I’m not familiar with any of Mr. Colfer’s previous works, so I can’t comment on how good I think the new book is likely to be, but I am happy to hear there’s a new Hitch-Hiker’s Guide book on its way!
I enjoyed Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books, fluffy as they are.
I’ll give this a chance, but my expectations are low. Hitchhiker’s was always more about the style than the characters, really, so I can’t see how someone else can capture it.
hyperventilates into bag
I really enjoyed the first four Artemis books [del]even though he kinda torpedoed my ship[/del]. The fifth one was… not so good. At all. Remotely.
It’ll be cool to see what his spin on the Hitchhiker’s 'verse is, though. Colour me cautiously excited. 
I can’t really work up an outrage about this, but as I felt about the last couple of Hitchhiker’s novels, what, really, is the point? The story, such as it was, was told in toto in the first couple of books. Life, The Universe, and Everything was an essentially self-contained story inserted into the Hitchhiker’s universe for the sake of marketing and continuity. (It came from an unproduced Dr. Who script written by Adams during his stint as writer called “Dr. Who and the Krikketmen”.) So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish was clearly (and later admittedly) written by Adams strictly for the money; while it contains bits of cleverness, there is, overall, no story. Mostly Harmless was clearly a message to the fans who kept bugging Adams for another book to FUCK OFF! I’m not sure what there is really to add to Hitchhiker’s, or indeed, how it would be relevant; it isn’t as if there is a building continuity or huge background story/ Adams essentially made up stuff as he went along, mostly in obviously mocking contempt of “serious” space opera which played fast and loose with continuity and deus ex machina to resolve plot complications. The Infinite Improbability Drive allowed dismissal of objections of even the most absurd coincidences, and Adams’ style of leaping away from the narrative to discuss the details of some amusing but essentially irrelevant technology, like the Babel Fish or the Siruis Cybernetic Nutri-Matic Drinks Dispenser, prevented the reader from noticing that the story was actually little more than a bunch of skits strung together.
I could see a far more persuasive case for continuing the Dirk Gently novels, which were set in an established background and offered much more in the way of continuity of story. I mean, seriously, WTF happened to Zaphod in the last two Hitchhiker’s novels, anyway? Of course, despite being better at being actual novels, the Dirk Gently books weren’t nearly as popular, whereas Hitchhiker’s has become absurdly popular even at mocking, as it does, the basic conventions of space opera.
I don’t know this Eoin Colfer, but I don’t envy him. This sounds like the situation where the frontman has left your multi-platinum record band to be replaced by some unknown found during open mic night at a small and rather dirty pub in a back alley in Manchester.
Oh well…at least they’re not making another film. That would be…bad.
Stranger
Best use of the classic quote award goes to Tuckerfan.
It had results that were not too bad for the Lensmen Series. David Kyle wrote three books following the second stage Lensmen with permission of the estate. He was also a close friend of E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith and ‘Doc’ daughter oversaw the work.
The books were:
The Dragon Lensman (Worsel, the legendary Velantian dragon)
Lensman from Rigel (Tregonsee, the enigmatic alien from the system of the blue-white star Rigel)
Z-Lensman (Nadreck the Palainian, strangest of the three non-human Second Stage Lensmen)
The books were not big successes but the worked well in expanding the stories.
I get the feeling as nerds we’re supposed to be getting worked up into a froth over this and throwing around terms like “desecration” and “abomination”. And yet that exact sentiment has been repeated over and over again. I get the impression that HHG2TG fans have just moved on.
They’d have to make a film first before they could make another one. (We can wish that abomination out of existence, right?)
Martin Freeman is Arthur Dent, and Mos Def wasn’t too terrible.
So, you know, if they ever make a Hitchhiker’s movie, they’ve got their casting lined up…
No, Simon Jones is Arthur Dent, and a young Eric Idle (or maybe James McAvoy) is the ideal Ford Prefect. Martin Freeman was forgettable, and I’d like to forget Mos Def (though he’s been fine in other things, just not good in this role). The only really good casting was Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android.
But someone already did a perfectly good Hitchhiker’s type movie: Galaxy Quest. The Hitchhiker’s film managed to insert all of the jokes sans the punch lines.
Stranger
rayh - I’ve taken the liberty of editing the title to be more understandable at a quick glance. No biggie.
I’m reviving this four-year-old thread to say that I just saw this book at the dollar store (yeah, that’s a good sign…) and decided to risk a buck on it. I haven’t tried reading any of it yet, but I wondered if anybody else ever did, and whether I should dare to open it.
No, it is wretched. Got about 50 pages in and decided my time could be better spent drinking latex paint.
It might have been ‘meh’ to ‘not bad’ if it hadn’t been associated with HHGG. The contrast just killed it. Not that I’d expect anyone to be able to truly mimic Douglas Adams’s style.
I kinda like the radio series based on books 3, 4 and 5, which were adapted after DA’s death.
So even if the book isn’t very good, maybe there will be a radio series based on it that is arguably better
Brian
A year or two ago I checked it out from the library.
Got partway thru. Maybe a third at the very most.
It’s terrible. I seldom say this about anything that costs as little as a buck, but you wasted your money.
Heck, I got it from the library for free and I still feel like it was a waste of money!
At this point I can barely even remember what happened in the book, but I don’t think it was particularly funny or interesting. While the major HHGTG characters are rescued from almost certain death at the beginning, Arthur and Ford do very little for the rest of the book. It’s mostly about Zaphod, Trillian (who seemed like a totally different person than in the Adams books), a couple of minor characters from the earlier books, and a couple of original characters.
There is a radio series based on it. It must have first gone out a while ago, because I have been listening to re-runs of it from BBC Radio4Extra (their online streaming-audio re-run station). And no, it is not very good at all. I haven’t read the Coifer book.
(Actually, I haven’t read the Adams books either, but I heard the original radio series, which was the real, original Hitchhiker’s Guide, and I saw the TV series that was closely based on it. They were wonderful, of course.)
On the other hand, there’s a new novel Year Zero by Rob Reid that’s getting a lot of good reviews. SciFi humor and all that. I’m several chapters in and enjoying it well enough. Sufficiently reminiscent of HHGTG to warrant mention in this thread.
Unsually the first book is the best, the second is ony driven by the success of the first, and the third one is almost junk. It’s like authors, or publishers, try to milk as much as posisble an old idea instead of coming with something new.