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So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

List Price: $39.95
Your Price: $25.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: So Long humor - stick with the trilogy!!!
Review: The first book was terrific, the second great, the third good. Now, however, I think Adams has lost his thread. Looking back on the plot, I realize that nothing was accompished exept the introduction of Fenchurch - a desperatly normal characture. If you really want to finish the series than read the book but it is wiser just to remember the first three books. Of course, if you're a fan you're not going to take my advice and read it anyway but remember, I warned you!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Different, but very good
Review: As the fourth book in the Hitchhiker "trilogy", this is a great novel and a step up from Life, The Universe, and Everything in quality. It starts off very funny, and the first couple of chapters are some of the most hilarous in the series, but gradually the humor slips away (for the most part), and though it is present, the central bit of the plot is, believe it or not, a love story. And a very good one, too. This change from the normal pace of the series makes the book a joy to read, and you'll probably zip through it pretty quickly. Definately read the previous books in this series first, for continuity and coherence (even though it more or less stands on it's own.) The first two books in the series were comedic masterpieces, but the third book started to slow somewhat... So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish is however, an excellent book, and a return to greatness for the series.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Different, and superior to the rest
Review: This book, the fourth in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy, is, hands down, the best. You probably wouldn't think that were true from reading some of the reviews on this page. However, I was astonished and amazed by what this volume had to offer.

For starters, if you read Douglas Adams just for the zaniness and offbeatness of it all, you may be disappointed by this novel. While those elements are not absent, they are severely toned down for this installment. The amazing thing, though, is that Adams manages to mix in his humor at all with a very touching romance and somewhat serious quest of rather epic (rather than episodic) proportion.

The best part about this novel is that it virtually almost entirely features Arthur, and that's it... at least out of the main characters. Ford shows up a bit, and Marvin is in the last chapter, but Zaphod and Trillian are missing, but don't worry, it hardly matters. Adams more than makes up for it by introducing a marvelous character named Fenchurch, who becomes a love interest for Arthur. A love interest for Arthur? Yes, you heard me correctly.

This book, in my mind, establishes Adams as a serious heavyweight. The levels of humor, romance, irony, wonder, and adventure are consistently high throughout, and one never detracts from the other. Besides, we finally get to take a really good look at Arthur (who had been shortchanged in the last two books), the most human character I believe I have ever encountered anywhere, and we get to see a bit of the earth, which Adams makes us realize is rather a funny place in itself.

Do not miss out on this book. Please. Read it for Arthur. Read it for Fenchurch. Read it for the Rain God. And definitely, definitely, read it for the most wonderful love scene ever written. Besides, if you make it to the end, you'll be rewarded with God's final message to His creation, written in letters of flame thirty feet high (quite the tourist attraction). It's worlds above all the others.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What Happened?
Review: The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy was great. The Resturaunt at the End of the Universe was almost as good. Life, the Universe, and Everything was ok, but long sections of it were incoherent. In contrast, So Long and Thanks For All The Fish is just plain mediocre. For the most part it plods along, not only with too few laughs, but with few of the mind-blowingly original ideas found in the first couple of books. All around, it has less of the distinctive character of the other books in the series. It is also boring.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: At this point, it all starts to go sadly wrong...
Review: The brilliant trilogy "Hitchhiker's Guide", "Restaurant" and "Life, the Universe" constituted an act which was nearly impossible to follow. With this weak effort, Douglas Adams proves that he cannot follow it. Only occasionally mildly amusing. Its successor, "So long, and thanks for all the fish" is worse. My advice is, don't risk major disappointment, stick to the real trilogy and end with the celestial high note of "Life, the Universe, and Everything".

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting
Review: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" is the fourth book in the "Hitchhiker" series and it's a little different than the other ones. I found this to be very interesting. You might be a little disappointed with the plot of this one, but it does have some real funny parts like the others!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Keep reading till this one, definitely the best.
Review: So Long is the best in the "trilogy of four" of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, after the unexpected surprise of the first, and the two funny yet low-paced sequels. There, Adams finds out a solid thread to elaborate upon, even if a classic one and at the detriment of his zany humor (there's still the rain god, though).

Arthur gets back on earth where he falls in love with that lady who had a glimpse of the ultimate truth, of the meaning of it all, but just when the earth evaporated under a giant laser beam to make way for an hyperspace bypass. Now she forgot it, and they manage to find it back together.

The love story is touching and incredibly realistic, while of course still and always narrated in this weird, delightful, illogical---or may be too logical for literature---funny D.G.'s free wild style. But most of all, there is a real overall meaning. Whereas 42 means nothing, God's last message to His creation bears a genuine message of tolerance and encouragement to keep satisfied with life and all that comes with it. The allegory of the otter pulling the raft is deep and couldn't explain it best. The laughters of Prax about Arthur illustrates simply how ludicrous can be the metaphysical wonders. This last book is full of metaphors like these.

I'd like to point out also how close to Monty Python's Meaning of Life it seems to me, with a development of the whole story before the "secret" much the same, full of idiocies and funny details of life. That shows another connection in this regards (and if we are to believe Yoakum, even 42 stems from Pythons, somehow).

There was a point to this review, but it has temporarily escaped the reviewer's mind.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious
Review: Brilliant. Witty. Biting. Absolutely Hilarious. The Hitchhiker series is not to be missed; they are the funniest collection of books ever written. I don't think I could decide which one in the series is best, as they're all great. I'm not much for fiction, but I couldn't put these books down. Buy them all!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: So Long, And Thanks for All The Fish
Review: This book was very different, and a lot better, than the last two books in the series. I like how Arthur is depicted a bit more "normal" than before. He seemed to have been deteriorating almost to a state of mental retardation as the series progressed. This book corrects that.

While not as off-the wall as "Hitchhiker's", the humor is still outstanding. It might turn off some readers, as it is more based on Arthur himself than on the wacky space adventures but it is still very funny and entertaining. Wished there would have had more of Ford and Marvin though.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: As good as the rest
Review: Really, I do believe that this one should have finished the series. It has a good, fulfilling ending(I don't mind unhappy endings at all, but they should have a point, if nothing else to be tragic. Mostly Harmless most definitely did NOT have a point.), and despite the lack of Zaphod, which I didn't really notice, it's a fun read. Was the Guide ever intended to be more? No! It's got just as much absurdity as the rest, if a bit more sedate and sense-of-wonder-oriented, but that's all right. At least he wrote well for the style, and at least he struck out in a new direction. I don't understand the fans who hate this book. I loved it as a fitting closure(trust me, people! Ignore "Mostly Harmless," or only read it to know what it says. Don't expect much enjoyment, although you might be interested by the scathing indictment of fans.) to a highly enjoyable little set of books.


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