Rating: 
Summary: Just as good as the first one
Review: Douglas Adams does it again! Continuing right on from the first novel, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe is still pure comic genius. Ever wonder what the Big Crunch will be like? Or what a cow thinks about being eaten? All these questions and more are answered in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. And let's not forget poor old Marvin. Marvin is older that the universe itself by the end of the novel! This novel has a lot of comic twists and turns, and will leave your sides hurting by the end. A must read for anyone interested in Adams, sci-fi, or British humor
Rating:
Summary: Hey you, you monkey.
Review: Okay Monkey Man, descended from the telephone
sanitizers of another world millions of years
ago. Prepare to bathe whilst reading this
magnificent sci-fi, tremoring at Marvin's
seemingly un-caring personality, and
the extreme idiocy of Kill-O-Zap handling
hair dressers. Douglas Adams is one of the
few great satirical writers I've read since
Vonnegut. I extremely reccomend going out
and buying each of these books, and read
them over and over and over and........
Perhaps you too will understand what exactly
the computer of Earth is calculating...
Most likely you wont, but don't worry, there's
plenty to be satisfied with from this and all
four others.
Rating: 
Summary: What is the Ultimate Question of the Universe?
Review: By the time you read this book, you should already know
what is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of the Universe,
but... what's the question?!? That's the dilemma, sort of.
This is one of the very best books on Humorous SciFi ever
written. You'll find yourself wishing for more... but wait,
there's more!
Rating:
Summary: Answers to any questions you were ever afraid to ask
Review: After you have read the book you will have no unanswered questions whatsoever. Even if you still had some after "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", now you have a Script
that unveils all the greatest mysteries of the Life, the
Universe and the like. You will learn where Darwin was
wrong, who exactly the God Person is, and what is the right
way to use English verb forms when travelling through time
(and space, actually, but that is not THAT interesting).
You will be also taken to the End of the Universe and
have a chance to talk to a Meal of the Day and find out
what exactly it thinks of predators, and what its vegetable
friend thinks of vegetarians. In short, having read the book
you will have no illusions... none at all.
Rating:
Summary: It was one of the best!
Review: I enjoy all of Douglas Adams works! He is my favorite author and he makes me laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Adams does it again.
Review: The late Douglas Adams had a keen eye for insight and an unrivaled wit, as can be seen by his ironic, satirical series "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second in the above named series and is similar to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the style of humor and writing, but dont worry, it is far from repetitive. REU continues the tales of earthman Arthur Dent (the standard satirical Brit), Betelgusian Ford Prefect (who is an immeadiatly annoying person), crazy ex-president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (who can be considered insane, criminal and annoyingly annoying), Trillian (the voice of reason) and the disgustingly depressed Marvin, the robot.
The second installment picks up right where the first left off, the company were heading to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (which is indeed, at the very end of the universe, only minutes before its destruction).
Douglas Adams has the ability to briefly mention something in a book, and then, a book or two later, make a connection. That's why when reading a Douglas Adams book it is important to keep an eye out for details (like what a sperm whale thinks as it plummets through the sky to the ground) or you will miss much of Adams' trademark humor. But dont panic, such things will stand out in memory more then the blatantly funny moments. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not for everyone. But if you like humor, droll wit and satires, or if you like science fiction (but not the serious kind), then this series is just for you.
Rest in peace, Douglas Adams.
Rating:
Summary: As great as everything else Douglas has written. But still..
Review: This is a review of the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
(AUDIO CD rendition). The Book is fantastic! Totally hilarious. A welcome sequel to
any first-time reader of HGTG. The CD set consists of five (5)
CDs, and the story is read by Douglas Adams (the author) himself.
For anyone not familiar with the voice of DA, his reading,
inflections, and ease in switching voices during dialog passages
adds greatly to the presentation. The CD does have some
'electronically-modified' voices (Marvin & the ship's computer,
for instance), but they're all Douglas Adams, and he makes
it quite difficult not to laugh out loud while listening.
It's also pretty hard not to consume the whole book at one
sitting. My two complaints on this media presentation are that it is
simply a straight transfer to CD of Douglas Adams'
CASSETTE-TAPE recordings. They didnt even remove all of the
'End of Side' notations from the original. Imagine that
you're listening to the story, and in the *middle* of a
disc, you hear Douglas say "End of side TWO". Then the story
continues. I also have to mention my biggest
beef with this presentation (as with ALL of the CD renditions)
which is that each disc is comprised of only ONE track!
You cannot jump forward or backward by chapters. If you
cannot listen to an entire disc at one sitting (about an hour),
then you cannot resume midway if you happen to stop the disc.
In this regard, the cassette-tapes excel over the CD renditions. Considering that Douglas was pretty-much a techno-hound, I think
he'd be pretty disgusted that his works were being stamped-out
in such a shoddy fashion. All-in-all, the book is as good as, if not better than,
the HITCHHIKERS GUIDE. Adams fanatics will love it. It's a
book that demonstrates that DA was an accomplished wordsmith,
and that he spent considerable time and effort to add hundreds
of subtle cross-references between passages that cannot be
caught at first reading (listening). In this regard, you'll
find something new each time you consume this book.
Rating:
Summary: How do you follow up a work of genius.....?
Review: .... With more of the same.
While not so good as a stand alone (you'll be lost in time & space without the background of Book 1), this second in the umpteen-part, increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy tries even harder than the first to laser your funny bone.
Seems that the thing we call (ultimately to be used-to-call) Earth is really just a mighty big supercomputer, built to work out the ultimate question to the ultimate answer, 42. Like all expensive software however, just before it actually does whatever it's supposed to do, it crashes - in this case due to the hacker Vogons and their total annihilation programme. Unlike your regular hard drive, two bits escape to byte another day, and we continue their story.
In one of the many funny lines from the book, Zaphod Beeblebrox remarks, "I am so hip I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis". This book is just as hip.
Our heroes are aboard their Improbability Driven spaceship, when Arthur Dent happens to tie up all the computer circuits just when the Vogons are launching an attack. Zaphod decides its time to see dead people, and with a strange twist, he and miserable Marvin, the depressed computer, disappear, while Arthur takes a tea break.
Zaphod materializes elsewhere and immediately starts looking for the man who rules the Universe, while Marvin continues to depress and be depressed. In my humble opinion, Marvin is the star of this book, but I digress.
After having his sense of perspective sorely tested, Zaphod improbably conjures a happy reunion, although this leaves him sadly out of pocket. Deciding that they should find the nearest place to eat, their ship's computer zaps them to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
From this half-way point, the book takes off on a fresh tangent of humor, floor shows, loud rock bands, talking meat, and wicked vehicles - that is, until the universe ends.
Then the humor starts all over again.
A very worthy follow up to the famous first.
Amanda Richards, March 7, 2005
Rating:
Summary: Better than the first one.
Review: Ok So like me you read the Hitchikers guide to the galaxy so you wont be lost when the movie hit's. Now your wondering whether its worth your time too read the second one too. Let me just say although i enjoyed the first book immensely this one was written far better. You can by no means read this first but the Idea's in this one are far more reaching. The character's Zaphod,and Marvin get their memorable moments. Sadly as with the first book Arthur Dent the seemingly main character of the series still deoesnt get fleshed out much.Also many loose ends dont get tied up But with the amount of good stuff in here,these are minor complaint's at best. This story read directly after the first would feel like one full book with an ending that seem's like at the time Adam's thought might be the end of the series. Be we all know better now dont we?
Rating:
Summary: Another AWESOME book !
Review: Arthur Dent is having a very bad day. The Earth has been blown up, he has been thrown from the airlock of an alien spaceship, and to top it all off he can't for the life of him get a decent cup of tea. Not to worry. A meal at Milliway's, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe should take his mind off all that. Restaurant, the second installment in acclaimed English author Douglas Adams' hilarious satirical romp through the stars, is the sequel to his immensely popular novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" follows the further adventures of Arthur, his savior and good friend Ford Prefect (originally from Betelgeuse, a fact until recently unknown to Arthur), the two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Marvin the manically depressed robot.
As our story continues, our heroes are still in search of the question to the ultimate answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Long ago, a great and ancient race built a supercomputer of astronomical proportions called Deep Thought. Its purpose: to find the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. After millions of years of calculations, Deep Thought arrived at an answer that was entirely unlike anything its creators had anticipated. The problem, the computer explained, is that nobody had ever quite figured out what that question is.
And thus a new, organic computer was constructed to find that question. It's name: The Earth. In Restaurant we'll finally find out what that question is as Arthur and crew search for it. Along the way we'll feast with them at Milliway's, a restaurant constructed in a time envelope at the very twilight of the universe, where one can meet persons from all points in time and where talking cows suggest the best parts of their anatomy for your dining pleasure.
We'll also follow our protagonists back to the emergence of mankind on planet Earth, and learn some rather shocking facts about our origins. All the while, Adams' unique sense of humor will keep you constantly laughing out loud with lines like the following:
In the beginning, the universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and generally been regarded as a bad move.
With an opening like that, you know the book is going to be fun to read, and it is. In many respects Restaurant is even funnier than its predecessor, especially the scenes with Marvin, a robot with a "brain the size of a planet" as he puts it who despises the universe and everything in it.
Adams successfully satirizes the entire science fiction genre, in a way that can be appreciated by fans and non-fans alike. Indeed, his work is as much a parody of life itself as it is space battles and aliens. In many cases, he has just taken our daily experiences and lampooned them on a galactic scale. Its this that gives his works such broad appeal.
"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" is only a few hundred pages long, and it's a quick read. In fact, you won't be able to put it down, and can easily polish it off in a night or two. Reading "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" is strongly recommended as a prerequisite. If you enjoy this I'd highly recommend "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez, a somewhat unrelated (not sci-fi) but very amusing and FUN book. Short, quick, and funny -- that's how I like them. What's the point of reading a book that doesn't make you laugh, right?
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