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Sep 21st, 2010 01:03 AM
Kilgore Cod This was the review I wrote of it shortly after reading it:



The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills,
like a man saying "and another thing" twenty minutes after admitting he's lost the argument.

- Douglas Adams

This is, as can be discerned from the cover, the sixth part of the three part Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which stand as my favorite series of books of all time. Now, I didn't even know of the existence of this book until a few weeks ago. I was in line at Borders and I glanced at their "coming soon" section of their wall and under the one for books, was the cover of And Another Thing, which immediately drew my attention. Then I saw the little bit on the top that said Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which I originally thought was just one of those " for the fans of..." adverts you'd see on a book cover. But then the words under that, which I was having a hard time understanding, finally hit me. PART SIX OF THREE. THE SIXTH HITCHHIKER'S BOOK. SOMEONE HAS WRITTEN THE SIXTH BOOK THAT DOUGLAS HIMSELF NEVER GOT AROUND TO WRITING (cause of his notorious laziness).

Post-humous books are nothing new. One of my favorite books of the last few years was Variable Star, a posthumous work originally outlined by Robert A. Heinlein and written by the still-humous Spider Robinson. (If you're a Heinlein fan, you must read Variable Star).

And Another Thing is different though. It would appear that this is a completely new work by a different author who was asked to write it by Douglas' widow, Jane Belson. But after reading some things about this new author, Eoin Colfer, whose writing is by all accounts heavily influenced by Douglas Adams, I warmed up to the idea of the sixth novel and eagerly awaited its release. I bought it on Tuesday and finished it at around 3am last night. My quick review is:

I love it.

As a fan who has read every previous Hitchhiker's novel numerous times, I never accepted that Mostly Harmless's bleak depressing ending was the end for these characters. Colfer basically pretends that the last few pages of Mostly Harmless never happened (or was just a hallucination created by noxious fumes) and finds an ingenious (or should I say, improbable) way to get Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Random off of the planet, just before the Vogons destroy it again. Of course Zaphod is involved and an minor character from the previous books becomes a major character here (won't say who it is, though I expect him to land any second now to insult me). Then there are Norse Gods, a planet bought by some humans, Cthulhu being verbally bitchslapped, a Cheese god, a Vogon who has evolved and Arthur finally finds what he's been searching many parallel universes for (and then gets taken away from him again).

Colfer's writing style is very reminiscent of Douglas Adams (obviously), but there are subtle differences that keeps this from feeling like a blasphemous parody. If there's one thing that I think he should had done better with were the footnotes. Unlike in the other books, they aren't on the bottom of a given page (which allowed you to read them when you felt like it), instead they come right after whatever thing they are detailing, right in the middle of the text. Colfer tried too hard with this, coming up with zany and wacky stories that just feel like they are just distracting from the subject at hand.

Despite that sometimes annoying thing regarding the footnotes, as a Hitchhiker's fan I really came away with this with a sense of satisfaction. Douglas Adams' beloved characters were treated with great care and respect, and it was a joy to be given the chance to re-visit the Hitchhiker's universe.

I definitely hope that Colfer doesn't stop here (Arthur deserves a happy ending dammit).
Feb 16th, 2010 06:29 PM
bigtimecow i don't remember exactly which book it was in, but whatever one had the chapter dedicated to the (god dammit can't i remember anything) impossible matter device or something, you know the machine that just creates impossible things or something...fuck this is pathetic. WHATEVER IT IS I WANT TO RE-READ IT BECAUSE I REMEMBER THERE BEING A LINE ABOUT A WHALE AND IT WAS
Feb 11th, 2010 02:35 PM
Tadao I wouldn't even read it if Pratchett wrote it.
Feb 11th, 2010 02:21 PM
bigtimecow umm this is retarded. adams is dead, and the series pretty much ended. having someone continue it (regardless of whether or not he got permission from adams' wife) is just lame

i remember i read the entire series in like 3 months while i was in high school and it was so uniquely hilarious. adams has a distinct comedic style of writing and story structure, so fuck this
Feb 11th, 2010 01:22 PM
Tadao Mostly harmless was amazing. It The whole thing with Argajab or whatever his name was was worth it alone. You're stupid.
Feb 10th, 2010 08:28 PM
Grislygus I'm not readin that shit, that's like the authors who can't get a job doing anything other than writing brand new CTHULHU MYTHOS, POST-LOVECRAFT: ACCEPTED CANON
Feb 10th, 2010 07:20 PM
YellowSub287 I'm about half way through the new book now. So far, it's pretty funny and it's a breath of fresh air considering how the 5th book ended on such a dismal note. If you're a HHGTG fan and haven't read "And Another Thing..." yet, read it. You won't be disappointed.
Sep 6th, 2009 11:08 AM
Hangie Yea I read the artemis fowl books in 5th grade, that guy seems a bit too...serious to write a HHGTG book though.
Sep 6th, 2009 09:27 AM
Zhukov Hmm, I read some Artemis Fowl books that belonged to my little brother not too long ago; they were really quite good. I will read this new book.
Sep 3rd, 2009 05:40 PM
executioneer :/
Sep 3rd, 2009 05:02 PM
Colonel Flagg I'm still hearing the echoes of Ford Prefect's wild laughter as the universe ceases to exist. How do you come back from this? The mind reels.

EDIT - FFoA, we do know that one of Zaphod's heads is saner than an emu on acid.
Sep 3rd, 2009 04:57 PM
Tadao I'll read it.
Sep 3rd, 2009 04:27 PM
FistfulOAwesome
DON'T PANIC!: 6th book in the HHGTTG.

October 12th of 2009 will see the release of "And Another Thing...", the sixth book in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series. It was written by Eoin Colfer (who's written some books called the "Artemis Fowl" series) with permission from Douglas Adams's widow.

Who else is blown away by this? After the 5th book's unhappy ending (both the book itself and Adams's death), I wasn't expecting a continuance to the story. HH's fans know that Adams was writing a bit of a 6th book before he died, but who would ever guess that a sixth one would eventually be released, by a different author, 17 years later?

I don't know much about the book (having found out about it about 10 minutes before starting this topic), but it will apparantly bring back most of the players (including Zaphod, who was absent from the 4th and 5th ones), and, if the cover is any indication, The Hitchhiker's Guide Mark II will also still be involved.

Seriously, blown away!

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