Rating: 
Summary: Arthur Dent, just Arthur Dent
Review: Finally, Arthur Dent gets laid! We've all waited a long time for this!
It's nice to see Arthur's character fleshed out a bit more without
his constantly being insulted by Zaphod or passing aliens. Ridiculously
funny!
Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the laughs
Review: This little book is funny. Adams has a satiric style that helps the reader to see how silly some of our conventions and traditions are, or seem to be when set against the backdrop of the entire galaxy.
Adams's style of writing seems to take a "follow your nose" approach. One word or phrase leads him to jump to a different thought, and the effect is that of meandering through a constantly changing environment. The reader's imagination is stimulated by all the images, such as Arthur and Fenchurch gravitating over her home, and watching a bicycle thief attempting, and failing, to steal her bike (he vandalizes it instead).
Arthur and Fenchurch travel to Southern California to attempt to answer the question bothering Fenchurch, "Where did all the dolphins go?" This trip to Southern California may evoke smiles and outright laughter in readers from Southern California (including this reviewer). They catch up there with Wonka the Sane, who had communicated extensively with the dolphins before they disappeared, and was given their final pronunciation, which is the title of the book.
Adams provides the reader with much-needed and much-appreciated comic relief, and because he satirizes the science fiction genre, he has his own special niche, upon which other humor writers (I like Dave Barry) have not yet encroached. Another thing about Adams is his use of what Americans might call Anglicisms, which may seem quaint and different to American readers (me). Much of his local scenery is England. Fenchurch got her name because she was born in Fenchurch train station. If you are a sucker for British writers, like me, you will get a double kick out of Douglas Adams. Diximus.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Novel
Review: People always astound me because I so rarely agree with them. At least, I disagree with a majority on so many important issues, such as just how good a novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is. In my humble opinion, this is the best novel of the series. I love the rest of the novels in the trilogy (though I haven't read Mostly Harmless yet-most people hate it, so I'm sure I'll love it), but then there comes this fourth one. It has the humor of the earlier novels (and for me surpasses them), has superior narrative features, and has a surprisingly profound underlying philosophy.
In this one, Arthur Dent ends up back on Earth which had been destroyed in the first novel. Fate throws his life into contact with Fenchurch, a woman who senses that something on earth is wrong. She's something of a mystic and something of an angel. What follows is a surprisingly affecting love story and the two lovers' search for the meaning of life.
It's funny, it's romantic, and it's profound. Don't ever think of The Hitchhikers series as simply escapist literature but do enjoy it. This is a great series, and contrary to what a lot of other people say (many of them smarter than me), this is definitely the best novel in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: The series curveball..
Review: "So long.." is the fourth in the classic series, and it seeks to twist you up and down. It blatently contradicts what was learned in the first three, so we can be introduced to new, odd characters. Arthur's romance with Fenchurch is good, but we do wonder what the point is. Wonko's philosophy is interesting, but that's the only real laugh in it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Escape to...Our Own Planet!
Review: Oh, Douglas Adams! What humor! It's been a really really long time since I read him, and I honestly don't remember which books in the Hitch-Hiker trilogy I've read. However, I recently picked up "So Long, and Thanks..." without much trouble. I knew I was missing some references and character development, but it seemed like I could gather enough threads in this random plot to get a gist of his story.The basic idea of "So Long, and Thanks..." is that Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent both suddenly realize that earth still appears to exist - even though last they knew it was to be demolished for a hyper-space bypass. Neither understands, but both hitch-hike their way back there (er, here) to check it out. While Prefect gets hung up along the way nabbing free meals, fighting aliens, and setting up inane pranks, Dent makes it back to England fairly quickly. As he walks towards his home, which he hasn't been to in roughly 8 years and a bizillion miles, he hears the phone ringing and so rushes into his house to get it. Just as he picks up the receiver, it stops ringing. And so begins his adventures back on his own planet. From there, you roughly stay with Dent as he settles back in on eart, falls in love, and reconciles the past 30 years of his life. He meets Wonko the Sane, who really does seem quite sane, and learns what happened to all the dolphins. He finishes this installment with a journey to see God's final message to his creation. It probably took guts for Adams to come up with something that's supposed to be God's final message, but he pulls it off quite well. Overall, I would say that Adam's story-telling nature seems to be so erratic, so creative, so outside the normal bounds that you get transported to another dimension in reading his work. Even though most of this story takes place on earth, you begin to see physics, dolphins and junk mail in a whole new light. You feel witty just catching on to his allusions and subtle writing quirks. For instance,
"["The Hitch Hiker's Guide"] is, essentially, as the title implies, a guide book. The problem is, or rather one of the problems, for there are many, a sizeable proportion of which are continually clogging up the civil, commercial and criminal courts in all areas of the Galaxy, and especially, where possibly, the more corrupt ones, this.
The previous sentence makes sense. That is not the problem. The problem is: Change. Read it through again and you will get it. The Galaxy is a rapidly changing place..." If you are looking for a good laugh and/or a good escape that essentially deals with the questions of your own world, this book would be a good fit.
Rating:
Summary: just as good as the original trilogy
Review: This is the fourth volume in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy and it is just as good as the first three books of this increasingly inaccurately named trilogy. Douglas Adams brings Arthur Dent back to Earth after a long trip hitchhiking across the universe. Yes, Arthur Dent is back on the same Earth that was destroyed by the Vogons to make an intergalactic highway. Exactly how the Earth and all of its original inhabitants are recreated is teased and hinted at and if you pay attention to what you're reading you'll easily figure out why (more why, than how). Arthur Dent is back on Earth and pretty confused as to exactly how there is an Earth to be back on. Throughout this novel we learn that all the dolphins are gone (which is old news and no longer newsworthy), and we meet a Rain God, find out what God's Final Message to Creation is, revisit Marvin the robot, and find out that Arthur finds love with a woman named Fenchurch. That's a whole lot to fit into one book. On top of that, we have levitation, a small house that walled in the entire ocean, Ford Prefect, and the world's stupidest dog. All of this is handled with the offbeat humor that we expect from The Hitchhiker's Trilogy. This novel, for a change, focuses on Arthur Dent and takes place almost entirely on Earth. In this way, it is different from the Universe hopping we got in the first three novels. In both quality and content, this is a worthy addition to Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: Best Adams novel of all!
Review: This is by far the best of all of Douglas Adams's novels - including the entire Hitchhiker's series and both Dirk Gently books. It contains all-new material, not just scenes from the radio series rearranged and slightly altered. Adams splits off Arthur Dent from the rest of his friends and throws him into the strangest situation of all: his galactic hitchhiking has led him back to Earth, an Earth which had long ago been destroyed by the Vogons, but is, for some reason, still there. Adams is at his best here, creating wonderful imagery and great new characters. He perfectly captures the sensations of falling in love. The comedy is gentle, and the science-fiction elements nearly take a back seat to the love story - but come back in a big way when a long-estranged friend shows up. In M.J. Simpson's Douglas Adams biography "Hitchhiker", he maintains that many DNA fans (including Simpson) regard this as his worst book - an opinion Adams seemed to share (but Simpson points out that Adams had this opinion of most of his books at one point or another.) As a fan from the very first NPR radio broadcasts, I respectfully - and strongly - disagree. This is Adams at his gentlest, and his most poetic, and his best - in fiction, anyway. The nonfiction "Last Chance To See", itself a love story of sorts, is the only long-form Adams that I would rate higher.
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