I once believed I was an alien life form, albeit I was in third grade at the time, and thus subject to the ramifications of peer pressure, which sometimes contradicts common sense. Having watched enough cartoons, along with enough animated movies and not so animated ones, I even resorted to the beep-beep noise used by The Road Runner and unintelligent Martians. It was not one of my prouder moments, but looking back on it now, probably showed my ability to suspend disbelief, and helped sprout the seeds of my imagination. Since then, I've developed the spine of a porcupine, I can spit nails, and I have the hard exterior shell of a Plexiglas spacecraft, so I guess the cycle is complete and all is right with the cosmos.
But there are definite glitches in our universe, as evidenced in THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. First, we have the demolishment of the Earth for a galactic freeway or hyperspace bypass. We find out our intelligence level has been exceeded by mice and dolphins, and that dolphins tried to warn us multiple times of our impending doom, but gave up when their form of communication was not acknowledged and accepted our offerings of fish instead. Ford Prefect is alive and well, is not to be confused with the failed Ford model, and in multiple cases, his intelligence exceeds that of the protagonist, Arthur Dent. The plot becomes a bit discombobulated and farfetched at times and sometimes powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive, but that only adds to the wackiness and pleasure of the overall experience.
Even towels are magically transformed to "the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." And you just might need one to stifle your laughter, grins, and outright guffaws at some of the hilarious discussions presented in this fun, quirky read. Where, in the end, "I came for a week and got stuck for fifteen years."
"Resistance is useless!" So you should just sit back and enjoy yourself, albeit from another planet like Mars or Pluto, and where the future is not mired by a hyperspace bypass. Of course, there's always the possibility that introverts may rule this particular universe, and this brings me to one of my favorite lines of this tale: "If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working." So, in that regard, I will continue to exercise my brain through the absence of moving my lips, except when I have something intelligent, relevant, or interesting to say, or when I occasionally forget that my mouth is moving.
If you have a wickedly morbid, sarcastic sense of humor, this book is definitely for you. Since I laugh so often I sometimes don't even know why I'm laughing, I rather enjoyed this read. And you can too, for the measly sum of less than thirty Altairian dollars a day. "So long and thanks for all the fish."
Robert Downs
Author of Falling Immortality: Casey Holden, Private Investigator
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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Reviews with images
Books Are Superior To Moving Pictures: The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy never appealed to me, beyond the opening sequences where a human (Arthur Dent) is pulled from our planet which is soon to be pulverized to make way for a galactic freeway. I like that concept, but then was turned off by the various space creatures that come next in the television and movie adaptations of this story. I don’t think I ever made it through to the end of even one of these. They were just too weird So I never bothered to read Douglas Adams’ novel. I assumed I knew all that it had offer: a pleasing narration, a great premise, and oddball characters that eventually consume the best of what the story has to offer. Of course, I was wrong. Where the moving picture versions allow the director to explore one vision of this tale, my mind can create many alternate ideas. My imagination soared into space this time as I read the story, following along with Arthur and Ford Prefect. The aliens as described in the book don’t overwhelm the story, but instead complement the adventure. The novel still has that fantastic setup, plus the wit of narration, but the book also maintains a focus on the plight of the humans that I didn’t encounter in the film adaptations. This story is one of the most pleasant that I have ever read, although it builds towards surprising profundity as we experience the frailty of human existence. Adams tosses deep and complex ideas into the mix much more often as we near the end of this adventure and, as many other reviewers have pointed out, it all ends too soon.
Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
Philosophical book disguised as a fiction
Reviewed in India on December 29, 2023