The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Four Parts by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Four Parts Reviews

• 
  Miltos S.

  "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."
  
  Κάπως έτσι την πάτησα κι εγώ όταν ξεκινούσα το βιβλίο στις 21 Δεκεμβρίου και σκόπευα να κλείσω το 2018 με αυτό.
  Η αλήθεια είναι ότι το βιβλίο με κούρασε πολύ και στο τέλος έγινε αγγαρεία το να το διαβάσω, ώστε να μην το αφήσω ανολοκλήρωτο. Σίγουρα έπαιξε ρόλο και το ότι το διάβασα στα Αγγλικά, κάτι που με δυσκόλεψε και βέβαια και το μέγεθός του, αλλά σε κάθε περίπτωση με κούρασε.
  Παρ' όλα αυτά βάζω 4 αστέρια και το προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα - οπωσδήποτε τα δύο πρώτα βιβλία από την "τριλογία των τεσσάρων", αλλά κατά προτίμηση διαβάστε και τα τέσσερα γιατί αλλιώς η εμπειρία δεν θα είναι ολοκληρωμένη - μόνο και μόνο για το εκπληκτικό, ανατρεπτικό, απαράμιλλο, μοναδικό χιούμορ του βιβλίου.
  
  There was a sharp ringing rap on the door.
  "Then who is it?" said Arthur.
  "Well," said Ford, "if we're lucky it's just the Vogons come to throw us in to space"
  "And if we are unlucky?"
  "If we are unlucky," said Ford grimly, "the captain might be serious in his threat that he's going to read us some of his poetry first..."
  
  Douglas Adams προσκυνώ.
• 
  Kara Babcock

  H2g2 was one of the formative books of my youth (I say this now, when I'm only 18, but I read it long ago). It was one of the first science fiction novels I read, and definitely my first taste of Douglas Adams and British quirkiness.
  
  The thing you have to get about h2g2 is that it's not enough to suspend your disbelief. You need to have it surgically removed, then seal it in an airtight box, ship the box overseas to Germany (use FedEx), and bury the box in an abandoned mine (alternatively, if you live in Germany, ship it to Australia).
  
  The book begins with the end of the world, which is naturally an excellent way to begin any story. In fact it's almost becoming cliche now. However, at the time Douglas Adams was doing it, it was just what you did to make money working for the BBC.
  
  Arthur Dent is the lovable everyman with whom we can sympathize (and sometimes yell at for being such a dense clod). He is not a knight in shining armour, nor is he the renegade anti-hero we are so used to seeing in action films these days. He's British. He's middle-class. His home and planet have been demolished all in one day. You'd think the universe would cut him some slack, but no....
  
  What really appeals to me about h2g2, however, is the fact that it is so readable. I take it with me whenever I travel (which isn't very often), because I always know I will enjoy it. And as I get older, there are new dimensions for me to appreciate. At first glance, the situations in the book seem absurd and infinitely improbable. Yet if you think about it long enough, you will realize that they are in fact what goes on in real life here on mostly harmless Earth. The universe of h2g2 is a microcosmic representation of our own society's bureaucratic fallacies, beginning with the demolition of one man's house and working its way up to the poignant irony that Earth is a computer built to find the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
  
  The fact that the entire series is about the search for the question, and not the answer, which the book happily reveals to all of us, is a timeless metaphor for human existence. It doesn't matter whether you read this in the '80s, '90s, now, or in the future. We spend so much time searching for an answer, for the "meaning," that we often forget to simply enjoy the search itself. We forget for what we're searching--we're searching for an "answer", but to what? What do we expect to find? H2g2 conveys this unoriginal thought in a very original and fun manner--the Earth gets destroyed, naturally, then mice claim that they ordered it custom-made from a planet-building society, and ... well, Arthur doesn't get much of a rest from there on in.
  
  So far I've only really explored the first book, and the overarching concepts of the series. What about the other books? Each has its merits, although unquestionably the first book is the best. Restaurant at the End of the Universe has the tastiest quotation of the entire series, right at the beginning, so cool that many just attribute it to the series itself. Life, the Universe, and Everything lives up to its name by positing interesting "facts" about the nature of the universe, physics, time travel, and sofas. So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish has the pithy God's Final Message to His Creation, which is really the epitome of bureaucratic rhetoric.
  
  I didn't really like Mostly Harmless. I'm sorry, but it was depressing. I think that at that point, Adams had been doing h2g2 so long that it was no longer a burst of creative genius but an arduous struggle to write something new out of something so well done already. The absurdity of the original two books, which adapted material from the original radio series, was replaced by a more rigid, formulaic absurdity, and that just isn't as fun.
  
  Still, h2g2 is an amazing and timeless series. With so many incarnations, so much different material and conflicting continuities, it is not a "book" or a "story" but a phenomenon unto itself. Few series, no matter how popular, can make that claim. And thanks to Douglas Adams, I always know where my towel is.
• 
  foteini_dl

  Ξέρετε αυτά τα βιβλία που έχουν χιούμορ και βάζουν και ωραία θεματάκια food for thought;Και έχουν και εξωγήινους,πλανήτες,γαλαξίες κλπ;Ε,τέτοια είναι τα βιβλία του Douglas Adams.Και μοιάζουν να είναι ένα κράμα Monty Python και Mighty Boosh. Κάπου εδώ συνειδητοποιώ ότι δεν έχω τι άλλο να γράψω.
  Διαβάζοντας τα βιβλία,και αφού μου έβγαλαν έντονα αυτό το montypython-ικό feeling,είπα να ψάξω αν υπάρχει μια σύνδεση.Guess what,υπάρχουν κριτικές των ΘΕΩΝ και σας τις παραθέτω,γιατί είναι-προφανώς-πολύ καλύτερες απ’ τις δικές μου.
  “Much funnier than everything John Cleese has written.”Terry Jones
  “Really entertaining and fun”. John Cleese
  “I know for a fact that John Cleese hasn’t read it”.Graham Chapman
  “Who is John Cleese?”Eric Idle (Η απάντηση είναι "42",dear)
  “Really entertaining and fun”.Michael Palin.
  Fun fact: Αν μετρήσετε τον αριθμό των λέξεων (μαζί με τα ονόματα) θα δείτε ότι βγαίνει 42.Τελικά,είναι η απάντηση για τα πάντα.Χμμ…
  Υ.Γ.Sir,so long and thanks for all the fish.
• 
  Thomas Stroemquist

  I was going to start this review with "After much pondering..." when I realized that there has been no pondering whatsoever. When I asked myself which book in the "hitchhiker"-series should go on my "favorites" shelf, there could be only one.
  
  It had to be a collection - the individual books are brilliant, but who in their right mind would think to themselves "I think I'll re-read '
  Life, the Universe and Everything' today", skipping the first two parts? Right, no one! That was rhetorical... never mind, it had to be a collection!
  
  How Adams' himself felt about his books is of course interesting and others opinions also, but not for this decision really. Neither is the fact that there are 5 parts in the series. Or 6, depending on who you ask. The man was a genius taken far too soon from us and I would gladly read his shopping list . Actually, I think I did read his shopping list, in
  The Salmon of Doubt - or possibly in a biography(?). Anyway, beside the point again. What matters is of course what version of this great work that works the very best for me and this is it.
  
  Fascinatingly, Douglas Adams being very very British, the Swedish translation (by
  Thomas Tidholm) of this,
  Liftarens Guide till Galaxen is an on par edition and very much recommended.
• 
  John Hatley

  This is one of the best science-fiction novels I've ever read, and one of the funniest too. It is also one that I could read over and over again.
• 
  David

  Ok, so this is 4 books in an anthology. The first book is the original hitchhikers guide and is fabulous. A work of real originality, humour, wit and acute satirical observation. No question about this being a 5 star book. 'Restaurant' is also very funny but somewhat episodic - there is a slight impression that the author is making it up as he goes along that detracts from the immersion. In the third book this impression is stronger, and there are less good jokes. 3 stars. The fourth and final book in the anthology is really bad. No real humour, very short, the characters are inconsistent and heavily reliant on previous works to give them any depth at all. An unreserved no stars.
  
  So overall a mixed bag. In total, 3 stars seems fair, largely due to the brilliance of the first book.
• 
  Keri Stevens

  I've read this series six times. I cannot (ever) remember any of it, except random character names. So I read it again. And I enjoy it every time--and it all flows away. If I were on a desert island with only one book series, I'd take this because I know I'd always be entertained anew.
  
  My oldest just read it for the first time and giggled aloud the entire time. He actually remembers parts of it, though--evidence of evolution, I guess. Assuming, of course, that remembering Douglas Adams enhances survival and reproductive chances. After all I did fairly well, and I...wait. What were we discussing again?
• 
  Melissa

  Oh my, what have I just read?!
  Random, witty, weird.Nonsensical in places but made perfect sense at the same time.
  I loved this book from front cover to back.One of the most entertaining books I have read.
  The Restaurant at the End of the Universe has got to be my favourite of the four.What a roller coaster of a ride Arthur Dent was taken on accompanied by very unique (for want of a better word) companions, including Marvin the robot.Oh Marvin, how I loved every word, sentence and miserable moan that came out of your little metal mouth.
  The plot? well, I did lose that from time to time but it didn't matter, I picked it up again pretty easily.
  I really wonder how Douglas Adams mind ticked on a daily basis to come up with this extraordinary four parter? Did he partake in a little LSD one wonders. ;-)
  Shame he isn't around to write more books because I certainly for one would read them.What a weird and wonderful mind.
  I found myself saying "ohhhhhhh, I get it" out loud on many an occasion.
  This book is one of those that I will definitely read again at some point and see if I take something more or even else from it as it oozes detail and hilarity and quirkiness.
  I was amazed how much at the beginning of the book resounded modern day.Douglas Adams was onto something with that screen reader ;-)
  Funny thing about this book is how Adams incorporates so many aspects of 'truth' into this sci fi, action packed, humorous 'trilogy' of four.
  It deserves all five stars given and I recommend everybody to give it a try.
• 
  Lynn

  I tried to read this after seeing the 2005 movie. People had always talked about how funny it was, and made references to it, so I figured the time had come to familiarize myself with it. I have admit, I didn't even actually read half of it, I hated it so much.
  
  Reading this book reminded me of watching "My dinner with Andre," in that it was soaked in self-consciousness. I couldn't stop being aware of the writing, how full of himself the writer seemed, how smart and funny he thought he was.
  
  The movie, however, was OK, and doesn't last as long as reading the book.
• 
  Matilda Baker

  Full of clever witty humour and whacky out there sci-fi species' that pull the reader through the crazy journey of human Arthur Dent and his odd friend Ford Prefect as they hitchhike across the universe. This series is *so* quoteable; both for serious lines about life and quips to make your mates laugh. Defiantly a must read series for anyone, easy to get lost in and 100% a book I would reread again and again.
• 
  Nandakishore Mridula

  DID NOT LIKE IT... COULDN'T FINISH IT!!!
  
  (OK, now waiting for the GoodReads lynch mob...)
• 
  Mark

  Not a fan. I wanted to be, but am most definately not.
• 
  Helen Pugsley

  Possibly the most pointless book I have read this year. The movie was better.
• 
  Jianis

  That book was so outstanding.
• 
  Jeanette

  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Four (or a Trilogy in Four Parts by Douglas Adams contains four of the five books in the The Hitchhiker's 'trilogy' - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything and So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. It is based on the radio plays and TV series of the same name/s.
  
  Arthur Dent is having a bad day - just after his house is demolished to make way for a bypass, the Vogon fleet arrive to demolish the earth, to make way for a hyperspace bypass. He escapes by hitching a ride with his friend, Ford Prefect, who turns out to be an alien and introduces Arthur to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - a prodigious book with DON'T PANIC printed on its cover. Instantly, we are catapulted into the word of excruciating and deadly Vogon poetry, Babel fish, an Improbability Drive, piles of galactic red-tape and wild adventures.
  
  While I haven’t listened to the original radio plays, I have fond memories of watching the T.V. series as Arthur Dent (a quintessential Englishman) travels through time and space with Ford Prefect (a researcher for the guide, from a system near Betelgeuse), Ford’s half-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox (a super cool guy with two heads and three arms), Trillian (from earth) and Marvin the pathologically depressed robot. Arthur’s hilarious, improbable and rather farcical adventures are interspersed with humerous and often eventually relevant asides from the guide itself. I love Douglas' dry and cynical sense of humour, as he gently pokes fun at life, the universe and everything - even if I have a more hopeful view of what it all means, myself.
  
  The first two books covers most of what I remember from the TV series and the movie (though I think the movie does depart a bit from the originals), a lovely nostalgic read. The next two were new material for me - with the Krikkit Wars in book 3 & the mystery of the reappearance of earth and a sweet love story in book 4 which sustained my interest and whimsy. Each book has a vague plot and resolution as it careens through the galaxy in bizarre twists and turns and - mostly -saving the day.
  
  What did surprise me (but probably shouldn't) was that almost all the active parts across the four books are filled by males. With the exception of Trillian (brilliant, generally smarter than the men, at times feisty, but in the end loyal to Zaphod) and, in the fourth book, Fenchurch - the females have small and infrequent bit parts as wives, girlfriends (preferably in bulk), prostitutes and maids. Hmm - I guess it shows the era in which it was written in.
  
  Still, I was thoroughly amused and entertained by Adam's gentle, statistical wit and fecund imagination. I game to give the fifth book ‘Mostly Harmless’ a go at some later date.
  
• 
  Inessa

  Probably the biggest waste of time reading a book — which I skimmed over 400 pages of it. I read the first story which warranted 2 stars, after that what was the point? Terrible writing. Conversations were also drawn out and pointless. Utter repetition for the heck of it, for example (a condensed page of writing below):
  
  “Long time,” he said, “in a tank, in a trance.” He looked round severely at his audience.
  He resumed.
  “Where was I?” He said.
  “In a trance,” one said.
  “In a tank,” said another.
  “Oh yes, ...Getting out of the tank is hell. What did you say?”
  “I was just clearing my throat.”
  “I think you doubt me.”
  “I was just clearing my throat.”
  “She was just clearing her throat,” confirmed the audience.
  
  This is one of MANY examples of useless repetition. It’s not funny nor interesting. When I write reviews I often state that pages are dragged on but Mr. Douglas Adams takes this to a whole new level.
  
  I am a fan of science-fiction and can appreciate his ideas but I feel he tried too hard to be quirky and smart. It just didn’t work.
• 
  Ritika

  Perhaps it was a lucky chance that my second-hand bookseller (Marry Me!) did not have the five part omnibus. 'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish' ends, not perhaps at perfection, but in a good place. A place where I am happy to leave the characters. Douglas Adams was not happy with Mostly Harmless and what precursory reading tells me, neither will I. And let us face it, Eoin Colfer, even with my immense liking for the first Artemis book, I would rather re-read the series a third time than read someone else's interpretation of it.
  
  Which also brings up the point that books read as a teenager almost never have a properly lasting effect on flighty heads. I am glad I made the effort to rediscover 'Hitchhiker's'. I appreciate it far more than I did then and the humour resonates much better. Perhaps a re-read six years down the line might give another entirely different perspective.
• 
  Duncan Bradshaw

  I last read Hitchhiker's when I was 13, 28 years ago (man that makes me feel old) and thought that buying this would be a nice trip down Memory Lane. Yes and no...the first two books are spectacular but I found that the further I went, the more tedious it got. By book four, I was ready to throw the towel in. Reading during my lunch break, I found myself nodding off a few times which is not the best response to a book. There are just some things that happen which come completely out of the blue, whilst others are rushed or skipped over entirely. Appreciate I am no longer young and carefree but the joy I once found within these pages has gone. Undoubtedly replaced by world-weary cynicism and a keener eye for detail. Anyway, it was good to go down Memory Lane, even if it wasn't quite paved with the gold that I remember.
• 
  Siria

  I know that these are considered classics of the genre, and have been massively influential on two decades of genre writing and TV. Yet try as I might when I read them, I just couldn't see why. Creative, yes, imaginative, yes, and occasionally very sharp. But the characters just seemed flat to me, and I couldn't understand why anyone who wasn't a fourteen year old boy would find this more than sporadically amusing.
• 
  Richard Thomas

  It's hard to better this whether as a piece of light sci fi or as a sustainedly funny book. I've returned and found something new each time I have re-read it (three times) and expect to do so again at some future stage. It's a pity that unlike the BBC radio and TV adaptations, the film version was so banal (to me anyway). Not a dull word in it and I'm still trying to work out the anagram of Slartibartfirst.
• 
  Zoe

  "life", said Marvin dolefully, "loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it."
  
  It's great, and I love it. Have loved it when I first read the german translation at age 13, still love it now. There are two possible reasons for this: either this is a timeless piece of art, or my sense of humour hasn't changes since I was 13. Either way, it's getting five stars for purely nostagic reasons, and because of Marvin.
• 
  Rajat TWIT

  A very imaginative and creative setup, the characters of this sci-fi extravaganza are treat to observe. But the fiction is quite average and at places it looses the attention because of vague storytelling and randomness of many events. But the sci-fi fans will find it extremely fun. Others may read few of the chapters before deciding whether they should go for the whole book or not.
• 
  Alena

  Arthur Dent's story is one that is clever, witty and fun. Although this book was quite dense at some sections, it was an overall enjoyable read!
• 
  Blerina

  The edition I read actually has five books:
  
  1. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
  2. The restaurant at the end of the Universe
  3. Life, the Universe and everything
  4. So long, and thanks for all the fish
  5. Mostly harmless
  
  My favourite was part 1 and 5, a 4.5 rating. For the rest of the books a 3 star rating. Some parts in here were really bizarre, whereas some parts really entertaining. The names of some of the galactic creatures were just so tiresome for me! I so disliked Zaphod Beeblebrox, name and all! All in all, I found the humans the best (of course I did!), maybe because they were simply relatable. Everything else is so strange, so alien, and in this respect I would say Douglas Adams is a genius. Something you are constantly reminded of throughout this voluminous story, is how insignificant we (the human race) are and that maybe life has absolutely no meaning! So I guess at times it can feel quite depressing.
  
  A few of the lines I liked:
  
  "If there's anything more important than my ego, I want it caught and shot now!"- Zaphod BeebleBrox (ironically, I did really like this line from the two-headed freak)
  
  "It gives me a headache just to think down to your level"- said by Marvin the robot, who is constantly bored by the unchallenging tasks he is asked to do (spicy sarcasm for human interaction)
  
  "If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start to work"- another alien
  
  and this I think was my favourite paragraph: "...Arthur felt at a bit of a loss. There was a whole Galaxy of stuff out there for him, and he wondered if it was churlish of him to complain to himself that it lacked just two things, the world he was born on, and the woman he loved." - referring I believe to two of the most powerful human feelings—that of belonging and of love.
  
  Maybe I'll watch the series/movies, maybe won't spoil it...
• 
  Simon Ackroyd

  I really wanted to give this 5 stars as it's just my kind of humour. The first of the four parts of the "trilogy" is a classic and a wonderfully absurd tale. Part Two is not as strong but still very entertaining and continues with the regular nods to the Hitchhiker's Guide.
  
  Unfortunately, I struggled with Part Three, perhaps because this is also when the hero is least enjoying life and references to other races and the guide's thoughts on them were few and far between. Part Four is stronger, again, but it lost some of it's charm for me, despite the excellent writing style and flowing dialogue.
• 
  Jailan El-Rafie

  How does one even begin to describe such a book? I can now fully admit that I do regret not having had this book in my life earlier. I've been reading it since February, and I just...wow. It's been with me through some weird times where lots has happened. Right now it feels like I just lost a dear old friend.
  I actually rarely say this for a book, but the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a book that I'll actually miss reading.
  So long, and thanks for all the humor, the feels, and the casual yet very quotable wisdoms that are scattered at every corner of this book.
• 
  Stella

  I have read the first book twice now. I have found it quirky and amusing. But you kind of have to be in the mood for this kind of quirky. Before you decided if it worth reading, I would say read the first chapter and read the very last sentence in the final book. It does contain spoilers but it should be a good indicator whether or not it is worth the "trip".
• 
  Gehaenna

  I love it so much. Very sad that it's over, but very excited to read the fifth one.
  More thorough review coming soon.