The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The story is hilariously clever. Is it sci-fy or fantasy? How cares? Particular lines are iconic (e.g. the mice, the dolphins). Time caught up with some of the 'technology'. Nowadays, we don't need a babel-fish anymore; we can use google translate. One thing no search engine nor A.I. can tell us: the question !!! I would love to hear how the writer came up with this ending.

This is another one of those books that gets recommended a lot on forums I frequent. A not-too-old classic that got turned into a movie, I finally decided to give it a shot because the rumored humor aspect to it all. And I got to say, at times, this book was damned clever and funny. It was funny in a subverting tropes kind of way. Only, instead of subverting tropes about genre fiction, it instead subverted the very tropes of life and existence in general, poking fun at a lot of the things most people take too seriously and doing a fine job at it. There were even especially unique ideas that were placed in the book, such as The Heart of Gold, a ship that travels through space by manipulating the odds of things occurring. Truly, if I hadn't seen the movie already, I would have been 100% lost as to what, where, or how the book would turn at every page. I've never read a story less predictable than this one! That said, this book was short and in its effort to pursue the humor and crazy twists and turns, a lot of things that I love about fiction were left stranded. There was little-to-none descriptions of setting, placement, movement. This book was closer to a movie script with countless lines of witty dialogue occasionally doted by "so-and-so enters, so-and-so leaves," that left me able to listen to the book but unable to picture the book, if that makes any sense. Unique characters were presented, but they felt a tad flat and somehow cliche. They felt less like characters and more like prop pieces in a romance-comedy. Loved the witty lore stories that dropped in for a bit of fun by the way. I feel there could be a whole book just containing those entries. All said and done, the Hitchhiker's Guide was a unique-as-all-hell read that had me grinning most of the time, occasionally chuckling, and completely baffled as to what would happen next. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, but I am not hooked on the series. This book missed too much of my old favorites, so although I'll be giving it the good rating it deserves, I won't be moving on to read more of the series. This hitchhiker's ride stops here.

Douglas Adams’ bestselling book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy published in 1979 is witty, occasionally complex, and accessible to the average reader. The protagonist, Arthur Dent, is a befuddled Englishman and his friend, Ford Prefect, is a hitchhiking alien doing research for the latest edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The two narrowly escape destruction with the rest of planet Earth when Ford catches wind of its impending demolition by intergalactic civil servants and beams them to the nearest accessible spaceship--the Vogon demolition fleet’s mothership. Inside, they encounter murdered mattresses, ruthless bureaucrats, and torture by poetry. They are soon ejected into space and twenty-nine seconds later (one second short of death), the president of the universe and his girlfriend rescue them in their recently stolen state-of-the-art spaceship, The Heart of Gold. In the remaining pages, Adams prioritizes unpacking the absurdity of bureaucracy, politics, and religion over a strong plot and whimsically manipulates grammar and rhetoric to inspire in the reader a sense of his disregard for the possibility of any sense or meaning to life. Entries peppered throughout the book from the “real” The Hitchhiker’s Guide inform the reader of non-essential historical, cultural, and always humorous tidbits about the universe and its inhabitants. For example, the popular drink the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster makes the drinker feel like their brain is being “smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick” (Ch 2). Ford hopes to update the electronic guide with how one can see the wonders of the universe for 30 Altarian dollars a day, but due to being stuck on Earth for 15 years his signature contribution remains his description of Earth as “mostly harmless”. Arthur Dent is more the butt of every joke than the hero of the story and simply plays the role of baffled human encountering the unknown. The president, Zaphod Beeblebrox, who happens to be Ford’s cousin, has two heads, three arms, and the ego of a true politician. He steals almost everyone’s thunder, but that’s probably because, while only six people know it, he’s succeeding phenomenally at his presidential mandate of distracting everyone’s attention away from power instead of wielding it. Zaphod is accompanied by his human girlfriend, Trillian, who acts as the token female character in the typically male-dominated sci-fi tale. Smart and sexy, she is mostly disregarded by her boyfriend while dutifully following him into every folly. Marvin is a pet robot of sorts with a serious depression problem which proves to have tremendous utility. On account of the Heart of Gold’s Infinite Improbability Drive, the serendipitous crew encounters and escapes from a series of unthinkable situations, the most notable being the discovery of the fabled planet of Magrathea. Believed to now be dead, it supposedly designed and constructed luxury planets at the behest of ultra-wealthy clients until closing up shop with the collapse of the intergalactic economy some ten million years ago. At this point in the book a loosely coherent plot begins to emerge. After narrowly evading the planet’s automatic defense missiles, the crew land the Heart of Gold on the surface and Zaphod leads the bunch on a hunt for the unfathomable riches he is certain must be hidden there... somewhere. Instead, he comes to a shocking realization about the key to his wildly successful career of misconduct, Arthur learns of the mysterious nature and fate of his late beloved Earth, Trillian loses her two pet mice, and Marvin unwittingly saves everyone’s lives just by being himself. Adams playfully goads the reader closer and closer into agreeing that “The Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs” (Ch 31) by poking fun at bureaucracy and politics with amusing analogies. Much like the local bureaucrat trying to tear down Arthur’s house, the Vogons respond to Earthlings’ protests before imminent destruction by stating, “All the planning charts and demolition orders have been displayed in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years” (Ch 3). Zaphod Beeblebrox is the posterchild for theatrical two-faced politics. His wild antics make him the most successful president in history and he possesses two heads, and therefore two faces, one of which is more popular than the other (Ch 4). Adams then picks apart religion and philosophy without being overtly insulting due to his use of their very own arguments. A small but exceedingly sophisticated fish proves God’s existence and is therefore the final and clinching proof of his nonexistence. God “promptly vanishes in a puff of logic” because “without faith I am nothing” (Ch 6). Philosophers protest the creation of a supercomputer they fear will put them out of a job if it is able to answer the questions of the Universe, thus they demand the “total absence of solid facts” (Ch 25). Adams’ deft criticism of these topics threatens to elicit not much more than a self-deprecating chuckle from the very people he is poking fun at. Absurd similes and outrageous statements infuse the writing style with charming humor while occasionally reminding the reader that reality can in fact be quite ridiculous. “For a few seconds Ford seemed to ignore him, and stared fixedly into the sky like a rabbit trying to get run over by a car” (Ch 1), and, “The ships hung in the sky much the same way that bricks don’t” (Ch 3), are clearly very foolish things to say, yet confer upon the reader a precise picture of the given situation that Adams wants them to have. In a similar vein, a police ship commits suicide after hearing Marvin’s depressing view of the universe (Ch 34), letters of the alphabet can be “friendly” (Ch 1) or “unfriendly” (Ch 34), and the answer to life, the universe and everything is simply the number “42” (Ch 27). Adams makes clear to the reader exactly how seriously he takes his subject matter. Poking fun at politics and religion and making ludicrous statements are the more obvious of Adams’ tactics to discourage the reader from taking life, or really anything, very seriously. Less obvious, but equally effective, is his manipulation of grammar and rhetoric. By rendering the familiar structure of language malleable in his expert hands, he reminds the reader at every turn that all is not as it seems. He breaks commonly accepted rules of writing by blatantly using redundant vocabulary and pairing oxymoronic words. Arthur wakes up blearily then gets up and wanders blearily around his room (Ch 1), Ford Prefect is not conspicuously tall and his features are striking but not conspicuously handsome (Ch 1), and Zaphod rides a thoroughly ridiculous form of transport, but a thoroughly beautiful one (Ch 4). The windows on Arthur’s soon to be destroyed home are “of a size and proportion which more or less exactly failed to please the eye” (Ch 1), and there is something “very slightly odd” about Ford Prefect (Ch 1). With these deviances from the norm and by slipping in a clever grammar joke here and there, “...to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before” (Ch 15), Adams taunts the grammar police and then scoffs when their powerlessness and lack of creativity are exposed. By deftly rendering malleable the familiar institution of language, Adams bring home his deeper message that societal constructs are the mere product of a human desire to invent order out of chaos. While Adams can boast a nimble sense of humor and a clever mind, obvious plot holes emerge as the story progresses. For example, the Vogons dump Arthur and Ford millions of lightyears away from Earth but then Trillian and Zaphod pick them up in the same vector as Earth. This could be due to the fact that Adams was a legendary procrastinator who would often leave manuscripts unfinished until the last minute. His biographer, M.J. Simpson, author of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams says that Adams also had problems following the traditional structure of a story. He shares that, “Adams was good at writing beginnings, middles, and endings, but when he got to the middle he’d thought of another good beginning and wanted to write that instead of the ending”. Adams’ habit of making things up as he went along is uncomfortably apparent to the reader who craves consistency and resolution, especially from a book some say holds a place in the sci-fi genre. Therefore, his book might more accurately fall under the category of comic science fiction. While he falls short of producing the next great science fiction series of our time, Adams succeeds remarkably in demonstrating how a truly inquisitive mind works. He breaks the rules of fiction writing, but rather than being his downfall, these bold deviations add to his appeal. By weaving together intelligence, humor, and slapstick, he reaches a broad audience without sacrificing his unique voice and underlying message. So much so that the reader is left almost certain that “the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang sense of it and just keep yourself occupied” (Ch 30).

Author and Title: Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy I listened to this title in audio format on the audio app which is how I enjoy most of my books. Lenth: This title is only 5 hours long. I like to get at least 10 hours out of an audio book to make it worth using one of my free audiobooks included in my audible membership. Narrator: British, male, excellent tone, inflection and cadence. The story is witty and his voice matches the wit completely. Brief overview: This is the story of a British earthling who somehow finds himself traveling the galaxy with his good friend, and the shenanigans that ensue. My impression: Despite the fact that this book is only 5 hours long, it packs a ton of entertainment into that 5 hours. Far more than books twice or even three times as long. Recommend: Thoroughly quirky and delightful. Would give more than five stars if I could. Highly recommend.

I knew it was a classic and people loved it but I never felt the urge to read it. It stayed in my wishlist for years until I got bored of the types of books I was reading and wanted some fiction. I got the sample and had to buy it because I couldn't stop reading. Great book! Really sparkles our imagination!

Si no te lo has leído aún no entenderás muchas cosas sobre la ciencia ficción y la cultura de hoy, es muy divertido y merece mucho la pena leerlo, da igual si tienes 15 o 40 años

Bra bok

Lovely item. Tq AmazonSG

A masterpiece in deed. This book had me laughing by myself through every single page. The humor, the characters and all the events that happen around them keeps you engage in a universe fill with absurdity. The same kind of two absurdity one finds in our own home-planet.