Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams > Reviews > The Answer is 42, But What's the Question?

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Entertaining and funny
Disadvantages:	Doug is no longer with us

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams is a trilogy in five parts. There were originally meant to be only three parts, but the whole story grew. By the time, the fourth and fifth books came along; HHGTTG was already established as a trilogy, and so continued to be known as such. The five parts are:-
-The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
-The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
-Life, the Universe and Everything
-So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
-Mostly Harmless

Today though, I’m just going to concentrate on book one. The first book had the difficult task of establishing characters while still telling a good story. In my opinion, both tasks are achieved brilliantly. Douglas Adams has created some very well rounded and believable characters. Let me introduce you to the main players.

ATHUR DENT – Arthur’s biggest problem when he wakes up one Thursday is that his house is about to be bulldozed to make way for a bypass. Little does he realise, that in a few hours time, the Earth is going to be destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Luckily for him, his friend Ford Prefect, hitches a ride for them both on a Vogon constructor ship. Fro m this moment, Arthur, is unwillingly carried along on an interstellar adventure. He deals with it all in a very typically British way, by looking for a cup of tea.

FORD PREFECT – Ford is a researcher for the Guide. He arrived on Earth 15 years previously and got stranded. Choosing a name he thought was nicely conspicuous, Ford pretended to be an out of work actor from Guildford. He is, in fact, from the Betelgeuse star system. A fact which came as quite a shock to his friend Arthur.

ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX – 2 headed, 3 armed ex-president of the Galaxy. Zaphod rose to the position for one reason. To get his hands on the Heart of Gold. This is a ship with the new improbability drive. The drive allows the ship to occupy every single point in space at the same. He needed the ship in order to go searching for the legendary planet of Magrathea. It is said that all the wealth Magrathea once possessed, is now buried beneath the surface of the now, apparently, dead planet. Zaphod is also Ford’s semi-cousin and shares 3 of the same mothers with him.

TRILLIAN – Another human from Earth. Her real name is Tricia McMillan and once went to the same party as Arthur Dent. Coincidently, it was at this very party that she met Zaphod, who invited her to join him on his ship. With a degree in Astro-navigation, she decided his offer was a better option than going to join the dole queue again on Monday.

MARVIN – The paranoid android. Although paranoid is somewhat of a misnomer. Marvin is a deeply morose and cynical life. Whatever you do, don’t talk to him about life. Marvin was designed by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation and is fitted with a GPP. (Genuine People Personality).

SLARTIBARTFAST – A Magrathean planet engineer. Slartibartfast engineered the Earth and won awards for the Norwegian fjords. He likes the crinkly edges.

Along the way, Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin discover that the Earth was built as a giant computer, the sole purpose of which was to discover the answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Deep Thought, the computer which designed Earth, concluded that the answer was 42. However, no-one knew what the actual question was.

HHGTTG is a very, very funny book. It’s also quite cynical. You could quite easily come to the conclusion that Douglas Adams was not a huge fan of the human race. Sentiments I can agree with LOL. Many various and fantastic events occur in this book, but at the end of the day it’s a simple story, of a simple man who is dragged unwillingly into complex situations.

Douglas Adams was a very creative writer. He died a couple of years ago at the young age of 47. He is very much missed within the literary arena but he left behind an amazingly funny legacy. I have read HHGTTG about 12 times and no doubt I will read it quite a few more. For me, this is a laugh out loud book. Even though I know exactly what’s coming, I still cry with laughter when I read it.

One of my favourite lines in the whole book is: -

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way as bricks don’t.”

Brilliant.

Thanks for reading. Dawn x

ps. The recommendations below don't really pertain to the subject LOL