Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams

Genre: Sci-Fi/Humor
Year Published: 1979
Pages: 215
Rating: 5

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."

Douglas Adams was brilliant, and his books are hilarious. Impossibilities abound. Plot twists are ridiculous. Characters are stereotypic. Yet it works, beautifully. This is the first book in his five-book-trilogy (an impossibility in itself--who else could pull it off?) and it's a great read. Arthur Dent, of England, is forced to defend his house from being demolished for a highway bypass, but this becomes less important when he finds out his close friend, Ford Prefect, is actually an alien journalist, and that the planet earth is about to be demolished to make room for a hyperspace bypass. Luckily, Ford is a writer for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the pair escape on a Vogon warship. The rest of the book is a series of bizarre coincidences that explain what the Earth was really for and who was really in charge, AND provides the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Then they all nip off for a bite to eat and...well, that's in the next book in the trilogy.

Book a week #: 23
Date Read: 4/11/09
Challenge/s: Read it Again, Series

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you gave this 5. You know it's a triogy in 5 parts don't you? Random I know...

Lisalit said...

My favorite five-part trilogy ever! Only Douglas Adams...rest his soul...