Reader´s Choice Review: The Hitchhiker´s Guide To The Galaxy

The Hitchhiker´s Guide To The Galaxy

By Douglas Noel Adams

Amazon Price: 8 GBP (Hardcover)

Chances are that you´ve heard of this. In fact, you´ve probably already read it, haven´t you?

This series has something of a meaning to me at the moment – the last essay I wrote in school was about Douglas Adams, and in accordance with infinite improbability, my (extremely cultural and linguisticly interested) teacher had never even heard of him.

Let´s just accept the facts from the start – whether it´s intentional or not, Douglas Noel Adams is incredibly clever and funny. I´ve never read any other series where Earth gets destroyed as many times as here.

There´s really not much to work with here, sadly. These were originally a radio series for the BBC, which Adams wrote while they were broadcasted, and as a result, you´ll get pretty much what you want from them.

When, in this first and iconic book, we´re presented to Arthur Dent, we immediately sympathize with him, and throughout the rest of the book, we can, as we grasp for our breath in laughter, only hold on to the confusion that seems to be a part of his personality. The characters are all completely ingenious - from Marvin the Paranoid Android and the Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox to Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz and Slartibartfast, nobody is misplaced (except for the protagonist Arthur Dent, whose very role is to be misplaced).

But The Hitchhiker´s Guide To The Galaxy is, like all really good humour, not entirely comedic. There are thoughts behind this, and the fact that everything Adams writes is endlessly funny doesn´t make it necessarily written for the sake of the humour – if you look for it, clever things are planted everywhere on the pages of this book.

THE CONCLUSION:

Are you the target audience for The Hitchhiker´s Guide To The Galaxy?

The book is technically Science Fiction, but don´t let that fool you. This is more about Life and Everything than it is about The Universe, so regardless of who you are, I think it´ll be a really nice experience to read this book.

Also, it will make you finally realize why people seem to think the number '42' is funny.

What are, respectively, the best and worst parts of The Hitchhiker´s Guide To The Galaxy?

The best part is how we can practically feel Adams´ ideas and plans gurgling inside our heads, expecting him to do this-and-that, never realizing how he could save the situation he´s been setting up – and then the element of surprise is well placed in the story by either rescuing our heroes in a way unimaginable to everyone else than Douglas Adams, or simply by not rescuing them anyway.

The worst part is hard to find. Logically, it must be in there somewhere, but the idea that I´ll ever find it is... infinitely improbable, I reckon.

For me specifically, was The Hitchhiker´s Guide To The Galaxy worth buying?

It surprises me that a classic like this doesn´t appear at the American Amazon (this is why I haven´t listed any US price for it). There is, however, plenty of Omnibus/boxset/audiobook/whaddayaknow versions of it, and if I were to buy this book, I´d make sure to get the whole series, anyway, so you can as well get a box with all of them at once. And that, I dare say, is worth a lot.