21
Oct
2009
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
Mostly Harmless is the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series…But I sort of wish it hadn’t been written.
It’s sort of…well, it’s darker than the previous four books.
Not that it’s not funny. It’s just not AS funny.
The plot is…convoluted as best (and I know that is the third time I’ve used ellipses already in this review, but bear with me, O.K.?) Parallel universes, site-seeing, a corporate take-over, prophecies, and of course the Vogons…not to mention for-profit sperm-donation…result in the end of Earth, and all humans forever. In all dimensions.
It is almost like Douglas Adams wrote this book so that he would never ever have to write another Hitchhiker’s book. Of course, shortly before his death he started thinking about writing another, and this month the sixth installment came out, written by Eoin Colfer.
But, yes, yes, there are still good Douglas-Adamsy bits to be found in this one.
Here’s a quote:
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has, in what we laughingly call the past, had a great deal to say on the subject of parallel universes. Very little of this is, however, at all comprehensible to anyone below the level of Advanced God, and since it is now well established that all known gods came into existence a good three millionths of a second after the Universe began rather than, as they usually claimed, the previous week, they already have a great deal of explaining to do as it is, and are therefore not available for comment on matters of deep physics at this time.”
Oh, and the whole part about The Sandwich-Maker.
Overall, I say that if you are planning to read the new one, read this first. If not, well…you can probably stop at book 4 and live your life without regret.
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman
Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams by Nick Webb
Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman
And Another Thing…by Eoin Colfer
Other works by Douglas Adams:
The Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
With John Lloyd:
The Meaning of Liff
The Deeper Meaning of Liff: A Dictionary of Things There Aren’t Any Words for Yet–But There Ought to Be
I read these in high school and I think I’d get more out of them now (10 years later). I remember vaguely getting the jokes but I still remember snip-its. I think the first was my favorite.
I started And Another Thing . . . and was like WTF? So, I opened up my omnibus for the Hitchhiker’s series. Now, I realize I only ever read the first one. I’m currently reading the whole omnibus, just so I can review the Colfer book. I’m on Life, the Universe, and Everything. It went through a very unfunny point, but right now it’s starting to get funny again. Having to catch up means NOTHING TO POST for tomorrow. Alas!
I really only liked the first Hitchhikers book in the series. Got the joke, thought it was funny, but one book was enough for me.
The Douglas Adam book that I enjoyed most was Last Chance to See. I was lucky enough to go to an author reading of this in Boulder when it came out so I have an autographed copy.
Well worth reading
BTW, good review. I didn’t know that he had started another HH Guide book before he died.
Great review … I’ll just stay where I am on book 3.
I think I’d stop at the end of the trilogy. It always seemed to me that each successive book lost a little something, but I still love ‘em.
I have never read these books, but I have seen the movie.
Adams wrote this when he was deeply depressed and always regretted the ending of the book. That is why he was writing a new one. Mostly Harmless is, I think, the “worst” one in the series, but I’m going to try the new Colfer one.
Great review. I haven’t read the new one yet and I’m not sure I’m going to. Mostly Harmless was definitely a little weaker than the rest and I’m not sure I can take the plunge with a new author.
Aww, I actually really liked this one, darkness and all. I’m with Bella…the idea of someone else writing these feels so strange to me that I’m not sure if I’m going to pick up And Another Thing.