The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

[Thomas Novosel]

Well first off, this book is a science fiction/comedy, it is short, the chapters are short. But heck! why not? well the answer to that is 42! It is a wonderful book and it certainly shows a bit of a "Doctor Who"-ness that is undescribable!

It starts out with Arthur Dent's home being torn down, three pints, and a very very awful poetry reading by a green alien that probably looks like a Jabba the Hut if he was a teenager and had just spent three years nonstop playing world of warcraft while eating only hotdogs (without buns of course!) from a bowl... The story follows the adventures of Arthur, his friend Ford, the president of the universe Zaphod Beeblebrox who has had a surgically attached head and an extra arm, Trillain the girl who Arthur met at a college party, and Marvin the hopelessly depressed robot. As they travel across a small random section of the universe.

Story-----The book's plot is well thought through but seemed oh so short! It's a good thing there are another 4 books in this series!
Characters----- The characters will make you luagh at every argument they present to you in dialogue and every joke they make will end up with you smirking at the book (at least it did for me). There seem to be two kinds of characters Every Alien You Can Think of that says ANYTHING STRANGE...and Arthur Dent who stares back puzzlingly at them...
Language-----The author Douglas Adams uses words that are made up, this is obvious by the small tidbits of information present in the story (Gargleblaster for example) but he explains all of the made up words and leaves clues to their meanings in the previous and following sentences.

I would definately recommend this book to anyone who enjoys: jokes, science fictions...and Doctor Who! I give the book a 9/10...if it had been longer it would've gotten a ten...but that's what sequels are for!

[ClaesGefvenberg]

I have read it a number of times, and it always makes me laugh and feel good. What I really enjoy is the way Douglas Adams plays with the language.

/Claes

[Thomas Novosel]

Yes he is a really funny guy xD xD haha I think it's hilarious that mice we're the true rulers of Earth... C:

[kev67]

Of all the outlandish events that take place in that book, the most unbelieveable is that you could get six pints of beer and a couple of bags of nuts for £5 and still have change.

[Delta40]

I loved Adam's wit. I'm a fan of Zaphod Beeblebrox and I also enjoyed The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

[Ser Nevarc]

I loved all five books of "The Increasingly Inaptly-Named Trilogy of Adams'"

[Hawkman]

Of all the outlandish events that take place in that book, the most unbelieveable is that you could get six pints of beer and a couple of bags of nuts for £5 and still have change.

Well you could when it was written. Sadly the series did not transpose flawlessly to print from the original radio series. Written as it was for radio, much is lost without the quality of the voice characterisation and sound effects, which were hilarious. Also minor adjustments to plot seem to have crept into the books. However, all is forgiven here, given what the film version managed to do to it. It didn't even make a particularly good transition to television in the 1980's and they still had the original cast, except for Trillian, if I remember correctly.

Well, I'd love to stop and chat, but I've an Arcturan Meggafrieghter to catch. I wouldn't want to end up on the Frogstar, now, would I? Sun, sand and suffering int the most totally evil planet in the universe. Not my cup of tea, no matter how improbable that sounds...

Live and be well - H

[mona amon]

I was able to read only a few chapters before giving up. It was very funny, but every sentence was a joke and I found that very tiring.

[prendrelemick]

As some one who was in on the early radio version, I'm glad it is still wowing new readers out there. The film was awful though. If you saw it and decided not to read the book think again. If you haven't seen the film - don't bother.

[Pen Name]

Brilliant, despite the fact that all the one liners are nicked from another book.

A minor regret in life I have, is that I didn't take time out to go to a book signing he was doing in Leeds and introduce myself, we had apparently missed each other by a matter of days in Vienna, where he got the idea of the book.

The title is a play on the 1970s Autostop bible "The Hitch Hikers guide to Europe" and I hate to break it to readers, but ~Space is Big really big~ is a paraphrase of "Scandinavia is big, really big, it is the type of place you can hitch hike all day and all night and still not reach your destination, it has the distances that will remind Americans of home".

And the quip about getting a lift on a Vogan constructor fleet, ~Forget it~ is the entry for Albania, I do all this from memory, because when you have so far to go, one reads and re-reads the entries in Ken Welsh's Hitcher's Bible.


Hence why I regret not meeting the great man, I also came to it via the wireless, and still have the tape (Reel to Reel) recordings of the programmes.

Superb book and voted one of Britain's favourite reads.

"Oh Mr. Beeblebrox, you should be in Movies."
Beeblebrox, "Yeh and you should be in real life."

Brilliant, well recommended.