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Summary: The Word of the Wise
Review: This book is not only a great interview with imaginitive views, but thoughts that really do explain our world. This book is tremendous and has a great view of a world we don't normally think about. Read it....read the whole series if you want to become more amazed with our world.
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Summary: Hilarious
Review: This book is brill! Marvin makes me laugh.I loved the part at the end where the computer commited suicide. Great.
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Summary: Terrific, spontaneous, almost too good to be true
Review: Simply the oddest book I've ever read. But one of the best as well. It's one of the only sci-fi books that doesn't focus on space, the final frontier. So what if it was a little hard to swallow for you? Try writing a novel as good as this in your lifetime, simpletons. If you already have a favorite book, this one will be number 1-A.
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Summary: Incredible!
Review: Simply put: Those who dodn't like this book probably think they are in control of the mice, too.
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Summary: Digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
Review: Sorry about my little review below. I just can't understand people who don't like this book. This is the best book by my favorite author. I am an aspiring author and if I could write anything half this good, I could die happy. I'd been trying to write zany space comedies even before I'd even heard of Douglas Adams, but once I read this, I knew I had a long ways to go. Anyway, the rest of the series pales a little in comparison to this book, (especially 'So Long...") but they're all massively entertaining. If you liked the Hitchhiker's Trilogy, try his Dirk Gently series as well. Also, Douglas wrote 3 excellent stories for Doctor Who, "The Pirate Planet" in season 16, and "City of Death" and "Shada" (unfinished, unfortunately) for season 17, a season in which he also served as the show's script editor. Someone said that this book was a Star Trek wannabe. If anything, it serves to show just how limited Star Trek can be when there's books like Hitchhiker's Guide and shows like Doctor Who and Red Dwarf out there. Those poor trekkies, I feel a little sorry for them actually. Anyway, I've gotten a little off the point here, that being that this is the best humor writing around and anyone who can't appreciate this humor just doesn't get it.
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Summary: The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Review: By far one of the funniest books I have ever read. Though funny on the outside it has a continuous undercurrent of satire and irony running alongside.The kind of book you could read over and over again without getting a wee bit bored.Arthur, a very normal guy has known Ford Prefect (one of the most ingenious but irritating characters ever created)for six years.One day Ford comes and tells Arthur that they are to leave the earth as soon as possible beacuse by a curious quirk of fate the earth is going to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.Arthur doesn't disbelieve him though and they hitch a ride on the Vogon ship as they watch the earth vapourize.This is followed by a series of wonderful adventures(?)that could only be devised by Douglas Adams.They get themselves into all kinds of situations and surprisingly get out of them . One feels though that the Author is a touch cynical about everything around him and implements his cynicism in his characters.The c! haracters are probably not very well defined with the exception of Arthur Dent who I guess everyone identifies with.Everyone else in the book is very wacky and all of them would be very good case studies for aspiring psychologists. All in all an excellent read and should not be missed by anyone.
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Summary: The BEST Hitchhiker's guide book
Review: This novel is Douglas Adams' best ever. Here is his true wit, his British humor, his, well, hoopiness! The book picks you up, drives you to the movies, and never lets you go! Ford is hilarious with his insane logic. Trillian is a wonderful as the only really sane one on board the Heart of Gold. Marvin is so pathetic that he makes you cry every time you read the book. And through it all, the hapless Arthur Dent just tries to understand what is happening. The plot involves the earth being blow up to make a hyperspace bypass, which everyone should have known about if they had checked the record hall in Alpha Centauri. The plans had been on display for fifty years. Can't complain about it now, can you? Anyway, throw in an ancient race of planet builders, some towels, a stolen space ship, and a restaurant at the end of the universe, and you get the first novel in one of the best sci-fi series ever. A must read for any science fiction fan or fans of British comedy
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Summary: A Splendid Trip
Review: I picked A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy off of a list of classic novels or something like that, having no idea who Douglas Adams was or how significant the book was. I was pleasantly surprised, and now know where several popular phrases originated.
The book begins with humanoid Arthur Dent waking up and finding a bulldozer in his yard about to demolish his house to make room for a highway. Arthur is understandably upset, but this doesn't really matter considering the fact that unbeknownst to the human race, earth is about to be destroyed to make room for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur is rescued from the fate of earth by his friend Ford Prefect, who it turns out is an alien who knows how to hitch rides on spaceships. With their jump into space, Arthur and Ford are launched into a round of interstellar escapades, accompanied by the egotistical but lovable Zaphod Beeblebrox, his girlfriend Trillian (who happened to have come from earth), and Marvin, the perpetually dismal android with a "brain the size of a planet".
A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy makes an interesting combination of two genres- science fiction and comedy- and it works marvelously. The plots moves along quickly, making it an easy read, and also providing opportunities for multiple readings to catch all the humor. A Hitchhiker's Guide is imaginative, witty, and in places downright hilarious. In addition to this, the writing is very intelligent without being overbearing; the book gently prods at several of our own silly social conventions in a comical and lighthearted way. A Hitchhiker's Guide was a delightful read, and I heartily recommend it- to sci-fi lovers and non.
One word of advice; don't waste precious mental energy trying to understand how an Infinite Improbabily Drive works, or any of the many other gadgets in the book, because this isn't the sort of book where it matters whether you understand how things work or not. I realized about a quarter of the way through the book that I was taking things much too seriously and that the ludicrous descriptions were placed there mostly for comic effect.
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Summary: A rush of adrenaline to the funny bone
Review: The thing that is most improbable about this book is that its critical mass can be contained within 216 slim pages, albeit sandwiched between slightly denser covers, without blasting itself to smithereens of funny matter and dispersing these all over the galaxy.
It all begins with Arthur Dent wallowing in the mud to prevent the destruction of his house, while galactic bureaucratic wheels are cranking out much bigger misguided projects.
By coincidence, his pal Ford Prefect just happens to be a researcher for the extremely useful book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", and having been stranded on earth for fifteen years, is anxious to hitch a ride on the next passing saucer.
Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away, Zaphod Beeblebrox, totally powerless figure-head President of the Imperial Galactic Government, is wending his merry way to what will be the most unforgettable launching of a unique spaceship.
Discarding and disregarding his prepared speech, he pauses to acknowledge Trillian, a hot chick that he picked up at a party on another planet, thereby irritating the heck out of the attending party hacks, who are obviously unaware of the uncontrollable misbehavior of Presidents when it comes to hot chicks.
Arthur and Ford Prefect manage to hitch a ride shortly before ground zero, and after enduring some Vogon poetry (third worst in the Universe), they get chucked out of an airlock with only a lungful of air to fly on.
Thanks to Trillian, and Zaphod's amazing technicolor Infinite Improbability Drive, our heroes are rescued from certain doom - or are they? A fugitive, a hot chick and a manic depressive robot do not usually make for happy endings, even with a little improbability thrown in.
The adventure continues as they learn the simple answer to the great question of Life, The Universe, and Everything, only to realize that they don't know the question.
Going now to fix me a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, and start the second of the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy. I've already got my massively useful towel packed, and my fish in my ear. Join me?
Amanda Richards, March 5, 2005
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Summary: not completely nonsensical: humor with a twist
Review: Critics call it a "romp of cosmic proportions." Many are "not sure if science fiction had ever seen anything like this before 1979," and as one clear-minded (and totally spaced-out) Adams' enthusiast points out "There aren't too many books that lead off with the destruction of the earth. After all, where do you go from there?"
What is it about perfectly dry, diaphragm-jiggling British comedy that sets human beings all over the world rocking on their heels with laughter? Its a mystery to me, just like every single one of Douglass Adams' utterly ridiculous topics of sarcasm. I read one review for the book that called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a waste of time, and gave it the most severe form of anti-praise possible by condemning it inferior to the cultured genre of sci-fi novels everywhere. If The Guide made me cry from laughter, then that review made me cry from ignorance. Here is what this sadly unenlightened reader has to say about the book: "Total garbage. It didn't make any sense at all. Read the other reviews. Everyone says how wonderful the book is but no one says what the book is about." This guy is obviously a very unappreciative, pea-brained Vogon in disguise, because his sort of poetry is most assuredly not the kind I want to be reading. I wish some practical people could just sit back and enjoy something as marvelous as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, even if their isn't any clear point, if only for its sheer hilarity.
While we're in the mood for galactic puns, I will try to be a bit more down-to-earth, as they say, and will concede that there are several points of real relevance in the story. One, Adam's pure sarcasm and mind-bending logic has a gigantic, blaring message: as obnoxious as a bullhorn announcing your impending death by Kill-O-Zap gun for stealing one hell of an expensive government/science project powered by the most improbable form of improbability ever discovered. And that, my friends, is satire. The Universe. It's nothing more than an over-sized and very bizarre perspective of our earth: a whacked-out upside-down kind of microcosm (in reverse)! Throw in a few bureaucratic hyperboles, and you've got a real slap in the face aimed pointedly at many single-minded businessmen. I'd bet you anything that critic was an economist.
Just a note on Adams' humor; Be forewarned: don't drink anything before you read it (this is a very dangerous thing to do) and you may want to finalize your will (or your taxes, if you are financially-inclined) before you turn the first page (the one that says "for Jonny Brock and Clare Gorst and all other Arlingtonians for tea, sympathy, and a sofa") just in case you die of laughter. Also, you may not want to read this book in front of your psychiatrist least they come to believe that their fears have been confirmed and you have indeed gone stark-raving mad (they did predict that was going to happen in the end, after all).
Such is the style of the late Mr. Douglas Adams. Oh, he's really a riot (and I say that with all sincerity). Who else could come up with a scenario where two white mice deceive us all and actually control the earth right under our noses? This is how I would define him: A lot of dialogue, a lot of adjectives, and a lot of completely insane British humor. Not only have I closed the book with a zillion new ways to look at our universe, but I've also got a fairly oversized dose of hilarity thrown in the bargain as well (lucky me). If there's someone out there who likes to critique, a sci-fi geek, or a rodent-loving freak who hasn't picked up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... jeez. You do not know what you're missing!
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