Review - “The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide”

Don't Panic
Perhaps the longest trilogy ever written with a total of five books (six if the short and excellent “Young Zaphoid Plays It Safe” is included), this British Science-Fiction comedy has appeared in several forms over the years before being bound in this single edition. According to the author himself, Douglas Adams, the books first appeared as a radio series before being published in book form, having little to resemble the plot of the radio shows they were based on. Since then, the first book (A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), along with several books in the trilogy have alternately been made into a T.V. series, spun off into a computer game, published in comic book form and more recently, made into a movie which borrows from both the radio series and the books, and in true Douglas Adam’s fashion, swiftly contradicts both.

If you’ve never read this uproariously funny, satirical, and contradictory series of books, I highly recommend you doing so as soon as possible. Riddled with tangents that have nothing to do with anything until reappearing randomly later or not at all, this book will keep you laughing and guessing what will happen the entire way through. Not really a guide to the galaxy in of itself, but rather the story of one Arthur Dent (an inhabitant of an insignificant blue-green planet in the unfashionable bit of the western arm of the Galaxy), a careful reader will no doubt pick up some vital pieces of information for their attempts at space travel. But ultimately it all comes down to the story of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman who manages to escape shortly before the destruction of Earth; his best friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and writer for the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’; Zaphod Beeblebrox, former President of the Galaxy, Ford’s semi-cousin; Trillian, the only other survivor of Earth besides Arthur; along with a whole host of characters including Marvin the depressed robot as they travel across the galaxy for reasons they’re not even sure of.

Trust me, this book is one of the funniest books you will read as Douglas Adam’s writing will keep you guess on what will happen next all the while keeping you laughing.