Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Everything ! |
| Disadvantages: |
You need to read it more thanm once to fully appreciate it ! |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Stephen Fry once described Douglas Adams as "Not so much a man, as a force of nature". This may seem a little over the top, yet if you read this novel, you will understand the reasoning behind it. The book is funny, sarcastic, a little political and one of the most imaginative pieces of fictional writings I have ever read!
This book was first published in 1979, after a Radio series and a television series were produced. This is probably the only novel in history to do this – at least the only decent book. The hype surrounding the book was so huge that Douglas Adams was paid in advance for the sequel.
With the death of Douglas at the age of 49 earlier this year, the book has become famous again and for anyone interested, the tv series of the radio series is on on Monday the 30th July, i.e tomorrow! If it’s anything like the book, you’ll love it!
The book begins on Earth and we hear the story of Arthur Dent, a thirty-year old man whose house is going to be demolished to make way for a new bypass. Simple enough so far? We then meet Ford Prefect, an alien who is trapped on Earth and made the mistake of naming himself after a car. He also happens to be Arthur's best friend. Keeping up? Good! He tells Arthur to stop worrying about his house and to come for a drink with him.
At the pub, he tells Arthur that the world is going to end - the Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a hyperspatial bypass. Still with me? Great! Arthur and Ford manage to escape the Earth by catching a lift on the Vogon spaceship that is demolishing the Earth.
The Vogons don’t like this being the ‘thoroughly vile, bad tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous’ beings that they are and drop Arthur and Ford into space. They can only survive for thirty seconds in space. 29 seconds later - at a probability of two to the power 267709-to-one against - they are picked up by a three armed, two-headed alien called Zaphod Beeblebrox and his girlfriend, Trillian. Now this is where the plot becomes complicated.
The ship that picks them up is the Heart of Gold, a ship containing the only Improbability drive in the Universe. This drive allows you to do anything, as long as you can work out the improbability factor of it. And so begins the story of the ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’. You’ll have to read it to find out what happens – probably three or four times to appreciate the sheer brilliance and genius of this novel.
The book is an outstanding piece of
fiction and I recommend it to anyone with a fondness for science-fiction or anyone who loves a good book! A must read for anyone then?
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