in Montecito, CA (outside Santa Barbara), in 2001 at the age of only 49.
However, the sixth book, And Another Thing..., found life after all in the hands of Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series. It was written with the full support of Douglas Adams' estate and his widow, Jane Belson, and will be released on October 12, 2009: the 30th Anniversary of the publication of the first Hitchhiker's book.
posted by Kevin at 3:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home