And Another Thing... (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
by Eoin Colfer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Eoin ColferEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-12
ISBN: 1401323588
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Hyperion
Product features:
- Part Six of Three, Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy
Book Reviews of And Another Thing... (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
Book Review: "And Another Thing" delivers, mostly
Summary: 4 Stars
In a perfect world, Douglas Adams would still be with us, sharing his wit and observations on all manner of this. Along with that, it would have been ideal for Adams to have spent more time on entry number four in the series, "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," so as to wrap up the Hitchhiker's Guide series with a satisfying conclusion. Afterwards, having made his point, he could then wield his imagination against new ideas.
The somewhat lower quality of "Fish" no doubt led Adams to write "Mostly Harmless," a far more polished (and yet, in many respects, far more confusing and demanding of the reader) book than "Fish." Another ending to the series was made in this book, albeit not satisfying to readers of a more romantic inclination.
As the story goes, Adams had intended to write another entry, and even got so far as the noted before his life was sadly cut short. Eoin Colfer was given the difficult task of bringing these notes to life, a task that any smart person would approach with some trepidation. The result: "And Another Thing..."
So, how did he do? Not so bad, actually.
This is clearly not a Douglas Adams book, although Colfer does a tremendous job in making the transition work. For the most part, the characters are treated with the respect that they deserve, the plot flows very nicely at exactly the proper pace (in this, Colfer may have exceeded Adams ), and the conclusion does not have the absolute quality of ending that Adam's books did, forcing unholy gyrations to begin the inevitable follow-up book. The tricky bridge between "Mostly Harmless" and "And Another Thing" is handled particularly adroitly, tantamount to pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Overall, the book feels very "logical," if such a word can be applied to this series.
It's by no means an easy dash through the book for the reader, though. The text is frequently interrupted by aside references to the Guide, many of which feel gratuitous. References to planets, themes, and jokes that were used in throw-away lines in previous books are sprinkled liberally throughout the text, to the point where they go beyond sly winks and move into the realm of "Buzzword Bingo." (It gets to the point where one wonders if the galaxy is populated by only a dozen people living on about five planets.) It's not helped by the fact that many of the characters are given names which are not just goofy (as Adams' were) but are in fact in-jokes such as Aseed Preflux, Buff Orpington, which will take the reader momentarily out of the book.
As far as characterizations go, the closest renditions are Zaphod and Ford - although given that they are caricatures to begin with, this is understandable. Specifically, this is Zaphod's book more than any other character, and the reader is able to get into his head(s) in a big way - and it works. Ford is not a terribly big part of the book - in fact, he's mostly used as the focal point of the book's major running gag - but again, the characterization makes sense.
Trillian is fairly unrecognizable, unfortunately, and is a long way removed from the intelligent, level-headed character in the early books. To be fair to Colfer, this is not entirely his fault, as Adams was already moving her down that path in "Mostly Harmless." Still, with Trillian essentially being a flake, the reader's ability to fall back to a "calm center" is essentially removed, and no other character steps in to fill that role.
Random, Arthur's new-found daughter from the previous book, essentially serves the "foil" role that Martin the Paranoid Android used to own, although with more of an edge. She's a fairly one-dimensional character throughout the book, with more minor changes towards the end, and is (alas) not particularly interesting.
Wowbagger, whose only previous contribution to the series was as a running gag in "Life, the Universe, and Everything," is brought back and fleshed out enormously into a three-dimensional character. There would have been so many ways to get this wrong (witness the misuse of Slartibartfast in the aforementioned "Everything"), and reader may be wondering why such a character couldn't be left as a one-time gag - but in the context of the plot, it absolutely works, and Colfer deftly pulls it off without making it feel contrived.
And Arthur? Arthur's role as a "fish out of water" (or recovery thereafter) was the central focus of all of the previous books. In this book, Arthur mostly bounces between two extremes - a worldly (galactic?) traveler somewhat at peace with himself, and a spearthrower whose role is to make important points to move the plot along. There's some attempt to once again make Arthur the object of galactic prejudice, but the attempts fall flat; the character has simply moved on beyond that. Perhaps the best bits with Arthur are when he's alone, meditating on this thing or that thing. This is definitely not Arthur's book, however, even given the focus on him in the final chapter, and it's this point that, more than anything else, gives this book a distinctly different flavor.
"And Another Thing" is definitely a must-read for "Hitchhiker" fans, who I expect will not be let down by the book. Colfer has done a solid job of breathing life into Adams' notes, weaving another point-of-view into the series.
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