Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is, by no small measure, an odd book. It was actually originally a BBC radio comedy show during the late 70’s. Douglas Adams then took his creation to the next level – he published Hitchhikers as the first book in a 5 volume trilogy (that’s some of Adams’s humor there for you). In 1981, someone tried to make it into a TV series, 1984 brought in a computer game, and in 2005 it became a Hollywood blockbuster. I’ve only read the book, so I can’t tell you about any of the story’s other mediums (though Calliope says the radio show is great and the movie is mediocre), but I can tell you about the book. Ready? Woo hoo!
We begin our book by meeting some interesting characters on planet earth. Arthur Dent is an unsuspecting human whose close friend, Ford Prefect, is actually an alien from another part of the galaxy. Unbeknownst to planet Earth, the galaxy needs more room for inter-space highways, so Earth is going to be demolished. Ford gets Arthur off of Earth just in time for it to be gone forever. Fun beginning, huh? How does Ford get them off? Well, by using his knowledge of the book called The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, of course. Every good space traveler has a copy and uses it religiously!
We then meet Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Galactic President. He and his girl, Trillian (who we find out later he took away with him last time he visited Earth) have decided to steal the newest invention by the Galactic scientists, called the Heart of Gold. It is a time-warp speed space craft that can get you anywhere by its use of an improbability drive, which powers the craft by doing and calculating the improbable.
It would be improbable for a ship to pick up random creatures floating in open space, so this is exactly what the ship does. Soon, Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian (along with Marvin, the chronically depressed robot) are all on the same ship. Where are they headed? Well, of course, for the improbable! Many moons ago, the planet Magrathea manufactured perfect planets for rich planeteers to buy, and it was by far the richest planet. Zaphod wants to find it, so off they go.
It would be improbable to find it, right? So obviously, they do. Once there, they learn that Earth was actually a giant computer, which was to take 10,000 years to come up with the Question to the Ultimate Answer (the answer is 42, by the way). It was just about to give an answer when BOOM, the galaxy got rid of Earth, and the species which had commissioned the supercomputer/planet were out of luck for an answer. Want to know what those creatures are? Mice, of course. Who else would be the true rulers of Earth?
Throughout this journey, the improbable happens around every twist and turn of the story, making it a laugh out loud comedy in paper form. Nothing is what you expect, nor is it what the characters expect, yet they seem to expect the unexpected and are okay with that. It ends with an invitation to Arthur and Ford to visit the restaurant at the end of the universe (an abrupt ending, which actually fits nicely with the rest of the book), and that just so happens to be the title of the next book in the series.
As previously mentioned in another review, I’m not really one who gets British humor. I’m just too American, I suppose. However, I did find Hitchhikers to be very, very amusing. I read it with Techno, my husband, who up until we met had read a total of probably 6 books in his life. One of my goals in life is to get him to read books and to actually like it (which, by the way, he does now), so I often look for books we can read together. The books I enjoy on my own sometimes are way over his literary level (that’s what marrying an English teacher will do to you), so when I read the back of Hitchhikers, I knew this would be one I could get him to read. And read it he did. In fact, he was more interested in reading it than I was. I thought it was amusing and enjoyable, but he couldn’t get enough. Because Hitchhikers is part of a 5 volume trilogy, the fun doesn’t get to end for him here. He gets to read the next four, and he’s so excited about it. The sci-fi and technology aspect of the novel are right up his alley, and he frequently laughed out loud at the ridiculous things that happened within the book. As for myself, I enjoyed the twists and turns, but I’m not much of a sci-fi gal. I enjoyed the read, but I’ll let Techno read the other four on his own.
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