The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
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Book Reviews of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Book Review: Hilarious work from a brilliant author
Summary: 5 Stars
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy contains the five novels and one short story that comprise the Hitchhiker series.
Literature is an exceedingly difficult medium for comedy because it cannot rely on vocal delivery and visual cues, yet Adams succeeds admirably at making the reader laugh. His wonderfully English humor uses absurdity, social satire, clever wordplay and dry wit. He demonstrates a brilliant ability to manipulate and twist language.
The narrative follows the eternally bewildered Englishman Arthur Dent as he bumbles across the galaxy in search of a decent cup of tea. A basic premise of the story is that in an infinite universe, anything is possible. The laws of physics are frequently overturned by silly technology (for example, light is faster than anything in the galaxy except bad news, so aliens build ships powered by bad news, and are unwelcome everywhere they go). This makes the story unpredictable, and keeps the reader surprised. The characters randomly leap through space and time, leading to bizarre encounters. Adams expertly ties together the chaotic plot: seemingly random and useless events turn out to have great significance.
The quality of the series proves inconsistent. The first book is the best, and the next two are great. The fourth, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, has little humor, and the short story Young Zaphod Plays It Safe is disappointing. The finale, Mostly Harmless, regained some of the series' earlier spirit.
Douglas Adams was a genius. He had the rare and profound ability to find the humor in all aspects of life. Everyone should read the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
-Zach Zelmar
Book Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Summary: 5 Stars
In The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Arthur Dent lives a peaceful with his only friend Ford Prefect who is realy an alien. One morning Arthur wakes up and there are many bulldozers outside of his house. They are going to nock it down to make a by pass. Aurthur is not happy about it and lays in front of one of the bulldozers. His friend Ford comes and lifts him up. They go to a bar and Ford tells Arthur that the world is going to end very soon. They go outside and get on a Vogon Spaceship. Soon after they get on the ship they are throne off of it into space. Another ship that is being driven by Fords cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox, who is the former president of the Universe. Zaphod and his compaion Trisha Mcmillan have stolen a valuble ship called the Heart of Gold. This a peice of government property. The four of them are trying to find a planet to live on. When they find the planet that Zaphod had in mind, a recording came through. It said "Don,t come any closer or else well launch nucealar bombs at you." Zaphod did not mind the recording and went even closer. The missils miss the ship and they went to the planet safely. They found out that the planet was already occupied so they left. The Vogons wanted to kill Zaphod so they launched missles at the ship. Luckily the ship dodged the missles and they went to go and eat at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. This book is the first of a five book series. --The is tex refers to the paperback copyBook Review: Ol' Janx Spirit
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know how many years have passed since I read this book, around nine, if I'm not mistaken. Few days ago, waves of nostalgia swept over me and I picked the book from the shelf and re-read it...again...And, maybe for the first time, I realised how great this book really is.
During those nine years, lot of stuff happened to me, and much of it involved some kind of travel, and living where I live, just thinking of travel makes whole adventure by itself. And suddenly, I found myself appreciating this book even more, and learning to look at some thing in it in quite different way than I did before.
From great sattire, unforgetable characters (when you became old, you will have fond memories of Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect and even the Arthur Dent), twisted, almost insane logic, but with such feeling for humane and humanity that it makes you cry...tears just flowing from your eyes...whether from laughter, or saddness that Adams died and Hollywood will definitely ruin the movie.
Maybe my thoughts would differ somewhat if I have read these books one by one, but editors at my country published them binded together and I always looked at them as a whole.
If you miss this one, you'll miss the grandest, and weirdest adventure that ever existed. So, if you are a frood who know where his towel is, go grab it, and start hitchhiking....
Book Review: Five stars thanks to the first book...
Summary: 5 Stars
While all five novels and the short story are extremely entertaining, the entire series is made by the excellence of the first book. Douglas Adams combined wit, humor, and science fiction (albeit simplistic science fiction) to create a series of books that should stand the tests of time.
I think one of the keys of success to these books is the outlandish style in which Adams employs, as well as his tendency to parody simple everyday things such as a digital watch.
You should find yourself laughing out loud at times, and try not to make direct eye contact with those around you so they know that the book is funny, as people tend to forget reading can have such an effect.
If I were to rate each novel on its own, here's how it would go:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - *****
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - ****
Life, the Universe, and Everything - ****
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - **
Mostly Harmless - ***
As you can tell, I was somewhat nonplussed toward the end of the series, but I have my reasons for that. I still suggest that you read the entire series from cover to cover... Douglas Adams was one of the great contemporary writers, and it is a shame that he passed on.
It all begins with a house...
Book Review: Now this is a deal you CANT afford to miss!
Summary: 5 Stars
Cynical, utterly hilarious, and full of funny, unique, and loveable characters, this is a series you won't want to skip out on, even if your like me and you don't like sci-fi.
That was the thing that kept me from allowing myself to experience the wonders of the first book when I first picked it up. I kept telling myself, this is a sci-fi book, its going to bore me. But it is much more than just a sci-fi book. It is THE most hilarious series I have ever read. Douglas Adams' sense of droll wit and cynicism are astounding, and have allowed me to experience many merry evenings sitting and laughing at these books. (You might also want to check out his excellent Dirk Gently Novels).
The story line may seem simply and boring-which it is definetly not-, but its the happenings, the wonderful narration, and the characters that truly bring this book to life and beyond being just a sci-fi book.
Also included in this selection are some hilarious introductions by the author, and a little biography about him from Neil Gaman, who cowrote Good Omens with one of my other favorite authors Terry Pratchett and wrote American Gods. And while they're probably not totally exclusive to this collection, they are well worth the read, especially the introduction by Douglas Adams.