Just imagine how you would feel upon waking up one morning to find a bulldozer about to knock your house down, and you can’t complain because the plans were on display in the planning office basement, in a locked filing cabinet in a disused toilet with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard! Well that is how Arthur Dent’s day starts, and its about to get much worse. Not only is his house to be knocked down, but his planet is to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, and again he can’t complain because the plans were on display in the planning office on Alpha Centurai.
But Arthur is saved from impending doom by his friend with the inconspicuous name of Ford Prefect – an alien from a planet near Beetlejuice who is researching earth for that well-known book the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. They escape by hitching a lift on the Vogon Spaceship, are tortured by Vogon poetry before being thrown into the void of space. Miraculously they are rescued by Ford’s friend Zaphod and their adventures throughout the Galaxy commence, including meeting Marvin the Paranoid Android, the white mice who ran experiments on humans for years and witnessing the end of the universe. Seem like all a bit too much? Then take the advice of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Don’t Panic!
This is the first book in the DNA’s (Douglas Noel Adams) trilogy in five parts, and contains his inimitable humour from cover to cover – it had me in stitches of laughter many times. If you want a sci-fi book that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is packed with gags, then this is for you. The story moves at the speed of a ship powered by an infinite improbability drive and I can think of no better sci-fi/adventure/guidebook to the universe – I can think of no higher praise than that. The world Adams creates has so much depth, so if you want to discover: What to do with a Babel Fish Why the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42 (and what the question was in the first place) Why a bowl of Petunias only thought was oh no! not again And what God’s last message to his creation was Then the answers lie within this book and its 4 sequels (the resaurant at the end of the universe, life the universe and everything, so long and thanks for all the fish, and mostly harmless).
Whilst you can buy each part of the ‘trilogy’ individually, I would recommend the omnibus edition with includes all the parts at less than half the cost of the individual books. It really is worth a read, but if that seems like too much work, then there is the audio tape version, or the BBC series which has recently come out on DVD. Even though the book was written back in 1979, it doesn't really show its age apart fom the numerous references to digital watches.
And in case you thought I’d forgotten – here is how to get a drink out of a Vogon: You stick your finger down his throat.
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Thankfully I've never needed to get a drink out of a Vogo. Maureen
Shanksey 10.11.2002 21:18
Good op. Doug Adams was a genius. The funniest line in Hitch-hikers as 'Just then, a wizard walked along the beach.'
Thamisgith 09.11.2002 11:52
Nice op, short but to the point I felt. I loved the books and the TV series, though I sometimes wonder if a new TV adaptation with more modern effects (and a larger budget) would be something worth considering.
Advantages: Very funny, great characters, exciting and original. Disadvantages: Some theories were a little hard to understand, perhaps too random in places
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