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.