The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Buch)

This is a brilliantly conceived idea which works-works-works and transcends any amount of the sci-fi spoof. I thought the TV program was not funny, perhaps it was just ahead of its time and I just was not ready for it (bowing to superior beings). There is no doubting the book is very funny though and it easy to recognise the reason for its cult status. The actual destruction of the Earth in the blinking of an eye opens up more horizons for Arthur Dent. It is life Arthur but not as we know it. Each chapter seemingly ends on a precipice as the saga oscillates wildly. The mini peaks and troughs are punctuated by three quantum leaps: the Babel fish which is strategically placed in the ear, the outstanding improbability of the improbability drive and the little bang. Only here is there a reference to the little bang (not Duggie babe), this is the perfect answer to everything, life, the universe - EVERYTHING!! Deep Thought.

I can't understand anybody who doesn't get the joke in this. This just has to be one of the funniest books ever written in the English language. It appeals to all ages, all classes, all sexes! Right across the spectrum. If you don't see the funny side of this then I don't see how you can see the funny side of anything. This is satire - yes satire - at its very, very best. If Jonathan Swift had been transported to the late twentieth century he might have come up with something similar. It has one of the greatest comic character creations in 20th century literature in the hapless Arthur Dent and his inability to cope with the universe and all its inanities (for this read life). Marvin the paranoid android is a masterstroke, the most miserable creature ever created..."brain the size of a planet and what do they ask me to do?" The best part though is the interventions of the Guide itself. Seemingly fatuous but completely mad pieces of information are given out at various points which gradually weave their way back into the story in unexpected places. It also has the best cop out for the problem of being able to understand foreign languages in the Babel Fish. A hilariously daft literary device which is also used to disprove the existence of God. This is a superb book and anyone who hasn't read it should give it a go.

I really do feel like I could be stepping on something sacred here, I mean this book is revered by so many and clearly any review that doesn't rate is 5 stars appears to be voted down but I won't let any of that sway me!

The premise of the book is rather simple and frankly very well known; Arthur Dent is rescued from a soon to be destroyed Planet Earth and along with his friend Ford Prefect grabs a lift on an alien space ship and adventures occur from there... Possible an oversimplification but I am sure you get the gist.

Now although I am skating over the plot I will concede that the characterisations in the book are great fun, from the inimitable manically depressed robot Marvin to the vastly underused Trillian to the wonderfully caricatured Zaphod - they really are so much fun. What I failed to enjoy about the book was not this element however, it was the fact I found the story completely irrelevant (and not in an overly funny way) and I found the ending to be a complete let down. HOWEVER I did read a review below and it mentions that a weakness of the book is that you should read it in tandem with The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe and I will certainly be taking up that bit of advice and it may reshape my view of the book but this review is not about a combination of two stories, it is about this one and frankly I wasn't that impressed.

I suspect my lack of enjoyment of the book is exactly why so many others flock to it, the "in jokes" or the iconic phrases that it has spawned seem to create something that people can believe in but for people like me we are left on the outside - somewhere I am firmly happy to be.

To summarise my IT department used a formula to check a system was working, if the cells read 42 then all was working - as most will know 42 is deemed to ultimate answer as defined by this book. If you find this amusing then you will love this book, if like me you find that fact that a leading online translation website is called Babel fish (again a reference in the book) to have no relevance then you may not. Either way the overriding fact is that this book is a popular now as it has ever been and my lack of enjoyment will not change that fact, and neither would I want it to.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is almost unique in that the story has been told so many times through so many different media – radio, records, novels, comic strip, plays, television, Hollywood motion picture (finally) – that it can be difficult to settle on the definitive version. While purists may point to the radio series however (well – it did come first), to my mind the novels are the definitive version of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, as not only did Douglas Adams have the space to fill in additional material and details that just wouldn’t work in the audio or visual medium, but there are no intervening layers of actors, producers and special effects between the storyteller and the reader.

Having now experienced this story many times inevitably the jokes tend to wear thin, but The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy still stands up after a quarter of a century due to the brilliant concepts that drive the book – the council bulldozing houses to build bypasses being taken to ridiculous intergalactic extremes with the destruction of Earth; the infinite improbability drive and the wonderful story of it’s creation; a robot so advanced that he suffers from permanent depression; and of course the Earth and humanity’s place in the quest for the question of life, the universe and everything.

The only slight misgiving I have about this first volume in the series is that, unlike the latter novels, it really demands to be read alongside The Restaurant At The End of the Universe, as both feel like halves of one longer story – though with a novel this good you really wont mind having to read the sequel to find out how it all ends.

It starts of weird, earth is destroyed etc. I have to admit it was funny, but i prefer books that have a plot! The book jumped around so much that i'm sure i've missed bits, the characters kept disappearing all the time, and then turned up again somewhere random. Having heard how good it was i was really excited, but was slightly let down now having read it. Some bits were excellent, but it was such a confused tangle of ideas!