Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious - you will love it or hate it
Review: Silliness abounds in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which as it turns out is not a guide book for hitchhikers beyond the general advice and rational behind always bringing a towel. Frequently the silliness is true to life in that it is tied to burocracy (The sequel to the Hithchhiker's Guide computer game was titled Burocracy.) and the oddities in modern life. The story starts as Arthur Dent, a normal English man, wakes up one morning to find bulldozers outside his house. His house had been scheduled for demolition for several months and he hadn't realized since the plans were posted at the county office. A few chapters later we find that the entire Earth has similarly been scheduled for demolition by aliens who wish to install an interstellar expressway. So Arthur with no house and soon no planet is taken to outer space by his friend Ford Prefect, who it turns out was an alien. What follows is travel through outer space which turns out to be as absurd as earth. Irony abounds.

The book was adapted from a radio show and this yields some awkward results. The pacing is very ADD. Seasons of radio went into the book, so originally this would have been spread out over a longer period of time. However the going stays coherent and jokes are fit to plot not the other way round as can happen.

This is a book that you will love or hate. I loved it and I think it would be worth trying out. In this case it might be a better option to buy the printed book, or even The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is because of the cost of this particular ebook and the fact that reading a book book is easier on the eyes.