Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams > Reviews > tribute to douglas adams

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	great read !  !  !
Disadvantages:	unputtabownable

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Douglas adams, author of The hit hikers guide to the galaxy, died of a heart attack last week aged 49. The news will surely be a huge disappointment to the vast and loyal readership that the book has gained ever since it was first published in 1979. I have written this review as a tribute to his work and life.

introduction
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there are funny books and there are science fiction books, but rarely any has any author managed to write a cuccessful comic science fiction fiction novel that has been widely read as this one. It has been adapted as a radio series, a TV series, numerous cassettes and CDs, even a computer game, all the while growing ever more popular as readers old and young travel through the exciting worlds and planet systems of Arthor Dent and Ford Prefect.

general story
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The series of four books- 'the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy'; 'the restaurant at the end of the univers'e: 'life','the universe and everything' and 'so long' and 'thanks for all the fish' chronical all the adventures and travels of earthman Arthur Dent who inexplicably finds himself the only survivor when one thursday morning, the earth is demolished by a fleet of Vogon Constructor Ships to make way for an intergalatic hyperspace bypass. The unsuspecting Dent is rescued from this rather odd calamity when it turns out that his friend of five years, Ford Prefect, is not actualy an out-of-work actor from guildford, but an intergalatic hitchhicker who has been stuck on earth nd desperate to get off it.And so they embark on the most encredible experdition round the universe making new friends as they do. Author goes in search of God's final message to his creation, and in a dramatic break from tradition actually finds it.

the verdict
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this book is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good laugh at the expense of the human race who are to arthors dismay, the most insulted life form in the galaxy. the humor is subtle and satirical and more than not there are very interesting ideas and messages behind the books comic sci-fi perspective. It makes a great night time reading, although, once you get into the story, you might find your self redefining on a few occasions what 'late night' actually means.