So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

The Fourth Book in The Hitchhiker's Trilogy

by Douglas Adams

mass market paperback

English language

Published May 31, 1991 by Pocket.

ISBN:: 978-0-671-74553-0
OCLC Number:: 1028285538

View on OpenLibrary

(16 reviews)

Arthur Dent is out of his bathrobe, in love, and wondering why the dolphins said...

So long and thanks for all the fish

Was the earth really demolished? Why did all the dolphins disappear? What is God's final message to His creatures? Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and the new volvold gang are off (by commercial airline) on a wacked-out quest to answer these truly unimportant questions.

(back cover)

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 …