We got the Complete and Unabridged Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for my daughter for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I got tired of rereading my Stephen King books, so I asked to borrow it. I’d read it in high school, which was mumble mumble years ago, and although I remembered a couple of things, like 42 and how to fly, I’d forgotten the plot, so it was like reading it again for the first time.
The book consisted of:
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
Mostly Harmless
which, according to the introduction by Douglas Adams, are all six books of the trilogy.
I enjoyed the tar out of it. I did find some parts a bit sad, such as Arthur losing Fenchurch (I kept hoping she’d pop back into his life again) and of course, after the ending of * Mostly Harmless*, that HAD to be the end of the series, because the Vogons finally and completely destroyed all the Earths along the probability axis, and I was horrified at the talking cow at Milliways (but laughing too, at how horrible it was) and I guess Young Zaphod was some sort of commentary on Ronald Reagan, but now I understand why this took so long to be made into a (not very good, if you knew the book) movie. There’s no way Hollywood could do justice to this book, unless they were willing to devote a 12-hour miniseries on HBO or SciFi (excuse me, SyFy, and how stupid is that?) to it.
And, even though this is not the Pit, I’m going to do it anyway. Ahem:
Trilogies really should stop at three. The first two constitute a two-part story. The third is a not-too-shabby sequel. So Long… is mostly harmless but very different in style and tone than the first three books and, to my mind at least, not nearly as entertaining. Mostly Harmless reads like a big fuck-you to the characters and fans of the original trilogy. Just knowing that it exists has impaired my enjoyment of the first three. (Yes, I do take some things too personally. Wanna make something of it?
No specific questions…more of just a discussion of the books. I did think that HHGTTG sort of just stopped, and I’d seen the movie, so I had this idea in the back of my head that they would build a new Earth and everything would be hunky dory again. Then that didn’t happen.
Adams did say in the introduction that Mostly Harmless was completely contradictory to the other books. Did he really write it as a FU because his fans wouldn’t let up?
From what I’ve read somewhere, some time ago (credible, I know) was he was in a really dark place when he wrote that and was working on another book in order to make up for it.
Mostly Harmless is the only book that has made me angry. I hated that book, and threw it out as soon as I finished it. I think one of the biggest sins is to burn a book, and yet I wanted to burn that book.
I didn’t like Mostly Harmless either. I have the first four, never heard of the Zaphod book, and I’m glad I didn’t buy Mostly Harmless because I probably would have chucked it out.
I bought the books probably 20 years ago and have read them all through countless times. Some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever read.
And the Dirk Gently books are…dare I say it?..even better.
I remember reading about bistromath and I laughed so hard when I realized how hard I was trying to follow the logic, and even thinking, “That could work!”
Adams seemed like an incredibly intelligent man…you can make up some of this stuff, but having the Panic Bird explain about how humans exist in three dimensions, travel one way in the fourth (time), and have no concept of the fifth (probability) blew my mind.
I guess I thought the books would all tie in together, but after the RATEOFU, they really didn’t, did they?
Yes, I’ve seen that quote too, it was from an interview in ‘Salmon of doubt’. I don’t think he was really ‘working on’ another Hitchhiker’s book, just he said that he’d like to do another one.
And if it was an FU to anyone, then I’d say that instead of the fans, it was to the publishers who were insisting on a hitchhiker’s book when he was in such a dark place. But that’s just a WAG on my part.
(Getting depressed now that Douglas Adams was taken from us so soon. )
On a happier note, the ending to ‘hitchhiker’s guide the the galaxy, the quintessential phase’ that Dirk Maggs wrote for the radio show revival is MUCH more upbeat than the ending of the books, and yet fits in well with the spirit of them - I highly recommend getting the quintessential phase just to hear it.
I used to hang out on Douglas Adam’s message boards before he died, and IIRC the Salmon of Doubt was going to be reworked as a new H2G2 book. He just never got around to starting the changes. Which is too bad really. I also recall him saying that he mostly ended Mostly Harmless the way he did because it got all the characters together in the same place for the start of any new book he might write.
I find it hard to think of Salmon of Doubt rewritten into a Hitchhiker’s guide book, because the strongest parts are the ones with Dirk in them. On the other hand, the ginger-haired actor who Dirk was tailing does match with Ford on more than just a superficial basis. So it seems like a crossover to me.
The really interesting question is - who’s running the show and how does he know Dirk so well??
I’m not outraged by the idea of someone else taking a stab at writing for that universe, but I don’t think I’ll personally have much interest in it. It’s hard for me to separate H2G2 from Douglas Adams.
Also, while it was definitely different in tone, I recall really enjoying “Mostly Harmless”. It’s “So Long…” which I found rather subpar.
There were some great bits in “So Long…”, don’t get me wrong. It just didn’t seem that great as a whole, though. But it’s been so long, so I can’t really remember what my problem with it was.
I agree. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the first three HG books (though I wasn’t in love with the So Long or Young Zaphod and skipped Mostly Harmless). But the Dirk Gentley books seem more… plot driven? And make for a better read in my opinion.
I know Hitchhiker only from the 5 radio series’ (and very much enjoyed the lot of it.) … Should I give the books a run? And how much of the radio series should I forget before picking up the books?
Hmm, I think it’d be worth a try, and you don’t necessarily need to forget any of the radio series if you can make a go of keeping them straight.
You’ll probably notice that book 2 in particular, ‘Restaurant at the end of the universe’, seems “All jumbled up” in comparison to the primary and secondary phase, because it starts with Zaphod going to the total probability vortex, and then loops back to the Restaurant itself, and then takes Ford/Arthur to prehistoric earth with the Golgafrinchans (IIRC) and Zaphod/Trillian to the man who rules the universe. There’s a lot of good stuff from the secondary phase that never got into any of the books at all.
Books 3, 4, and 5 however, are fairly close to the plots of the last 3 series, (adapted after Adams died and somewhat abridged,) so you might well like experiencing ‘the real version’ there.
I read a Wiki article on Adams and know he was an atheist. I did appreciate the part where someone proved to God he didn’t exist and he disappeared in a puff of logic. For me, while I don’t think I believe in the King James version of God, it wouldn’t surprise me if there wasn’t some greater intelligent life out there. Whether or not it’s sentient I don’t know. But I refuse to believe life on Earth is a fluke and we’re all alone in this huge galaxy. That would make me very sad.
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