The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels in One Outrageous Volume

It had last been a couple decades ago when I had last read the various Hitchhiker's books (except the most recent one, and even that had been ten or more years back). With my original copies scattered here and there, I picked up the omnibus edition and reread these tales with eagerness and a older (and perhaps wiser) perspective. Overall, although they read differently after such a long time, they do make a pleasant read. The original novel by Douglas Adams - based on a radio show he also wrote (the twisted history of the first book is related in an introduction) - is the sharpest in the set. For the uninitiated, the tale follows Arthur Dent, last human survivor of Earth after the planet is cleared away for a hyperspatial bypass. Along with his alien friend Ford Prefect, they go off on a series of adventures which will eventually reveal the true purpose of the planet Earth. Completing a quintet of heroes is Zaphod Beeblebrox, the President of the Galaxy, and Trillian (Trisha MacMillan), another human who left Earth a while before it was destroyed, and Marvin, the most depressed robot ever. In this book, Adams sets the tone for this the whole series with a parody of the conventions of science fiction and a grand sense of the absurd. In a universe where time travel and the improbable happen as a matter of course, contradictions, paradoxes and continuity problems are plentiful and acceptable. The second novel - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - directly follows up on the first book and is of equally high quality. An almost imperceptible slide begins with book three, Life, the Universe and Everything, which deals with an ancient race of aliens who are threatening to make a comeback and destroy all other life. Arthur and Ford are recruited by planetary engineer Slartibartfast to try and save all reality. We begin to see other of the characters pushed aside although they still do play some roles. We also learn it is possible for a man to fly. In So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, Arthur returns to an Earth that apparently believes its destruction was just a mass hallucination. Although Ford is still around in a parallel story, the other recurring characters are almost non-existent. This is the most upbeat of all the stories, with things finally going somewhat right for the usually hapless Arthur. Unfortunately, some of the true wackiness is beginning to fade away. With no Zaphod acting recklessly and with Ford acting semi-responsibly, this novel is not quite as much fun. And sadly, Mostly Harmless, the final novel is even less fun, again absurd but not really very funny. And the bonus short story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" is completely forgettable. The first three books remain five star material, the fourth gets four stars and the fifth gets three (the short story gets two). As a collection, however, this is a five star bunch, with the first two books being excellent enough to offset any weaknesses in the others. For any fan of science fiction, this is a must-read and continues to be the best parody of the genre.

Why is this CD special? There is almost nothing on here, apart from a couple of introductory comments that Doug makes, that I don't already know very well...practically by heart. I think it is that I am still stung from Doug's death in 2001, shortly after we had exchanged emails about his splendid non-fiction book, "Last Chance to See." No author has made me laugh more, and so reliably written things I find moving, with some of his essays and speeches. And there was one detail of Doug's death that I found especially haunting: It's a running gag in the Hitchhiker's Guide books always to have a towel at hand for use in various emergencies, and Doug died at a gym clutching a towel. My sentimental, even maudlin, introduction is only to set up the following: Listening to Dough Adams read his stories to an appreciative audience is an unalloyed treat. His goofy enthusiasm and commitment to the material, paired with material that can withstand that sort of goofy enthusiasm, is joyful. Pure and simple. This is not a particularly great recording, though it is thoroughly competent. There's nothing much special about the readings, either, and in fact Doug stumbles and stammers through a line here or there. But the appreciation of the crowd comes through loud and clear, and Doug seems to be having a blast, and the experience conjures up a living experience that will have to stand in, as the man at the height of his creative powers is now silent. Lest this sound like too much of a hagiography, some of the material falls rather flat. Some is merely silly and not at all clever, to the point of inducing groans. Doug's later stuff does not seem quite so desperate to jam an absurdity or non sequitur into every single line, and is improved by the matured restraint. But for sheer silly pleasure, even the juvenile stuff hits the mark more often than it probably should. Silliness--wise silliness--is a gift too much taken for granted, and this CD resurrects the voice of one of its finest practitioners.

Although it's true this series (and thus, the book) gets weaker as it goes on, it's still a very solid series, even all these decades after I first discovered the series, back when the first book was the only one available. The first two, of course, were instant classics the moment they were published. They're pretty much a must-read for the cultural literacy of any geek, even if -- somehow -- the books didn't appeal on their own. My personal favorite remains the third, Life, the Universe and Everything. Adams was still enthusiastic about the series at that point, and since he was writing the book as a book, rather than adapting it from radio (although it borrows more than a few elements from Shada, an unpublished Doctor Who script of his), it has more structure than the earlier two books and more forward momentum. The fourth and fifth books get a lot of hate nowadays, and while So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish is very parochial, concerning itself with Earth and a rather wishy washy parody of California and Los Angeles, Fenchurch is a charming and relevant addition to the series. Young Zaphod Plays It Safe doesn't really work this far removed from the Ronald Reagan era, and even at the time, was odd and very slight. And the we come to Mostly Harmless. Adams was burned out, and Arthur Dent is too. Despite that, most of the hate for the book seems to revolve around the last two pages, which seemingly slam the door shut on the series, as though the cast hadn't escaped seemingly certain death time and time again. (In fact, at the time of his untimely death, Adams was working on a new Hitchhikers book, converting the unsuccessful start of a third Dirk Gently book.) Up until that point, though, Mostly Harmless is vintage H2G2, with the addition of Random, multiple Tricias McMillan, the Perfectly Normal Beasts and a very prescient riff on the corporatization of the mass media. (As someone who's worked in the media all his theoretically adult life, it's amazing how right Adams got things still more than a decade away in the future.) This omnibus edition is pretty much a no-brainier for any science fiction fan and it'd be worth picking up for any of Terry Pratchett's many fans as well. Adams isn't quite the writer Pratchett is -- and certainly he was much, much slower -- but the two come from a similar place of warmth and deep bemusement in the human (especially British human) condition. If you've read this far, you can safely assume this is a must-read.

Being a young Doctor Who fan, it is perhaps no surprise that I also gravitated towards other BBC Related science fiction. After all, Douglas Adams had even worked on the show as a script editor and he wrote the mysterious never-aired Shada episode. It has been a long time now though and I couldn’t tell you if I was first introduced to the BBC TV series for Hitchhikers or the books. I suspect it was the books because my parents already owned them before I was interested myself. Recently, when deciding which book to read next I took a long look at the Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide. I knew for a fact that I hadn’t read the included short story ‘Young Zaphod plays it safe’ but I couldn’t tell you where I had stopped reading the novels. I dove in anyway. ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ was all familiar territory. I knew the story well from both the BBC TV show as well as the more recent movie. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe got instantly more fuzzy. The second half of that book was included in the BBC TV Show but the first half was all new to me. I remembered reading it sure but couldn’t have told you anything about it. It involved a conspiracy that even as an adult I found a little convoluted but the end was quite satisfying. The Life, the Universe, and Everything included some interesting commentary on war, a piece of technology that saw some extensive use in some of the earlier episodes of the new Doctor Who, and a whole lot of references to the game of Cricket. I know very little about Cricket except that it is supposed to be similar to baseball but longer and more boring. The series could have ended very comfortably here. For those in search of a happy ending, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is the way to go. It is by far the sexiest of the books and included some meta-commentary on Arthur Dent’s love life as to what could have happened in the previous three books. Despite the lurid nature of some of the scenes, they are all written up in typical Douglas Adam’s fashion. Part of that means that as a teenager I had very little understanding of the specifics of what was going on… or my teenage self put aside those memories so that my older self wouldn’t know what my younger self had been getting up to. And even my older self had to pay extra close attention. Mostly Harmless is the last of the series and the most bleak. It goes from the up beat ending of the previous book and then just scraps all of that. If you’re looking for things to turn around then you’re going to be disappointed. I would compare this to the TV Show ‘How I met your Mother’. There were parts of that show that really annoyed me because I ‘knew’ where the show was going and they were wasting my time. But then the ending fit with the parts that had been annoying me. I can see how this would piss people off but in the end, I didn’t find it drastically out of place. Similarly, I’m ok with the sad end of the Hitchhiker’s series. It wasn’t great, but it fit.

On the kindle menu, whether or not being on the computer or the device itself, whenever I've it downloaded the book, it doesn't show the name "Douglas Adams". It simply doesn't show it, as if there is something about the code, a glitch maybe. I have a theory that the ones on the computer and kindle weren't able to display "Adams, Douglas", so they gone with the next best thing, not showing it at all. On my phone is showed it as "Adams, Douglas" leading to my theory. Anything else is great to good writing, the first two books felt like a space Monty Python movie, the other three vibe more or less like "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It as if the mental voice of Adams gotten a sore throat leading to the last three novels to a sound bit different. Is something I will recommend. Really it's a good book, yes, some might not get it, some do, its absurdist humor in a non-video format. The thing with books you have to generate the visuals yourself from the words in it, unlike other mediums, I.e. video games, video, comic books, etc. Yet it, originally being a radio series, adapted into a series of five books, tv series, a movie, and one of those text adventure games in the 1980s, surely its a accessible fandom to get into. Even though it many go down in quality by the third book, there's one helpful piece of advice, Don't Panic. TLDR; Good books, bad metadata: authors name not show in menu.

Purchased this as a gift for my nephew. He really enjoyed the series and wanted a copy of the omnibus. This arrived in great shape, he was really happy.

This is one of the funniest stories I've ever read. It's so good, my favorite book of all time!

I read this using the kindle app on my smartphone which was ironic, as my phone is like The Guide, an electronic book. The fact that the author could see this far ahead into the future was amazing. Read this book, not only is it excellent, but you will finally understand what others are talking about. It's uniquely written and is referenced all the time by society and people online. I've seen "the meaning of life is 42" and "Don't Panic!" throughout my life and had no idea what people were talking about... but now I do! The author has a unique writing method and I have found myself thinking back to it often. It is not just the main plot that is memorable, its the small things that are throw in that I really liked. When it rains, I think of the rain god who didn't know he was a rain god and the 100+ types of rain he had identified. When my computer freezes, I think of the computer on board the ship that has an unknown hole in it and how it talks to other computers.... it's worth the time to read and is easily understood. The last book seems to have taken on a darker tone and gets a little confusing, with a few more swear words thrown in, but the ending was phenomenal. I had to reread the last chapter to make sure I clearly understood what had just happened. It's the most surprising ending I have ever read and unlike other authors, the ending, just ENDS... just like that, its over, and you are left to wonder exactly what just happened. Many other authors could have gone to great lengths writing a detailed ending, but I preferred the ending in the book... its been weeks since I finished this book and I still smile when I think back to Ford Perfect laughing manically while looking at the matchbook. Read it, you won't be sorry.

Great value for the whole series on Kindle! 42/42

Amerikalı bir yayın evi bastığı için birçok mizahi ve genel konuşma sansürlenmiş deniyor. Kitabı orijinal baskısıyla almak istiyorsanız İngiliz yayınevi baskısını alın. İnternetten okuduğum kadarıyla konuşuyorum. Çünkü 1,5ay sürecinde satıcı kitabı elime ulaştıramadı. Para iademi aldım. İnternette okuduklarımdan sonra kitabın ulaşmamasına ayrı sevindim. Kitabı ayrı ErgodeBooks adlı satıcıyı ayrı tavsiye etmiyorum.

Un'ottima occasione per avere tutta la storica saga di Adams in un sol colpo (fatta eccezione per la sesta e ultima parte scritta da Colfer e non presente in questa edizione). Ho letto la serie dapprima in italiano e devo dire che, per quanto la trasposizione si fedele e intelligente, qualche piccola sfumatura la si perde nella traduzione, com'è normale che sia. Quindi consigliatissima questa versione in lingua originale. Fantascienza, non-sense e paradossi, insieme ad uno humour davvero unico. Come ho fatto a vivere senza fino ad oggi?

This is one of the best books ever written. It is science-fiction, funny (typically British humor), inspiring and engaging. It contains lots of philosophical musings, as well as thoughts about politics, psychology, and you name it - but is always light hearted. Meanwhile, in my humble opinion, the author catches important truths in these funny and easy-to-read stories. You will learn who made the earth and why, how the most firendly and innocent people may turn out to be the most dangerous, who really rules the universe, and much more. Don't miss the description of the economy of the first people on earth.

Não sei se foi porque eu comprei barato haha mas fiquei muito satisfeita com a qualidade do livro. As páginas são grossas, a diagramação é agradável e a capa tem o estilo do original. Veio levemente amassado em um canto, mas isso é infelizmente comum com as entregas da Amazon. As páginas vieram incólumes e o resto do livro está perfeito. Eu geralmente prefiro livros menores e de capa mole para leitura, pois eles facilitam o processo físico em si. Mas essa edição é maleável e confortável em todos os sentidos. Tanto para fãs ou pessoas que querem ler pela primeira vez. Quanto ao livro em si, nem preciso dizer muito. Talvez nenhuma edição possa fazer jus a Douglas Adams, mas esse livro é perfeitamente aceitável. Recomendo pela praticidade e pelo leve luxo que ela providencia.