Book Description
Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription, the mysterious disappearance of Earth's dolphins, and the discovery of his battered copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all conspire to give Arthur the sneaking suspicion that something otherworldly is indeed going on. . . .

God only knows what it all means. And fortunately, He left behind a Final Message of explanation. But since it's light-years away from Earth, on a star surrounded by souvenir booths, finding out what it is will mean hitching a ride to the far reaches of space aboard a UFO with a giant robot. But what else is new?


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of these books is not like the others...
Be forewarned: while this book is unmistakably a Hitchhiker's Guide book, it's also quite unique among the series. If you're in it only for the zany off-the-wall humor, well, you might not be disappointed because there is certainly plenty of that here, but Adams proves he can do so much more. Notably, the love story between Arthur and Fenchurch is quite moving, and as a result Arthur's character takes on whole new dimensions.

While I love Zaphod as much as the next guy, his absence here is actually a welcome reprieve, since he wouldn't fit in too well with this particular story. Unfortunately, however, it seems he's disappeared for good.

The ending is sort of, well, hmmm?, even though Marvin does make a last memorable appearance, but the rest of the book is good enough that one can't be too disappointed.

Martin Freeman's narration is quite appropriate and enjoyable--but I can't compare it to Adams' own, as I haven't heard that version yet, so take it for what it's worth. ... Read more

Book Description
Douglas Adams was a driven and gifted polymath who cut a colorful swath in radio, atelevision, live theater, comic books, computer games, CD-ROM, and the Internet before dying tragically in 2001 at 49.M.J. Simpson has produced a rich, revealing chronicle of one of the most wildly creative minds of out time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Based on a negative agenda and utterly lacking in insight
Simpson says at the beginning of this book and towards the end that he doesn't think Douglas Adams was a liar. But the vast bulk of the book doesn't support this qualification. Perhaps Adams refused to grant Simpson an interview at some point. Perhaps Simpson just didn't like him, or felt envious that he was an accomplished writer. But why bother writing a biography in that case? I suppose having a petty score to settle would be one reason.

(Since posting my original review, I've learned that Simpson was disgruntled about not having any of his little sci-fi conventions attended by Douglas. This is a good reason for a nasty book? I think not.)

Trying to provide a balanced account and not taking everything one's subject has said as gospel is one thing. But going to great lengths, using wholly faulty logic, quotes from people barely on the fringes of the subject's life, and constant correlation without causation to make quotes look like contradictions in spite of the fact that they can actually happily coexist (and even often support each other, even though Simpson does all he can to explain why they might be at odds), is quite another. And believing the hazy memories of someone tangential rather than words from the horse's mouth doesn't reveal much sympathy for the subject.

Basically, Simpson makes Adams look like, depending on the page, a complete liar or a bumbling idiot (neither of which he was) -- throughout the entire book. It reeks of some kind of childish revenge, which would explain why Simpson waited until after Adams' death to write it; and tedious trivia and statistics are spewed to this end without any insight into the man or his life whatsoever, as other reviewers have pointed out.

Simpson also makes snide remarks about Douglas at every possible opportunity, such as "It wasn't an interview. It was a Douglas Adams monologue, and not a terribly interesting one." Someone reading the biography of an author would in fact be extremely interested in hearing an account of how one of that author's novels got published. Why the haughtiness? Simpson's thesis near the end is the heinous and unqualified opinion that Adams didn't write good books unless an editor or coauthor helped him.

Simpson even invents some new and intriguing words, such as "themself."

Don't waste your money on this. Don't Panic and Wish You Were Here are much, much, much, much, much better.

Staggering detail
It took me a year to read Hitchhiker, but not because of its length--only because of the level of detail. I had to take long and frequent breaks from the text.

I have been a fan of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy since childhood--probably around 30 years. However, I was always a fairly solitary fan. Never went to cons, never ventured to alt.fan.douglas-adams, never joined "Plural Z9 Plural Z Alpha," the official fan club. I never knew these things existed nor that Douglas Adams himself was aware of them, until I read this book.

M.J. Simpson has approached Douglas Adams as a fan and admirer, but one with a determination to get the facts straight and to share with the reader not just the ultimate result, but the circuitous route he sometimes had to take to get to that final result. For instance, when Simpson approaches a paragraph in which he intends to share the date of a meeting between three people, he includes quotes from five people about who was where when, who was managing who's calendar, and who couldn't have possibly been there because he was in New York at the time having the most memorable roast beef sandwich of his life with his fiancee. This commitment to accuracy sometimes makes for belabored writing, but you can't read the book without complete confidence that you're getting the straight dope.Everything cited, quoted, or in any way referenced in this book is meticulously footnoted--Ironic, considering the sometimes chaotic approach Douglas took to life.

But, beyond the writing and the impulse I had to edit every sentence, I have to say that It's All Here. Everything you might consider significant. Douglas' growing up, his relationships, his passions, his distractions, his contacts, his foibles, his genius, his enterprises... just everything. And it is told with such sympathy for Douglas that even as you read the details of these fouled-up anecdotes and exaggerated stories he told, you understand and you don't condemn him.

I highly recommended this particular biography for anyone who enjoys having an encyclopedic knowledge of a subject, particularly if that person is also a fan of any of Douglas Adams' works or even just those who are creative and lucky.

But it won't be fast.

A lifeless life
We never met, drat the bad luck.In our first encounter, Douglas was flashing his bum at me as he ran naked into the sea, shucking fistfuls of money in all directions.After that, beingbowled over by the genius of his humour and struggling to grasp the breadth of his imagination was continuous enjoyment.Who was this man who piqued our minds, asking questions that challenged every norm?Douglas Adams wasn't just a writer or a gadfly prodding various Established Truths, he was a phenomenon.M. J. Simpson makes a worthy effort to impart something meaningful about Adams.He provides a wealth of information about Adams' activities, his struggle to meet deadlines, his circle of friends.In the end, however, Simpson's portrayal lacks the scope Adams worked within and the spark of "life" that would grant this book a place as a true biography.

Although Simpson is compelled to limit his view of Adams' childhood, apart from his "prep" school years, the author fails to establish the environment surrounding his subject.Nothing of the Britain of the year of Adams birth, 1952 is offered as background.His later schooling years, which was also the era of "Beatlemania", aren't reflected in the dynamics of that time.Instead, we learn of Adams aversion to sports and his crashing embarrassment at being forced to retain short pants after moving to more senior levels.Later, at Cambridge, Adams' involvement with the performing club "Footlights" certainly allowed him to begin his comedy career.His desire to become a "writer-performer" was manifested, but the gawky, clumsy lad was often a physical threat to others on stage.

Simpson traces well the path of Adams' career as a script-writer.An avid admirer of John Cleese, Adams emulated him in many ways.He would have made a great "Python", but by the time Adams was beginning to make his mark, "Monty Python" was winding down.Douglas wrote for "Doctor Who" at the same time he was developing "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".It was an indication of how hectic his life would become.In one segment, Simpson relates how Adams and a co-author sequestered themselves in a villa in southern France to complete "Last Chance to See", but spent the entire time at long lunches and interesting discussions.Words on paper failed to emerge.That never bothered Adams, who loved "to hear deadlines whoosh by".Missed deadlines, for which Adams' reputation seems to tower over all others, seem to pale in comparison to the delays incurred when his work was to be transferred to the film screen.The dissension, Simpson shows, was continuous and unending.There was a point when Adams was forced to buy back rights to his own work!

In a small but necessary concession to the world around Adams, Simpson explains how the release of the first "Star Wars" opened doors of opportunity for Adams' work to move to visual presentation.All the hesitation over putting "sci-fi" on BBC television was swept away and HHGG was produced as a result.Simpson notes that the timing led some to believe HHGG was a "send-up" of science fiction, but he dismisses that readily.HHGG was original thinking, demonstrating that Adams was well ahead in his view of putting science into interesting stories.His characters and events went far beyond Hollywood's interpretation of sci-fi.More importantly, the innovative graphics were supplemental to the story line and characters.The graphics only enhanced the narrative without dominating the themes, in the way Hollywood dealt with them.

In the meagre offerings Simpson attempts to reveal Adams' interests and what led him along certain tracks, we learn of the association with the Beatles.The focus, it seems, was on parties and name-dropping.Adams made one production involving Ringo Starr, but that went nowhere.As Adams matured, he lost a sense of the Christianity he was raised in.Simpson provides a flimsy chapter, "Interlude - God", in which Adams describes himself as waffling about deities.It provides nothing of the roots of his shift from religiosity.Although there is mention of his relation to Richard Dawkins, who married "Doctor Who's" Lalla Ward, there is nothing related about Adams' growing interest in science.When he realised his initials were "DNA", Adams later made much of the connection.None of that appears here.It took Richard Dawkins to extol Adams' "amalgamated knowledge of literature and science" in his "Lament for Douglas" to provide the proper assessment.It's almost astonishing that Simpson incorporates none of the accolades voiced at Adams' death.

Simpson has provided fans with much detail on Adams' career - collaborators, agents, and BBC officialdom.There are many legends and corrections of legends supplied.The chronicler deserves full credit for the immense task he has accomplished.As you close the final page, however, you realise the job is incomplete.The detail obscures the greater picture, which Simpson fails to encapsulate.Perhaps that is indicative of the immensity of coping with the subject.Adams was a big man in many ways and it's to be hoped that a full depiction of his life will be the next step.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Mostly Harmless, but also Barely Adequate
It's clear that M. J. Simpson knows a lot about the bare facts of Douglas Adams' life, but there is little heart or deep understanding in this biography. Because Douglas Adams is an intrinsically interesting character, the book is still enjoyable enough to read for the anecdotes as well as for its descriptions of Douglas' projects. I found it interesting to read about the many failures or quasi failures that followed the publication of the Hitchiker's books. It just goes to show that talent is often not enough and that success is relative. The author seems to have a strangely forensic delight in finding inconsistencies in different versions of some of the anecdotes surrounding Douglas' life... Which I suppose may be of interest to some, but for me that wasn't really something I was terribly interested in anyway.Amazingly, even John Lloyd's forward is a bit critical: He writes, "The initial conditions in which Douglas was saddled were rather more trying, I suspect, than the author of this book has been able either to discern or to put in print."

John Lloyd's forward is really quite wonderful, and I would gladly read more material from his hand about "The Big Man." As for this book, I'd say if you enjoy Mr. Adams' books and you're looking for some moderately enjoyable bed-time reading, this isn't such a bad choice.

Astonishingly Complete
What's most impressive about this volume is how often it is forced to go against conventional wisdom.Through astonishingly complete research, Simpson manages to root out dozens of stories Adams told about his work and then provide the true story behind Adams' half-truths.In all, a wonderfully assembled timeline of an interesting person. ... Read more

Book Description
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out of work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin their journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitch Hiker's Guide "A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have" and a galaxy-full of fellow travellers: Zaphod Beeblebroxthe two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out to lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant and chronically depressed robot;and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ball-point pens he has bought over the years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Ok, First off this is the first time I've done this so hang with me. The Reason I read this book was, pretty much, because the movie was comeing out, and I didn't want to see it with out reading the Book first. I'm Glad I did beacause if i had seen the movie first it would have ruined the book for me. The one thing that I noticed about this book was it's so great that you read it really fast, and when u finish you wish you hadn't read it as fast as you did.Anyway I've never Read anything like this book and probably never will again. I recomend this book to any one who likes to read good books.

Probable?
Douglas Adams once said that he liked dead lines, 'I like the whooshing noise they make as they go by.'

Thankfully he managed to get himself out of the bath enough times to write this gem.

Thanks Douglas

An amazing journy of the mind
The Hitch Hikers Guide is an amazing book; it ensnares the mind and doesn't let go. The book takes you all the way from the last seconds of earth to the end of the universe, and all in a strange and humors way. The book uses backwards logic and at some points makes so little sense that it makes perfect sense. I loved the variety of characters, the detail, and the abstract thoughts. The book takes and explains the secrets of the universe and even better how to travel it. In this book you will find the answer to the meaning of life, how to get a lift from a space ship, and why no hitchhiker should ever be without a towel.

I recommend this book to anyone who thinks of the abstract or abnormal, or for that matter anyone who has an inkling of creativity in their minds. Recommended to ages 15 and up.

Mostly Harmless
Everybody's in search of something. For some it's meaning, for others it's a place in the universe, and for the rest of us, it's a digital watch. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy really illustrates that unsure feeling that we all have. Arthur Dent was lost enough on Earth, but after it's demolished, he in desperate need of finding a speck of understanding throughout the rest of the Galaxy. Good luck without your towel there, buddy boy.

I really dug this book. It didn't take you straight from point A to point B, as some novels do. It had twisty unpredictable swerves that gave you a glimpse of points X, Q and H, along the way, even though Q and H had nothing to do with anything. They were there for appreciation. For example, a nuclear bomb makes a quick transformation to a sperm whale before any damage is done. The reader is fully exposed to the Sperm whales thoughts and inner ramblings... all thirty seconds of them. It's beautifully absurd, and I loved it.

I fully enjoyed the nonsense and the silliness of the book. Little details, especially. An incredibly depressed robot, the hailing of digital watches, eager to please doors; all these things didn't necessarily prove incredibly important on the character's quest, but amusing, nonetheless.Without the silliness, this may have been another book about post-Earth days and the last thing we need is just another book about post-Earth days. Have no fear, this is not just another book.

GIDDYUP !
I must say that this is one of the greatest books I've read. At first I thought " thousand pages,that's too much, I don't have the energy to do this". So I sat down and started to read,This is quite good, Ithought. Ten hours later I just had to admit it, the book had had memesmerized, I just couldn't put it down ! For those who haven't read thisbook, I highly recommend you do ! I say: Giddyup ! ... Read more

Download Description
Douglas Adams was the bestselling author of many works including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, recently released as a major motion picture. He died in 2001.

John Lloyd is (he says) Britain’s most successful television comedy producer since Chaucer and is responsible for Not the Nine O’Clock News, Spitting Image, and Blackadder, among others.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

How could such a small box house such a great series?!
For those who haven't heard of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, wake up to yourselves. It's by Douglas Adams and is extremely, clever, funny and ludicrous. It's a "science-fiction" series although there is nothing pertaining to science about it.

The series is largely about Arthur Dent - an ordinary man whisked off the earth just before it's destroyed to build and Intergalactic Superhighway. He discovers there's more alien species and happenings in the big wide galaxy than he could have ever imagines. The series is about the adventures of him and some aliens he crosses paths with.

For the uninitiated, the actual Guide to the Galaxy is a travel book, in the tradition of the Lonely Planet series. On the galactic scale, the earth is rather dull so at one point the entry only states "harmless".

The books are very funny and easy to read. Written by a genuine smartass, a kind of blend of Monty Python and Star Trek, if you can characterise it.

The box set has all the books in the Trilogy of Five. Therefore, it's good - don't make the mistake of buying just the first book or even the first three as you'll almost certainly want them all. A great read from an amazing Adams. ... Read more

Book Description
"It's all devastatingly true — except the bits that are lies" — Douglas Adams

Upon publication Don't Panic established itself as the definitive companion to Adams's life and work. This new revised edition comes up to date, covering his later work and untimely death in 2001, and including a new introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Acclaimed author Neil Gaiman celebrates the life of Douglas Adams who, in a field in Innsbruck in 1971, had an idea that became The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — the radio series that started it all, the five book `trilogy', the TV series, almost-film, and everything that followed. Don't Panic also tells the story of the other projects Douglas worked on, including his posthumous collection The Salmon of Doubt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Mostly harmless
Interesting and funn at times, this book is pretty bland considering it is a biography of one of (in my mind) the greatest authors I've ever read.(I've only read about 5 different authors, however).

In Douglas Adams' own review of this book, I totally agree:

"The best biography of Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy written since this morning" - D.A.

I'd give it a miss, in retrospect.(Maybe you can buy mine).

It's the bonus disc to the H2G2
This is a neat little book. I found the 1st edition years ago by chance in my university bookstore and bought it. When this revised edition (with some new material) was released, I snapped that up as well and re-read it.
Basically, think of this as the book equivalent to a "Bonus Features" DVD. It's jam packed with odd little stories and insights into the making of the Hitchhiker's universe (all media: radio, records, books, & TV). Die-Hard Adams fans will enjoy this.
And the fact that this happens to be compiled by Neil Gaiman, one of my other favorite writers, is just an added bonus.

A great tribute to a great man
This is part a biography of Douglas Adams, and part a description of how the different versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came to be. Douglas Adams was a very interesting and intelligent man whose life was cut tragically short. The story of how his most famous work was created is almost as funny and capticating as the Hitchiker's Guide itself. We get some examples of his early work, which can be incredibly funny ("How many kamikaze missions have you flown?" "Fourteen Sir!" "Shouldn't it be just one?"). He was involved with the Monty Python group, and wrote some material for them.
I think the book should be essential not only for Hitchhiker's buffs but also for wannabes in any creative profession.

Funny and Informative
Neil Gaiman does an excellent job of capturing the style and mood of Douglas Adams, and reveals the man behind the books revered by many.This book is enjoyable, and interesting, and a definite read for anyone who loves the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.The only sad part is that it's a bit short - like Adams' life.So that's a bit depressing.Otherwise, a good read!

A must read for Gaiman and Adams fans
Years ago, while browsing in a book shop, desperate for something to read during lunch, I stumbled across this little book.I was a big fan of Adams but had never heard of Gaiman but decided to pick it up and give it a chance.It was well worth it as it was a great read.

Some time later, I spotted a new hardback on the shelves at the same book shop.I knew the name Pratchett and had to think for a while as where I knew the name Gaiman from and then recalled that he had written that little book called Don't Panic, so I picked it up.Haven't looked back since. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

HG2
Absolutely hilarious!Makes me want to listen to the radio broadcast all over again.

A Wonderful Romp Through the H2G2 Universe
These authors take you through the 5-book Trilogy (although they mostly focus on the first 3 books) in a series of essays.They are all light hearted, but some of them are more serious that others.It also includes a great interview of Douglas Adams from the 80s.

I had a lot of fun with the book and remembering my favorite scenes.The essays also helped me see different interpretations of the actions of the characters.I recommend it for the bookshelf of any H2G2 fan!

An inside look at Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe
Twenty essays make up The Anthology at the End of the Universe and each author basically tries to tell us what is so important about the 5 book Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy. It's sort of like the old joke about the blind men each trying to describe an elephant when they each had only a small piece of the animal in their grip. No one essay can be expected to give you a definitive answer as to what the Hitchhiker's Guide is truly about or what Douglas Adams' message was when he wrote it. What the essays do is give you an understanding of why the books are so popular and how so many people have found a place for them in their lives and hearts.

Some of these essays had me laughing out loud so that I had to read those parts to my husband to prove I hadn't really gone off the deep end. Other's had me wondering about how you could come up with such serious connections from a series of comedic science fiction books. Then there were the essays that had me saying, "hmm, never thought of that". And of course, being me, there were the essays that had me sniffling discreetly into a tissue. There's a lot to like in this collection of essays. However, they are essays rather than short stories and if you're looking for the latter this book is not for you.

Mike Byrne in "Beware of the Leopard", Cory Doctorow in "Wikipedia: A Genuine H2G2 - Minus the Editor, and Bruce Bethke in " The Secret Symbiosis: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Its Impact on Real Computer Science" talk about the impact that Hitchhiker's Guide has had on computer science, computer interface design, the internet as a communications media, and the impetus it was in starting many young people on a career in the sciences. The Guide in the television version, while done with colored gels and press on letters was heads and shoulders above what computers at the time were capable of achieving. Once people saw what a really good user interface could be like they demanded better than they had and the computer companies listened. In some ways, we have Douglas Adams to thank for the usability of computers because once users began to think there could be something better they demanded it.

Others see the Hitchhiker's Guide as a round about way to think of the truly important things in life: religion, humor, 42, looking at the world as it is. The following essays dealt more with the philosophical aspects of the books: "That About Wraps it up for Oolon Colluphid" by Don Debrandt; "The Holy Trilogy" by Selina Rosen (this one is so funny it should have a spew alert); "The Zen of 42" by Marie-Catherine Caillava.

No book about the Guide could be complete without a mention of Vogon poetry. Lawrence Watt-Evans in "A Consideration of Certain Aspects of Vogon Poetry" discusses the merits of quantifying poetry so that the Guide can equivocally say that Vogon poetry is the third worst. He also wonders about Arthur's seeming immunity to it.

Adam Roberts in "42" and Jacqueline Carey in "Yes, I Got It" discuss the philosophy of humor and its place in our lives. While Susan Sizemore in "You Can't Go Home Again, Damn It! Even If Your Planet Hasn't Been Blown Up by Vogons" realizes that the person she was when first exposed to the Guide and the person she is now do not view the Guide in the same way. Even with all the happy memories of that first reading, she finds that it doesn't have the same impact now as it did then.

Food, food, glorious food. Douglas Adams loved a good meal especially with good friends and food plays an important role in the Hitchhiker's Guide. The role of food is touched upon by Steven Baxter in "Lunching at the Eschaton: Douglas Adams and the End of the Universe in Science Fiction", A.M. Dellamonica in "Digital Watches May Be a Pretty Neat Idea, But Peanuts and Beer Are What Get You Through the Apocalypse".

When the world or universe is off kilter or just plain crazy, how do you remain sane when all about you are crazy? Well, some writers have evidently come up with some ideas on how to remain sane in a crazy world from their reading of the Guide: "The Subversive Dismal Scientist: Douglas Adams and the Rule of Unreason" by Vox Day; "Another Fine Mess" by Adam Troy Castro; "The Only Sane Man in the Universe" by Marguerite Krause; "Douglas Adams and the Wisdom of Madness" by John Shirley; and "Loop-Surface Security: The Image of the Towel in a Vagabond Universe - A Semiotic (Semi-Odd) Excursion" by Mark W. Tiedemann.

There's also an interview with Douglas Adam by John Shirley ("A Talk with Douglas Adams"). Amy Berner in "Words to Live " talks about how everything she needed to learn to life live she learned from the Hitchhiker's Guide. "Goodnight, Marvin" by Maria Alexander is the final essay in the book and a touching tribute to Douglas as a person who touched many of our lives with his writing.

A delightful book...
The book covers tons of details, from how important food is to the series, to computer design, the meaning of life, the meaning of 42, Marvin's place in the universe, Vogon poetry and even British humor.At under 199 pages, this tiny book seems to cover a lot, but I feel they could have done so much more.There is so much to debate and think about when it comes to Adam's universe that this book barely peeled off the first layer of the massive tome.But maybe we should leave some mystery for future readers to find and enjoy on their own?
To list just SOME of the contributors whose work is within these pages we have Stephen Baxter, Susan Sizemore and Adam Roberts. ... Read more

Book Description
Edited and Compiled by Doug Phillips

Born in 1767, John Quincy Adams entered his country's service while a mere lad as secretary to the Russian Embassy and remained through life a public servant, filling successively the posts of secretary, ambassador, United States Senator, Secretary of State, President, and finally Representative in Congress.

However, all of these remarkable achievements are secondary to his role as father. Though a busy man, Adams made it his priority to study the Bible and to train his son to love God's Holy Word. His example stands out for all men as a shepherd who loved his family flock. This volume contains nine personal letters of counsel and admonition that he penned to his son while traveling away from home. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Wonderfully Exciting and Humorous
One of the greatest Sci-Fi series of all time.Adams spins an amazingly twisted story of hitchhiking through the Universe.A wonderful and imaginative series that will have you guessing at every turn with the mostimprobable outcomes.This is a must read for every Sci-Fi fan!

Truly classic material of genious proportions
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy represents some of the most original, funny, spellbinding material that I've ever read.The first book contains the most creativity, but the least linearity because of the original format(radio shows).The second and third take off from there and create acrescendo of momentum that I wasn't able to put down (I quite literallyread all 5 books within a few days time).The last couple of books mightbe the weakest, but that's mainly because they must follow such incredibleprequels.I cannot overemphasize the entertainment that this seriesoffers.The Hitchhiker's Guide represents a true genre-burstingcollection.While at first glance these books might seem to appeal mainlyto science fiction readers, they actually have very little in common withsci-fi and readers wishing for a sci-fi environment and story may not findwhat they expect.These books should appeal to any reader, but those oldenough to recall some of the 1980's will especially be able to understandthe author's period and setting.

Good Book
I usually dont read by choice but Ive read this and im hooked on the series. This book is good stuff.

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Imaginative!
This book is great! The whole concept of two men one alien, one human getting picked up by a space ship is really amazing. This book is really great and fun to read for teenagers and adults. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

One amazing novel,Another a little boring
Dirk Gently is probably Douglas Adam's best written book and has an extremely well defined plot. The humor as good as ever, I laughed out loud on many occassions. The notion of "fundamental interconnectedness of things" that Adams introduces in this book is quite powerful and yet quite humorous. The problem of the stuck couch in an impossible position, missing cats, ancient professors in universities, an electric monk - a multiple set of oddities all fall into place into a great pattern.

I found Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul a bit boring. It is interesting in parts but on the whole there's not much new stuff in what Adams says.

On the whole the book is a great buy - if you liked Hitchhiker's series at all, you would most certainly love Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Guaranteed.

His Best
It may be heresy, but the Dirk Gently books are actually better than the Hitchhikers' Guide books, and by a wide margin (the second book being slightyly better than the first).The fantastic way he ties all the threads of the stories together is unbelievable (as with Dirk as a gypsy fortune teller at the beginning of TEA-TIME and how he connects to an eagle, a missing pilot, and the fate of the story's villains).Among the most intelligent and well thought out comic novels I've ever read.

Put a fire in the fireplace
Put a fire in the fireplace, turn down the lights (except the small reading lamp), put on Ravel's "Bolero," grab a sixpack of Guinness Draft in bottles, lie back in your Laz-Y-Boy recliner, open the book, and immerse yourself in an alternate reality, become engulfed in mystery, experience the reading of Colerige as you've never experienced it before, learn from an electric monk, weep for the extinct dodo, consider applications of quantum mechanics even the physicists didn't think of, and pity a living-challenged (i.e., dead) poor soul for whom his demise was not a release but yet another challenge to deal with.And, try to do all this with a straight face, as this is the funniest ghost/time travel/alien/love/historical story you have ever come across.Learn where Bach really got his music.Find out why there's an Albatross in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and not the asteroid Colerige had obviously intended.Discover why Colerige never finished "Kubla Kahn."Find out who was responsible for the dodos' demise.Learn why it's easier to get face powder from the Pleides than from the drugstore. Find out why shooting off is a bad idea.Discover how telephones with big red pushbuttons are integral to solving murders. Douglas Adams is as irreplacible as Heinlein.

Then, read the sequel and never look at your refrigerator the same way again.

Literary slapstick in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut
Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, followed up with the most whimsical character I have "met" since reading Vonnegut, and like Vonnegut, creates a slapstick creation for mankind. There are an alien or two, eccentric college professors, a Electric Monk, and many other labor-saving devices to be found in the two books. Roaring funny - if you like slapstick characters - the Dirk Gently books poke fun at everything from Apple Computer to Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity. Since these books were originally published, some of the jokes have aged, but their recent re-discovery was worth the trip all over again.

Dirk Gently is a detective who thinks nothing of charging his clients for a spontaneous trip to the Bahamas, because of his "holistic" approach to investigations. Everything is connected, you see, so he - well, investigates everything. The ride is fast, daring, and you won't anticipate what will happen around the next turn. Adams has penned a carnival ride that approximates the best of Vonnegut, and a joy these many years later.

Having not read the Hitchhiker's Guide books for some time, I will confess that I actually enjoyed the Gently books a bit more, as the writing is much faster paced, the lunacy a little more looney (with the possible exception of "So Long and Thanks for All The Fish"), and the names much easier to remember.

One of my favorite books.

thoughtful, unforgettable comic fiction
Douglas Adams is well known for his "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series of books. They are filled with often smart, sometimes absurd and slapstick humor. This book contains two of his lesser-known novels--"Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Log, Dark, Tea Time of the Soul." While not quite as nonstop and rapid fire as the Hitchhiker books, they are possibly Adams' greatest work.

First of all, these books are unique. Where else in literature do science fiction and humor intersect with topics such as Quantum physics, Norse mythology, and the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Adams weaves these elements into stories that entertain, provoke, and even educate.

Adams also creates lasting images: a wonderful depiction of the nonsense that so often surrounds academic and professional banquets, a great representation of the pitfalls of furniture moving, the absurdity of airline check-in lines, and a description of a "lurking" refrigerator that speaks to some universal human interaction with maltreated appliances.

These two novels are wonderful pieces of comic literature. They are also something more. Get a copy and experience them yourself.

I recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description
NO OTHER GUIDE HAS:

        SOLUTIONS so complete we despise you for needing to use them!

        HINTS so subtle you've got to be a bit of a smart-ass to understand them!

        DESCRIPTIONS of natural language parsing engines and object-oriented
          programming by people who ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!

        UNCENSORED PHOTOS of DOUGLAS ADAMS in the VERY ACT OF WRITING!

        ILLUSTRATIONS from people who've won REAL OSCARS!

        INSIGHTS into the SECRET LIVES of PROGRAMMERS!

        NO-HOLDS-BARRED back stories to all the CHARACTERS! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Needed to get through it
If you have "Starship Titanic", Douglas Adams last CD-ROM game, this book will get you through it, plus there's some sly Adams wit sprinkled throughout.

Review
I loved the book that's why I gave it the maximum rating. I think it's the best book (sorry strategy guide) ever! Thank God they're making a sequle to Starship Titanic! (I got the info about a sequle at the Starship Titanic website.)

The book has a few sections which are: A) Table Of Contents, B) The Blerontin Bugle, C) Meet The Bots, D) The PET, E) Hints, F) Solutions, G) Index, and finally H) website information (well actually it's some "thing" about the website.) I also like the front cover. It's pretty.

In the middle of the Hints section of the book (well not in the middle they're spread out over the section) are some articles and footnotes on the making of Starship Titanic (the footnotes are just little notes ont the interior spaces and the areas ot the Titanic.) The Blerinton Bugle section of the book gives some good back story clues. Meet the Bots is funny but they left two bots out they are Rowbot (the gondaliers) and Boppy Headcase the pianist in the music room [he is the one who bangs his head}.) ThePET section is annoyingly stupid. Hints is a little too spefic. And Soultions is too step-by-step informative.

All and all I loved the book because the Solutions aren't stupid "try this" and "try that" kind of solutions they're "do this" and "do that" solutions. I think the book is superb and I say: "Bravo Doug you've done it!"

Starship Titanic Startgey Guide Review
When I bought Starship Titanic Gold Edition I got the Starship Titanic Stragety Guide Included. When I browsed through it I noticed the book had interesting subjects from the Starship Titanic game the problem is that it has an anoying part where you can accidently open to a spolier or too good a hint. Even though I loved it! It was an excellent book. I like it because it has 3 main sections: I)Blerontin Bugle, II)Hints and III)Solutions. It also has some lesser important sections called:1)Table Of Contents, 2)The PET and 3)Index. It also has a page that gives the website address. I'll give you one hint read the book!

Interesting background material, but weak hint section
This guide to the adventure game "Starship Titanic" wants to do three things at once. First, it gives more background to the Starship and the characters in the game. Second, there are stories from behind thescenes, telling how the game came to be. Interesting stuff, butunfortunately all this leave too little room for what I consider the mostimportant part: The hint section.

The cover promises "subtlehints" and "complete solutions". This made me expectgradually more obvious hints for each problem, each hint on a separate lineto avoid reading too far. In the book, each overall problem has its ownsection, but the section itself is one long description of how to solve theproblem. This makes it VERY easy to read too far. I recommend reading thehint section one line at a time, with the rest of the page covered by apiece of paper. The hints are in themselves good enough, but not alwayssubtle enough. And the prose flows TOO WELL: You read on where you shouldpause and return to the game! At least the most outright spoilers are keptin a separate section of the book.

I enjoyed reading about Douglas Adams'visions of the game and I found the sections on the creation of the gamevery interesting. If this guide had been sold as a hint book but asbackground material I would have rated it 4 stars (but to tell the truth, Iwould probably not have bought it in the first place for just that - I am aDouglas Adams fan, but there are limits).

All in all: The book containsquite a bit of interesting material, but personally I would have preferreda plain hint book of better quality.

The Strategy Guide that could not possibly go wrong....
In the genre of PC Game Strategy Guides, it may be difficult or impossibleto consider the book without reference to the game.That said, NeilRichards' "Starship Titanic: the Official Strategy Guide" is anessential, albeit well-padded, guide to an underwhelming gamingexperience.

The guide begins with forty pages of fluff, mostly unhelpful,unfunny introductions to the main, animate characters in the game: the"bots" - well-meaning, malfunctioning, robotic crew of theStarship.

This is followed by sixty-some pages of what the authorcuriously calls "hints".In the best of worlds, a player,frustrated by the mind-numbing pedantry of the game itself, would expectthis section of the guide to offer subtle suggestions on clues that mayhave been overlooked.In fact, it consists of verbose solutions to thetrite, often silly, puzzles aboard the Starship Titanic.Unlike Myst orRiven, Starship Titanic requires little more "strategy" thanhit-or-miss bumbling about and rudimentary linking of tasks, so perhapsthese type of "hints" are appropriate to the situation.

Thenext section, titled "Solutions", is merely a repeat of theprevious section, minus the blather.It lists the step-by-step proceduresfor obtaining and assembling each of the pieces of the puzzle.Don't betempted to use this section to speed up the boring part of the game to getto the "good stuff", or you'll quickly find yourself at the endof the game with nothing to look forward to except -- perish the thought!!-- a sequel. ... Read more

Book Description
March 1978 saw the first ever transmission of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on BBC Radio 4; the beginning of a cult phenomenon. This 25th Anniversary edition of the scriptbook includes a previously unpublished Hitchhiker script, Sheila's Ear; a new introduction by producer Geoffrey Perkins; and a Who's Who of all those involved in the radio series. As well as all the new material, of course there are the twelve original radio scripts-Hitchhiker as it was written and exactly as it was broadcast for the very first time. They include amendments and additions made during recordings and original notes on the writing and producing of the series by Adams and Perkins. For those who have always loved Adams, as well as for his new generation of fans, these scripts are essential reading-with the previously 'lost' script making this edition a must-have piece of Adams memorabilia. Douglas Adams created all the manifestations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He died in May 2001. Geoffrey Perkins produced The Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy on BBC Radio 4. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

5 stars and more!
I enjoyed this book from first page until last.How often does a book cause the reader to laugh out loud?It happened to me at least on every page.Not only does this book contain all of the original radio scripts and every episode (including a hilarious lost episode), but it has numerous eccentric "stage and sound directions" from the author throughout every episode. The book also contains many stories about the creations of some Hitch Hiker characters, story ideas, music, writing and recording process, direct from the author and creator of Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy.When I finished reading this book I realized how Douglas Adams took radio plays to another level and beyond.
I would rate this 5 stars...and beyond. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Must-have for all die-hard fans
Douglas Adams's Guide to The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a BBC radio production sold as an audio book on two cassette tapes. The program was first broadcast in 1998, marking the 20th anniversary of the first radio program in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

The first tape lasts 55 minutes and is narrated by Peter Jones, who narrated the original radio series. It features comments by many of the people involved, telling how the series was created and how it developed. The participants are Douglas Adams, Simon Brett (producer of the very first program), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect), Paddy Kingsland (sound effects and audio mixing), Stephen Moore (Marvin), Geoffrey Perkins (producer of the first two radio series, except for the very first program) and Nick Webb (Pan Books).

These comments are intermixed with some clips from the radio programs, in particular some of our favorite highlights such as the destruction of the earth and Marvin telling everyone how depressed he is.

It's very interesting hearing these people tell their first-hand account of how it all started, and how surprised they all were at the huge success they had created. There is also the exciting story of how the last program in the second series was so plagued by deadline problems that it almost didn't get broadcast, and the mind-boggling conditions they worked under to complete the job in time.

The second tape lasts 50 minutes and consists of Douglas Adams being interviewed by Iain Johnstone. Douglas Adams was an intelligent, knowledgeable and outspoken person with many interesting opinions, and listening to him is very rewarding, even if one is not a Hitchhiker's fan.

Many topics are touched upon, and the way in which Douglas Adams can jump from one subject to another, while showing how they are connected, is quite exciting.

Just to mention some of the topics: Cambridge University and Footlights, Monty Python, Graham Chapman, Star Wars, Tolstoy's "Resurrection", "Last Chance to See", the Nordic god Thor, is Arthur Dent really Douglas Adams, Simon Jones, light switches, Richard Dawkins, atheism, Procol Harum, Doom Watch, X-Files, Sherlock Holmes, Arthur C. Clarke, Digital Village, John Cleese's influence in selecting "42", the Hubble Constant, and his daughter Polly (born when Douglas Adams was, you guessed it, 42).

In conclusion, if you're a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan then this is a must-have. If you don't know Hitchhiker's, but you're interested in hearing a stimulating, yet humorous, discourse on the human condition, then you will probably like listening to the Douglas Adams interview.

Rennie Petersen

Entertaining insights and a sense of wonder
The history of guides to 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy' is almost as convoluted as the original story. Neil Gaiman started the ball rolling with a comprehensive book called 'Don't Panic;' a video followed, using lovingly reconstructed elements from the TV drama 'Guide' to illustrate production techniques. Next came a radio version, which found its way onto tape decades after the resilient comedy saga first reared its head.

Like the 'Don't Panic' video, BBC Radio's 'Guide to the Guide' is lovingly scripted in the style of the series. Debbie Barham's writing is as affectionate as it is amusing. However, without Peter Jones' narration the script would lose its lustre. Jones played the Guide itself, and returns to his silliest role with glee.

A scattered helping of interviews give us just enough information to admire the original production team. Pressurised by the BBC and Douglas Adams' bizarre writing schedule, it is a wonder that the programmes were ever transmitted. Here is proof that out of dread chaos can come creative comedy.

The only downfall is the lack of comment from creator Adams himself. An Interview with the author on a second tape goes some way to redress the balance.

At first, Adams is not as entertaining as his work might promise. As he rambles on about his Cambridge days, the interviewer fidgets, sniggers and at one point mumbles an incoherent question. The origins of Adams' fantastic ideas are often mundane.

Adams would be the first to admit that he's done his bit for the recycling brigade. 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide' has been rehashed in every conceivable manner, and he continues to develop the idea on the internet. The Americans would call it a franchise and applaud him for his enterprise; in this country we expect our artists to be steadfastly original. Adams has probably got the right idea.

In the second half of the interview, Adams gives us intelligent insight into the meaning of life: religion, the world behind a light switch, a child growing up. Through these insights we begin to discover why the writer's been so successful - he's managed to retain his sense of wonder.

As we begin to comprehend how Adams' mind works, he's gone. Although there seem to be a lot of facets that are left unexplored, we are left with the impression that he is gracious, human, and mostly harmless. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Read-By-Author Brilliance
Douglas Adams is without a doubt the greatest science fiction and fantasy humorist of the 20th Century.He was a brilliant author who upon his death not only left us with a brilliant body of work, but a body of work he'd read into audio form. As a BBC veteran, Douglas' reading style adds to the listening experience since you're not only listening to a brilliant oration, but an oration with all the author intended pauses and inflections.

This audiobook is one such example of Douglas Adam's read-by-author brilliance. Brilliant in conception and brilliantly read, Dirk Gently has all the style and sublty that this master honed to perfection in his Hitchhiker's series.

Considering that in addition to the radio play versions, for some reason the Hitchhiker's audiobooks are being re-released read by a different narrator, I'd snatch up this read-by-author CD version while I still can. At least that's what I did!

SPECIAL NOTE: IT'S UNABRIDGED!!! If you're like me, you did a view of the box cover and your heart sank when it said "Abridged." Fortunately, that is not the case! So you get the full unabridged glory of this Douglas Adams masterpiece. ... Read more

Book Description
Arthur Dent is out of his bathrobe, in love, and wondering why the dolphins said So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. Was the earth really demolished? Why did all the dolphins disappear? What is God's final message to His creatures? Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and the new voivoid gang are off (by commercial airline) on a wacked-out quest to answer these truly unimportant questions. This book is a sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--the "founder of the feast"--sequel books, the enormously successful BBC Radio series, a BBC television series shown in the US on HBO a stage play, a record--even a bath towel. RosettaBooks also publishes three other titles in the series--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe and Everything. Douglas Adams was a prolific writer in many media --but he began as a chicken shed cleaner, a bodyguard for an Arab royal family and a guitarist for the rock band Pink Floyd. Upon his death at age 49 in 2001, the BBC News wrote that Douglas Adams was also an internet pioneer. "He believed something powerful was created when people pooled experiences and information and the internet offered a unique opportunity to do just that. He said part of the internet's extraordinary power was the fact that it "evolved as an organic entity, a bottom-up design rather than being hierarchically controlled from above"." This is the fourth book in the series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (77)

Fish Food for Thought
I just spent a long weekend catching up on this series by reading books 2-4.I have to say I enjoyed "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" far more than I enjoyed the previous two books in the "increasingly inaccurate trilogy."The difference for me is that with this fourth novel Adams seems to take a far more focused approach to the story instead of running around like a kid in the toy aisle as he did in the second and third books.(And really I thought the end of the third novel was a huge cop-out that I could see coming from 93 million miles away.)

In the first book of the series, Earth was destroyed by the bureaucratic Vogons to make room for a hyperspace bypass, subsequently displacing Arthur Dent.Eight years later (for Arthur, not for anyone else) Arthur hitchhikes back to find Earth is back and the whole Vogon demolition chalked up to a mass hallucination caused by the CIA.The only difference is that the dolphins that disappeared before Earth's demise in the first book are still missing.When he comes back, Arthur gets a ride from a man who has a beautiful (albeit crazy) sister in the backseat whom Arthur is instantly smitten with, if only he can find her.

So what we have in this book is actually a sort of romance as Arthur tracks down the woman named Fenchurch for where she was conceived--that's one of those things that's probably funnier if you're British and have been to Fenchurch Station--and they fall in love.Then in the very rushed last couple chapters of the book they go off to visit Wonko the Sane, an expert on dolphins, and in search of God's Last Message to the Universe with the help of Ford Prefect and a giant robot who invades Earth to talk to our "lizards."

Overall, as I said in the beginning, I liked that with this book Adams focused almost exclusively on Arthur and thus we actually have a little bit of character development, which was sorely lacking in parts two and three.I only wish Adams would have taken a little more time with the ending as they get from Earth to this other place far too quickly.Maybe he could have broken it up into two books.But still it's the best in the series since the first one in my mind--others will disagree I'm sure.

On a final note, it doesn't sound like I want to read the fifth one as it sounds like Fenny is written off with little fanfare, thus rendering most of this book moot.What a shame that is.

That is all.

One of these books is not like the others...
Be forewarned: while this book is unmistakably a Hitchhiker's Guide book, it's also quite unique among the series.If you're in it only for the zany off-the-wall humor, well, you might not be disappointed because there is certainly plenty of that here, but Adams proves he can do so much more.Notably, the love story between Arthur and Fenchurch is quite moving, and as a result Arthur's character takes on whole new dimensions.

While I love Zaphod as much as the next guy, his absence here is actually a welcome reprieve, since he wouldn't fit in too well with this particular story.Unfortunately, however, it seems he's disappeared for good.

The ending is sort of, well, hmmm?, even though Marvin does make a last memorable appearance, but the rest of the book is good enough that one can't be too disappointed.

Solid entry in the series
It's been a long time since I read this, so I don't remember many specifics. What I do remember is that, while this book isn't nearly as funny as its predecessors, it is still a very good piece of work. Adams' prose is still wonderful and, at times, beautifully inspired. His storytelling prowess is intact, as he draws from, and builds on, many of the invisible clues offered in the first three books (when the series could still properly be called a trilogy). The connection between Arthur and Fenchurch is touching without being sentimental; it's actually more fun than any of us imagined, watching Arthur Dent actually get what he wants, and Adams captures perfectly that lighthearted feeling of the early stage of love.

But the negative--and of course there must be a negative for this novel to miss out on a gold star--mainly has to do with the humor. There is still a genius at work here, as many brilliant comedic flashes will attest (God's final message to humanity, Ford's encounter with a special kind of prostitute). Unfortunately, there's also a fair amount of lesser such instances scattered throughout. Arthur's relation to Fenchurch of a story about a pack of muffins, while funny in theory, comes out as flat and uninspired and a bit hard to slog through. Less specifically, there are also many instances of Adams trying to rework descriptions of commonplace items to highlight the inherent absurdity locked within (a method used to great success in previous novels), but these often come off as forced and labored. It's almost as if Adams injected them five minutes before the final draft was snatched out of his hands to try and convince readers that, although space-traveling was kept to a minimum and Arthur Dent was allowed to act rather than react, this is still a new volume in the much-loved series, see all the irrelevant anecdotes and clever truisms?

That is, fortunately, a small enough complaint that I still recommend this book wholeheartedly, though offering it with a grain of salt.

The fourth book in Adams's trilogy
That, by itself, gets you off to a cockeyed start that will help you through Adams's brilliant series. The set was a landmark of popular culture when it came out in the 1980s, and is still a riotous trip through a universe that's just a little too believable.

This book, however, just doesn't sustain the wild energy of the earlier books.

//wiredweird

A Second Time Around
The fourth book in the Hitchhiker Trilogy, "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish" is much like the first book in the series.It is a chronicle of strange travels and happenings, written with wry humor and Douglas Adams' penchant to mock everything, even the writing process.The fourth novel is much more cohesive in plot than the previous two, but the story is just as strange as ever.

In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Arthur Dent found out that his long-time friend Ford Prefect, was an alien, and that within minutes, the Earth was going to be destroyed.He saw the Earth destroyed and spent the next eight years wandering the universe, pondering what really happened."So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish" is a fresh start to the series, with the implication that the Earth wasn't actually destroyed: those yellow Vogon spaceships people saw were hallucinations created by the CIA.Therefore, Arthur Dent has returned home as if nothing had happened, and meets a girl who seems to know something about why Earth still exists, but cannot remember what it is.The fourth novel is their quest to find what she has forgotten and to discover the Creator's final message to his creation.

"So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish" is a fast-paced, humorous trek through what makes the world tick.Douglas Adams is a master at oddity and dry wit, making his novels both laugh-out-loud funny, if not a little perplexing.This fourth entry makes up for the unbalanced two previous books that rambled way off course, even if that was the point.Who knows if there even is a point to these stories after all?Certainly not the chronicler.
... Read more