mass market paperback, 232 pages
English language
Published Nov. 19, 2005 by Del Rey.
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads—so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.
They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vice president of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-president of the galaxy; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox. How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert …
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads—so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.
They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vice president of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-president of the galaxy; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox. How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert “universal” Armageddon and save life as we know it—and don’t know it! --back cover
I do have a strong sense of the series starting to lose its way with this novel. It certainly has its moments, but really doesn't come close to the standard set by the first two books.
Another fun and quick read, with the reappearance of Slartybartfast we are all assured that nothing is going to make sense ever again and can proceed from there.
Incidentally, I vividly remember reading this (not for the first time) with a headache the night before I was due to go on holiday. During this reread, the phrase “The past,” they say, “is now truly
like a foreign country. They do things exactly the same there” stuck out at me especially, which seems to be a very worldly (and of course worryingly accurate) interpretation of things. I also had this sort of feeling in one of the earlier books when Adams' mentions population growth or climate change or something, the sort of issue that had not hit mainstream media during his publication of the series; the very type of occurrence to pass me by those years ago.
I'm not sure I …
Another fun and quick read, with the reappearance of Slartybartfast we are all assured that nothing is going to make sense ever again and can proceed from there.
Incidentally, I vividly remember reading this (not for the first time) with a headache the night before I was due to go on holiday. During this reread, the phrase “The past,” they say, “is now truly
like a foreign country. They do things exactly the same there” stuck out at me especially, which seems to be a very worldly (and of course worryingly accurate) interpretation of things. I also had this sort of feeling in one of the earlier books when Adams' mentions population growth or climate change or something, the sort of issue that had not hit mainstream media during his publication of the series; the very type of occurrence to pass me by those years ago.
I'm not sure I quite approve of Xafod helping save the universe, it really goes against character. Still, the "it", whatever it is that makes this a part of Hitchhikers, is certainly there.
