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The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

List Price: $18.95
Your Price: $12.89
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: amusing galaxy
Review: there are these 2 people: ford and arthur. both living on a planet (earth) to be destroyed. they got to get away from the planet. there is however, more to it. there's a depressed robot named marvin. the president, zaphod. an improbability machine. nasty creatures. designers. dolphins and rats. there will be a lot of things going on. the characters are very interesting. the dialogue funny. great, lovely, funny details. actually, writing a review is very strange. adams must be experienced. his ideas are really far-out, very fantastic, and great. rats conducting observations with humans, etc. i'm not into sci-fi, but i recognize some of the satire, although perhaps not all. but there is also "common" satire, weird ideas, amusing dialogue....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Get ready for the rollercoaster ride of your life!
Review: There is not one version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there are at least five, soon six, official versions: the original radio series (I think there are even two versions of the radio series), the transcript of the radio series, the vinyl record (a treat if you can get hold of it!), the books, the television series, and soon the film. All are different, and developed for their respective mediums. All are fantastic. Douglas Adams himself said that there is no definite version. If the film is any good people will want to pick up the books also, so this is a word of caution that they should not expect the film to follow the books.
The books are very funny, extremely cleverly written, and also very thought provoking. If you read them just expecting some clear cut fun you might be in for a shock. The books have a complex intrigue and several subplots, can be read on many levels, and they seem to want to reveal something to the reader, but it is always just out of grasp. Since the seeming message of the books is never revealed, the reader instead is left wondering: What is the message? Which turns out to be the message! The closest we come is "42" and God's final message to his creation, neither of which is very ehaustive...
The universe described is not the cosy universe of science: cause and effect have no meaning since you can travel through time and space and change everything anyway. Small actions have enormous reprecussions, but apparently monumetous events leave no mark on the space-time continuoum whatsoever. Nothing is what it first seems: the Earth is run by mice, Arthur Dent has created and destroyed civilizations, but humanity as a whole is totally unimportant (not to mentioned descended from hairdressers!), the role of the galactic president is not to wield power - it is to draw attention away from the real power (a premonition of Dubya's presidency?)!
The Hitchhiker's Guide itself becomes a symbol of our struggle to create order where no order exists, it is a source of false comfort (just like organised religion, which seems to be the theme of the film).
The books, like few others, really create a sense of wonder, a feeling of the infinite. Douglas Adams was a very clever man and with a lot of life experience, therefore he could write such a complex, and funny, book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A humorous review for the too serious science or techno:
Review: These books are wonderfully hilarious. You can immediately recognize new friends if they have read and loved these books. I have read all of Adams' books but this 4 book series is the best. While chaperoning a bus tour of England with my students, I began reading the series again. Even at 52, it kept me giggling throughout the tour. Everyday objects and events take on new possibilities of the absurd. You will laugh out loud even in the most serious places-NYC subway

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: This book is one of the most amazing books ever wrote. Douglas Adam's satire ranks up with the best satirists who ever lived. He is the reincarnation of the classics: Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Aristophanes, etc. Here is an example of his writing. He writes about some people who inhabit a small nut tree on one planet. Their whole life is spent on that one nut tree, living, dying, writing about the meaning of life. The only ones who ever leave are the ones who are forced off because they wonder if there's anything besides this nut tree or if the other trees are inhabitable. Sound familiar? That is just one example of the all the wonderful jokes about our life. I completely and wholeheartedly reccomend this book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: overrated
Review: This book is overhyped. The first novel is kinda funny, but Adams never really goes anywhere. Its gets dull and monotonous quickly. Its nice to be aware of some of the famous inside joke from this book, but it has little value other than that. Read the first one i'd say, but thats about it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Comic Genius? A Master of Satire? Maybe Both
Review: This is a collection of 5 books written by Douglas Adams. It is sadly missing one book entitled "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe."
Other than that, reviewing the entire series, this is one of the greatest books ever written in the satire/comedy/sci-fi genre, which really isen't as common a genre as it really should be. Douglas Adams had a way of writing complete and utter gibberish and making it all make sence in a strange way. After reading them, the books would leave you with a strange feeling of not quite knowing what just happened to you, but it was good. All in all I recommend this for anyone to read, this is a series of classics.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER!!!
Review: This is by far one of the best books ever! I can not put it down!
If you are looking for a good book buy this book. I read the first part in less than 5 days!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Collected Wit of a Genius
Review: This is one of my most prized of books, and I have read the entire thing twice even though it is over 800 pages long. If you enjoy sci-fi and love to laugh out loud, then this is a great book to own. I guarantee that you will end up quoting from the books without even realizing it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Impeccibly Hilarious
Review: This is the best and certainly the funniest science fiction book I've ever read. Douglas Adams' writing style and sense of timing is clever and hilarious. It is very dry, and random at times, and full of funny metaphors and loads of good quotes. Actually, it is like the whole book is a gigantic funny quote. One of my favorite excerpts is:

"To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone capable of getting themselves made President should by no means be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem." (from The Restaraunt At the End of the Universe)

I laughed out loud so hard at several parts, and then I actually laughed again at random points throughout the day when I thought about it. It's one of those books that you can read anytime and you don't get sick of it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Undescribably great.
Review: This is the only series of books ever to be this much fun.
The humour is more witty than anything you have ever encountered, the story is great too, but what makes you keep reading is the awesome and unbelievably funny jokes. Believe me, if you're tired of "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, you're tired of life.
The greatest thing about all is that the book is so long that you, once you have finished it, have forgotten a lot of the beginning and can start reading it again!


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