The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Book Review: 42 Stars, Yeah, Yeah...
Summary: 5 Stars
A funny book that is simultaneously smart satire and a giggly good tale. Since first reading this 1970's classic back in the mid-1990's, I've never looked at the number 42 the same way again. The story, which makes you feel like you're being let in on some secret 99.999999999% of the rest of humanity is not, begins when a mild-mannered Englishman named Arthur Dent wakes up to discover his house is about to be demolished to make way for a highway project. Well, he's understandably peeved about this but his friend and neighbor, Ford Prefect, cheers him up by letting him know his house doesn't really matter since the whole earth is about to be destroyed to make room for a construction project in space. Arthur's friend Ford is in fact an alien who was sent to earth to gain information on an updating of the planet's entry in that amazing tome of information The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. (The entry that used to cover earth in the Guide simply read: "Harmless." In the updated edition, the earth's total entry had been changed to: "Mostly Harmless.") Arthur's life is saved after he exits the earth with his friend via a transportation device that makes the trip off-world "unpleasantly like being drunk" ("What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "Ask a glass of water.") Arthur is cast back and forth across space and time, through a series of misadventures that make for grin-inducing fun for readers, and introduces them to a medley of species and planets, a cast of characters like a two-headed, three-armed President of the Galaxy, his girlfriend (whom Arthur once met at a party and with whom he "utterly failed to get off") and a robot mired in a perpetual state of paranoid depression. It is only through Hitchhikers that we come to learn that humans were only the third most intelligent beings on the late planet earth, behind white mice (who had been conducting psychological experiments on humans for centuries) and dolphins (a species that spent its time swimming in tropical oceans while humans went to work all day). This book is amusing and even at times hilarious and Douglas Adams was an imaginative joy of a man.Book Review: Oh, the answer... I'm so depressed...
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw the movie first and then read the book, and I wish I hadn't, because then I could have imagined the characters the way I wanted to... but that's true for all book based movies. Anyways, this collection is just delightful. I look forward to reading it every day. I was, however, slightly offended by the lack of dialogue and action that Trillian was given by the author. Hm. She was supposed to be an astrophysicist and yet she hardly does anything in the entire book. It's all just Zaphod and Arthur and Ford with personality. It may have been his intention to percieve Zaphod as larger than life... but did he have to make Trillian practially dead in order for that to happen? Is she just the token female? It seems that way when I read it. I loved the books though, I just noticed Trillian was missing from the excitement. She was my favorite in the movie. Book Review: 42
Summary: 5 Stars
I ran into The Hitchhiker's Guide a while back, and I remember that it had me hooked, because I found it very funny. There realy is not too much plot, but I do not think there is supposed to be one. It is mainly a series of collected events in a period of the lives of the main characters. There's Arthur, the main character, and one of the last humans after the Earth was destroyed; Ford, an alien from a planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, who ends up saving Arthur; Zaphod, the president of the galaxy who stole a ship with a prototype Infinite Improbability Drive; Trillian, Zaphod's partner who he picked up on Earth; and Marvin, a manically depressed robot.
If you are into science fiction and comedy, you should check out The Hitchhiker' Guide.
Book Review: almost 5 stars
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great series, but unfortunately seems to end prematurally, I am sure this is due to the author's unfortunate passing, but the entire last book, mostly harmless (being that there is 5 1/4 books in this collection) needs to be omitted. Stop at "So Long..." and your world will be good. If not for "mostly harmless' I would have given this 5 stars (more if it were possalbe). Book Review: Hitchhikers Guide Is A Must Buy
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was wonderful in fulfilling all I expected. The story was wonderfully amazing and it came on time with no problems and just like new. It was worth it.