So long, and thanks for all the fish

by Douglas Adams

Hardcover, 152 pages

English language

Published Nov. 19, 1984 by Harmony Books.

(17 reviews)

Is there life on Earth?

This apparently absurd question assumes its most urgent and madcap expression, but is not examined by Douglas Adams, in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the forth (if you believe that you'll believe anything) book in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy.

Something very weird happens (so what else is new?) to Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and the all new voidoid gang when they return to Earth after eight years of crazed wanderings around the galaxy. Foolishly, young Arthur is glad to be back. (What a nerd!)

Still wearing his bathrobe and carrying his trusty towel, Arthur sets out once again (this time he takes no chances and travels by commercial airline) on a wacked-out quest for the right result...and the answers to these embarrassing questions:

• What really happened the day the Earth was demolished?

• Why did all the dolphins disappear?

• What is …

Is there life on Earth?

• What really happened the day the Earth was demolished?

• Why did all the dolphins disappear?

• What is God's Final Message to His creation?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is, as has been remarked before, often and accurately, a pretty startling kind of thing. Here and now in the best adventure yet, we mistakenly meet:

• Rob McKenna, an unknown Rain God who has categorized 231 types of precipitation, none of which he likes.

• Wonko the Sane (aka John Watson), a mysterious Californian living in a house on the boffo coast called "The Outside of the Asylum."

• Fenchurch, the lovely and slightly-off-the-floor lady who wins Arthur's heart and turns out to be the girl of his dreams.

• A few odd animals including the Babel fish and the stupidest dog in the Universe, Know Nothing Bozo.

Don't Panic. Douglas Adams has done it again! So put on your Final Message rainhats and live happily ever after. --jacket

47 editions

Paul reviewed So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

Review of 'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I did feel, with Life, the Universe and Everything, that the series was starting to lose it's way somewhat. With this book, though, Adams gets solidly back on track.

It's very different to what has gone before, and this is very much to the book's advantage. Arthur is more of a character this time around and there's visible plot.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is still very much a Hitchhiker's book, but it also demonstrates the value in a series taking the occasional left turn.

Sean Randall reviewed So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

Review of 'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is my absolute favourite of the series, though several strands from the final installment penned by Adams remain clear in my mind. Here, the action is muted and the space travel pretty thin on the ground, and yet Arthur in love, the Earth, the speaking clock and God's final message to creation all fit together so perfectly that despite the detractors I hold this one very close to my heart.

Chapter 2 is delightful. 10, enspired. 11 through 15, superlative. 16 foreshadowing, 17 predictable, 24 and 26 magical, 34 downright funny and 40 a brilliant ending. Ruined a little, yes, I concede, by the epilogue.

The authorial intrusions are a little too invasive and sharp, I grant you, yet Adams being crunched into producing by deadline is bound to have a few consequences. The humour is different, too, but for some reason I can't quite articulate this book simply …