It's easy to become disheartened when your planet has been demolished for an unnecessary hyperspacial express route, the woman you love has vanishe...
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Jun 29, 2007
Jon
rated it: 
Mostly Harmless was, for many people, a disappointing end to a fantastic series. Adams admitted that he was having a "bad year" when he wrote this book, and it shows: the usual humor and manic pacing are largely gone, replaced by long tracts about actual theoretical science (as opposed to the lunatic-inspired science that created, say, the starship Bistromath), and the tone overall is far darker and more depressive. There are still glimpses of Adams' comedic genius, but the book as a
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Feb 08, 2008
Nathan
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Blechh! Worst. Ending. Ever! I've heard that Douglas Adams wrote this book during a bad time in his life (hey, we all have 'em), but this book more or less stinks. I have chosen to forget that this book was ever written, and that the series ended on a definite high note with "So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish". Those of you who have not had your minds poisoned with this bit of tripe would do well to skip it altogether.
May 24, 2008
Kyle
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Starting off a bit too divergent in time and space, and rounding up the few remaining main characters for one last adventure, it would seem that Douglas Adam is straining to be glib about the ineffable laws of the universe. Or rather the many universes we may or may not be aware of, preferring to call it some sort of Mish Mash. Yet halfway through this novel, we can see that every sidestep and meander is in the service of a plot that is as straight and piercing as Time's arrow. Arthur Dent ge
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Jan 27, 2012
Dan
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For some reason this fifth volume is not included in most collection of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I've only realised this recently.
As with most of Adams' book, I finished the book with the feeling that I only sort of know what was going on and wasn't really sure what the point of it was but I had so much fun along the way that I didn't really care. This edition sees a new guide being created which works across all the dimensions. Queue chaos. Arthur Dent spends a great de More...
As with most of Adams' book, I finished the book with the feeling that I only sort of know what was going on and wasn't really sure what the point of it was but I had so much fun along the way that I didn't really care. This edition sees a new guide being created which works across all the dimensions. Queue chaos. Arthur Dent spends a great de More...
Dec 18, 2011
Ensiform
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Intrepid Arthur Dent, star-hopping again, loses Fenchurch and the Earth. And in parallel (to what?) universes, a depressed Tricia McMillan never left Earth with Zaphod, while Trillian Astra has a daughter by Dent's sperm. Also, Vogons try for another crack at the Earth via an incredibly evil force that took over the Guide's offices.
In many ways this book is a wonderful return to form, with the usual high/low comedy and mad, twisted explanations of tangential remarks. As literature, More...
In many ways this book is a wonderful return to form, with the usual high/low comedy and mad, twisted explanations of tangential remarks. As literature, More...
Dec 08, 2011
Charles
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Jul 24, 2011
Margot
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Writing about this book months after reading it, I remember it being entertaining, but am hard pressed to recall any details at all. Perhaps like a summer movie.
I marked a few passages as representative:
"She walked out of the fetid, goat-frying air and into the blessed cool of the lobby. The fine cotton of her blouse was sticking like grime to her skin. Her hair felt as if she'd bought it at a fairground, on a stick."(21)
"Her mood swings were very unpredic More...
I marked a few passages as representative:
"She walked out of the fetid, goat-frying air and into the blessed cool of the lobby. The fine cotton of her blouse was sticking like grime to her skin. Her hair felt as if she'd bought it at a fairground, on a stick."(21)
"Her mood swings were very unpredic More...
Feb 11, 2011
Roberta
rated it:
Dei libri che compongono questa "trilogia in cinque volumi" Praticamente innocuo è sicuramente il più dismesso e malinconico. Le parti con Ford Prefect sono sempre piuttosto scoppiettanti, ma anche lui si lascia andare a nostalgiche fantasie sul periodo in cui la Guida era ancora in stadio embrionale, e sui suoi sogni perduti e mai realizzati. Arthur Dent vola di paese in paese cercando disperatamente qualcosa di familiare e quando gli pare di averlo trovato viene raggiunto da Trillian
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Jan 04, 2011
Fred
rated it:
It has been a good number of years since I last read the earlier books in this series, so I was pleased that the humor and storytelling still held up so well. The material that made up the earlier books started out as a radio program, I believe, so they have a more freewheeling sense about them than the later ones. That's the benefit of having so many successive (and successful) drafts. Still, this final book of the series (leaving aside the Eoin Colfer-penned And Another Thing from 2009, which
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Oct 25, 2010
Phillip
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Jul 09, 2010
Charley
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I've always loved Douglas Adam's work, and first listened to my Dad's old record of Hitchhiker's Primary Phase when I was very small and didn't understand a word - but I knew that I loved it. So when I was older I made sure to buy the books, and always liked the novels better than a radio or TV series. But I never read Mostly Harmless.
I did have it, our copy was the whole five books, but I think that I just couldn't really get my head around the big jump between it and So Long and Thank More...
I did have it, our copy was the whole five books, but I think that I just couldn't really get my head around the big jump between it and So Long and Thank More...
Jun 19, 2010
Cecily
rated it:
Hitchhiker's, volume 5.
There are some good lines in this, but I can't help feeling it would have been better if Adams had left it unwritten, or at least unpublished. It is very disjointed, with Ford, Arthur and Trillian mostly in separate stories.
It starts in what would be a parallel universe - if such things existed, which they don't, because "it makes as much sense as the sea being parallel".
"If there was one thing life had taught her it was More...
There are some good lines in this, but I can't help feeling it would have been better if Adams had left it unwritten, or at least unpublished. It is very disjointed, with Ford, Arthur and Trillian mostly in separate stories.
It starts in what would be a parallel universe - if such things existed, which they don't, because "it makes as much sense as the sea being parallel".
"If there was one thing life had taught her it was More...
Jan 05, 2010
Margaret
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I've only read Mostly Harmless (the fifth book of "the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy, as it says on the front cover of my copy) once, although I've read the other books in the series multiple times. I had read many reviews when it came out saying that it didn't fit with the other books and that the events of Mostly Harmless might actually spoil rereading the other books, so I purposefully avoided. However, after reading a couple of biographies of Douglas Adams and pra
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Mar 19, 2009
Brandon
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Well I would be remiss if I did not mention the ending before anything else. First of all this isn't technically the ending of the series, Douglas Adams just died before he wrote anymore Hitchhiker books, that being said this makes this the series ending for all intents and purposes. So with that in mind this is the worst ending of a series that could have ever possibly been conceived. In truth this shouldn't have been the ending of a book. If you are the kind of person that is all about the end
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Jul 22, 2011
Amanda
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Like its predecessors in the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, "Mostly Harmless" is a very quick and easy read. Douglas Adams' writing style is light and entertaining, containing just enough words to let you know what's going on, rather than going on and on describing each and every detail. In this way, the story flows along quite nicely. While the beginning of the story did tend to drag on a bit, once it picked up, I found it to be very engaging and amusing. The
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Dec 15, 2009
Steven
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Carefully read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then imagine that the most horrible, depressing conclusion possible to the whole affair could happen. That is what happens in Mostly Harmless. It wraps every loose end up most completely, but it wraps things up the way a car compactor packages your favorite vehicle.
The atrocities the author commits towards his characters in this book significantly impact my enjoyment of the rest of the series. The first few pages start out depress More...
The atrocities the author commits towards his characters in this book significantly impact my enjoyment of the rest of the series. The first few pages start out depress More...
Mar 10, 2008
Simon
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It's been a good 20 years since I read the first four Hitchhikers books, which I loved. This one felt very different. The wackiness and comic invention has been toned down, and in its place is a very English strain of wistful melancholy. The plot makes a certain kind of sense if you think about it, although it's not what I would call satisfying. There are a couple of laugh out loud moments, but the overall feeling is one of sadness. Interesting...
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Oct 14, 2009
Bunxena
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Aug 05, 2011
Andrew
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This is (as other's have suggested) a darker book than previous 'Hitchiker' books but in fairness only really in the dying chapters...there is still a lot of humour within and much to be enjoyed with regard the (mis) adventures of Arthur and Ford.
In reality this is also the last of the Adams books and it does feel like the end of the saga too..everything gets wrapped up ultimately and there is continuity within this book..the Eoin Colfer sixth book is one which I now approach with trepidat More...
In reality this is also the last of the Adams books and it does feel like the end of the saga too..everything gets wrapped up ultimately and there is continuity within this book..the Eoin Colfer sixth book is one which I now approach with trepidat More...
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Jul 30, 2011
Kurt
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I feel like the bad guy after a break-up. It's not that this book was terrible, but I gave up after reading 2/3 of it. I started my relationship with the book without a lot of trust - the reviews I've read and heard have been overwhelmingly negative, and I really disliked the previous book in the series. But I figured that maybe my friends were all wrong, and no one could appreciate the book but me, and I just needed to give it some time. And then it let me down. It's not that it did anything al
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Nov 07, 2011
Penelope
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Nov 08, 2007
Matt
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I'm a huge fan of Douglas Adams, and loved the first four books in the "trilogy". I was sorely disappointed by the fifth and final book in the series though. To me, it seemed like he was thinking "I'm sick of people whining for more Hitchhiker's books. I'll show them." The way the book ends is so...final. I understand Adams was going through a bad period when he wrote this book, and it shows. Don't bother with this one.
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Feb 13, 2011
Daniel
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Arthur Dent. Just an average joe trying to make his way in life. Well, it all hits a wall when he learns that his best friend, Ford, is not from Earth, but a small planet in the area of Betelgeuse. They then hitchhike onto an alien spaceship seconds before the earth is blown to pieces by a volgon destructor fleet to make way for an inter galactic bypass. As you can see, the Earth is still here, and we have not discovered any Volgon destructor ships approaching earth. Douglas Adams creates a scie
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Jan 26, 2012
Mnava
rated it:
Eccoci qui, nel bene e nel male siamo giunti alla fine di questa saga. In fondo è passata alla svelta, ma non è passata senza lasciare traccia. Tra i suoi alti e bassi Douglas Adams ha creato un piccolo capolavoro che chiunque abbia il piacere di leggere ricorderà sempre. In quest'ultima portata, degna conclusione della serata, ancora una volta la storia non è la più clamorosa, e i toni del romanzo sembrano essersi adagiati su qualcosa di più comune e confortante rispetto alla bizzaria del primo
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Jan 11, 2011
Deepa
rated it:
After 4 just too awesome HHGG books this one was a shock!
I read it till the end with a hope that the depressing and cynical tone was deliberate and things will suddenly change for better. but no! its just horrible till the very end.
Its just not HHGG! its not even Douglas Adams!! The story is like that of a drama with lost teenage daughter and career crisis and regrets in life and problems with fitting in and what u call home and all that!! PLEASE!! this is supposed to be HHGG! not a ch More...
I read it till the end with a hope that the depressing and cynical tone was deliberate and things will suddenly change for better. but no! its just horrible till the very end.
Its just not HHGG! its not even Douglas Adams!! The story is like that of a drama with lost teenage daughter and career crisis and regrets in life and problems with fitting in and what u call home and all that!! PLEASE!! this is supposed to be HHGG! not a ch More...
Jan 02, 2011
Natan
rated it:
The fifth (and final) book in the Hitchhiker trilogy. (Yes, it's still called a trilogy.) After the events in the third book, Arthur Dent is convinced that if he died before going to Stavromula Beta (a place where he is told he goes at some point in the future) it would create a paradox, and so, he cannot die until he goes there. Now a sandwich maker (don't ask), he is introduced to his daughter, Random. With 50% more paradoxes, Arthur hitches a ride on a perfectly normal beast, does not open a
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Apr 29, 2009
Tommy
rated it:
So the Hitchhiker series ends on a better note, in my opinion, that the middle books of the series. Adams does a good job of tying things together at the end and a lot of paths humorously converge.
I wasn't particularly fond of Arthur having a daughter and that whole plot line but I guess it drove the story to its ending. I think, more than anything, it was put in to milk one more book out of the series so it didn't have to be wrapped up earlier.
I still have problems with More...
I wasn't particularly fond of Arthur having a daughter and that whole plot line but I guess it drove the story to its ending. I think, more than anything, it was put in to milk one more book out of the series so it didn't have to be wrapped up earlier.
I still have problems with More...
Sep 20, 2010
David
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The sixth and final (and perhaps my favorite) installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, "Mostly Harmless" mirrors the story of the first four books in that Arthur Dent, who has finally found a place that is comfortable for him, is once again ripped from his comfort zone and thrown into another harrowing situation. This isn't just Arthur's story though. The other main characters pertinent to the story at this point in the timeline are slowly and inexorably drawn toward
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Jul 24, 2009
Jess
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After reading the book I kind of wish I had left the series at So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish instead. So Long... was deliciously funny and filled with upbeat craziness, while Mostly Harmless was pervaded by an underlying sense of unease. To be honest, the ending felt a bit like Adams just gave up, shouted "I HATE THIS TRILOGY", and wrote a page before mailing it to his editor and warning him never, ever to mention Arthur Dent or Ford Prefect again. Of course, to be fair, Adams w
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Jul 30, 2010
Dalton
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