book data
14,591 ratings,
3.96
average rating, 259 reviews
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published
December 25th 2008
by Del Rey
(first published 1984)
details
Kindle Edition, 224 pages
characters
asin
B001OF5F1E
description
Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent i…more
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avg 3.96
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
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recommends it for:
fans of sci-fi, comedy, romance or magical realism
If any of the inappropriately named Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy could be called "best", I think this is it. I see two elements setting it apart from the other books in the HHGG series: its tight plot, and the fact that it is at heart a romantic comedy more than a farcical satire of the Science Fiction genre.
As one would expect, the focus of the storyline is the continued pursuit of the Ultimate Question, to which we already know that the Ultimate Answer is "Forty-two"...more
As one would expect, the focus of the storyline is the continued pursuit of the Ultimate Question, to which we already know that the Ultimate Answer is "Forty-two"...more
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Read in January, 2009
The further adventures of at least some of our Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy friends. This one focuses mainly focuses mainly on Arthur Dent, who finds himself once again on Earth, which was supposed to have been destroyed eight years earlier before he set off on adventures around the Galaxy.
Although my finite mind was slightly confused at times, I chalked all of this up to the vagaries and complexities of time travel. At any rate, Arthur makes good use of his return to Earth, meeti...more
Although my finite mind was slightly confused at times, I chalked all of this up to the vagaries and complexities of time travel. At any rate, Arthur makes good use of his return to Earth, meeti...more
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Read in January, 2010
I was surprised with this one. I don't mean that in a bad way, nor do it I mean it in a good way, really. Douglas Adams knew how to right, there's no doubt about it. He is an incredible writer and his short bibliography could demolish most of the stuff resting on the shelves in bookstores.
But, is this one his best?
No.
Is this the best one in the Hitchhiker's "trilogy"?
No.
Is this still a good book?
You bet.
...more
But, is this one his best?
No.
Is this the best one in the Hitchhiker's "trilogy"?
No.
Is this still a good book?
You bet.
...more
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Read in March, 2006
I love Douglas Adams' books.. They are SO RANDOM, which is my kind of funny, so I found them hilarious! They contain a lot of spaceship/science talk which for the most part doesn't make sense, but if you have any background in physics and can understand what he's implying, it makes it all the funnier. But no matter your background, you will finish with a big fat "WHAT THE...??"
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This is a strange series for me which I love. I came across the 1st book while in Harris county jail. Read part of So long, and Thanks for All the Fish during my last 3 days in jail. It was not until 96 when living in Dallas that book 2;The Restaurant at the End of the Universe was given to me as a Secret Santa gift. Book 3;Life the Universe and Everything I have never read. I finally finished book for in 2004 which was a gift from a nun who I met at a Muay Thai smoker fight.
I don't ...more
I don't ...more
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Read in March, 2009
Okay, I just really didn't care for this book, for starters it is set almost exclusively on Earth, which shouldn't be possible and is never really explained, although I am pretty sure I get it. Arthur is really the only character from the series here, Ford plays a small part throughout, but way too small. Zaphod and Trillian are not here at all, and even Marvin only makes a small cameo at the end.
It is a sci-fi book, but man is it boring. It is a romance between Arthur and a woman n...more
It is a sci-fi book, but man is it boring. It is a romance between Arthur and a woman n...more
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Read in February, 2009
recommends it for:
people who liked the third book
This is the fourth book in the trilogy, so you start off with a little bit of absurdity. And of course this is Adams, so it continues even in the book itself. But, alas, it's just not as good as the first three (but to be fair it was a hard act to follow). I just wasn't as interested in what was happening in this one. It got a little serious and moved away from rampant goofiness. Part of this may come from the fact that it takes place almost entirely on earth. The other thing is that a key featu...more
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Read in February, 2009
I picked this up because it was sitting on my kitchen table looking lonesome. It is the fourth book in the Hitchhiker's series but I have never read any of them.
I liked the narration and imgagination of Douglas Adams. But what I first thought was a comparison to Vonnegut soon became a contrast because Adams never goes far enough with a joke to make it as true and sad like Vonnegut can. He also reminded me of Tom Robbins, but without the caffeine.
I kept reading though...more
I liked the narration and imgagination of Douglas Adams. But what I first thought was a comparison to Vonnegut soon became a contrast because Adams never goes far enough with a joke to make it as true and sad like Vonnegut can. He also reminded me of Tom Robbins, but without the caffeine.
I kept reading though...more
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Read in February, 2010
I love Douglas Adams and HGTTG is one of my all-time favorite books. This one though, the 4th in the series, is just a bit boring. I wasn't a fan of the love story, Marvin's not in it at all until the very end, and while there are a few great moments, overall it's just not as strong as the first 2 books. This was a re-read and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a purist and have to read all the books in any given series. i'm a total purist about these things and am a multiple-re-reader s...more
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The universe is a joke, but only some of us are in on it.
Even before I was shown the meaning of life in a dream at 17, I knew this to be true. And yet, I have always felt a need to search for the truth, that nebulous, ill-treated creature. Adams has always felt, to me, to be a common partner in that journey.
Between the search for truth, and the recognition that it's all a joke in poor taste lies Douglas Adams, and, luckily for us, he doesn't seem to mind if you lie th...more
Even before I was shown the meaning of life in a dream at 17, I knew this to be true. And yet, I have always felt a need to search for the truth, that nebulous, ill-treated creature. Adams has always felt, to me, to be a common partner in that journey.
Between the search for truth, and the recognition that it's all a joke in poor taste lies Douglas Adams, and, luckily for us, he doesn't seem to mind if you lie th...more
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Read in October, 2009
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Read in January, 1986
The first three books of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series are terrific. I discovered them in my early teen years, just about when I started to question what life was all about. These books don't have any answers they just make fun of the questions. They were really the right books at the right time for me.
They were also the first books marketed to adults that I read without anyone having to ask me or tell me to read them.
Life, the Universe and Everything is...more
They were also the first books marketed to adults that I read without anyone having to ask me or tell me to read them.
Life, the Universe and Everything is...more
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Read in January, 1994
recommends it for:
Everyone with a working heart
Simply one of the best love stories ever written.
I'm a decided fan of Adams' Hitchhiker *cough* trilogy *end cough*, mostly for his wry asides and absurdist view of humanity. He is genuinely hilarious.
That being said, his first three books felt to me something like a series of insanely inventive comedy sketches in search of a plot. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is still wonderfully loopy and littered with idiosyncratic characters and occurances, but it feels less...more
I'm a decided fan of Adams' Hitchhiker *cough* trilogy *end cough*, mostly for his wry asides and absurdist view of humanity. He is genuinely hilarious.
That being said, his first three books felt to me something like a series of insanely inventive comedy sketches in search of a plot. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is still wonderfully loopy and littered with idiosyncratic characters and occurances, but it feels less...more
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Read in March, 1985
recommends it for:
everyone who loves science fiction and has a sense of humour
Unlike many people, I didn't come to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy via the radio series, I was a book fan right from the start.
So, back in 1985 when Douglas Adams wrote another entry in the canon I was unfeasibly excited...
And with So Long there wasn't any disappointment, its one of my favourite books, one I can go back to time and time again.
It seems to me that Adams took the opportunity to experiment with some of his wilder ideas of what he could do ...more
So, back in 1985 when Douglas Adams wrote another entry in the canon I was unfeasibly excited...
And with So Long there wasn't any disappointment, its one of my favourite books, one I can go back to time and time again.
It seems to me that Adams took the opportunity to experiment with some of his wilder ideas of what he could do ...more
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Arthur and Fenchurch arrive at the home of Wonko The Sane:
"What it was like was this:
It was inside out.
Actually inside out, to the extent that they had to park on the carpet.
All along what one would normally call the outer wall, which was decorated in a tasteful interior-designed pink, were bookshelves, also a couple of those odd three-legged tables with semi-circular tops which stand in such a way as to suggest that someone just dropped the w...more
"What it was like was this:
It was inside out.
Actually inside out, to the extent that they had to park on the carpet.
All along what one would normally call the outer wall, which was decorated in a tasteful interior-designed pink, were bookshelves, also a couple of those odd three-legged tables with semi-circular tops which stand in such a way as to suggest that someone just dropped the w...more
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Arthur seems a wholly different person. Hitchhiking all by himself, eight years after "life, the universe and everything". He arrives on Earth. A different Earth. On this Earth, there lives a woman. A woman that has uncovered a way in which everyone living on it could get along. and so on...
This book focuses on a new planet Earth, Fenchurch and an Idea.
I found it dissappointing, that the Idea, wasn't exactly an Idea, but an apology. Other than that, I liked the book. ...more
This book focuses on a new planet Earth, Fenchurch and an Idea.
I found it dissappointing, that the Idea, wasn't exactly an Idea, but an apology. Other than that, I liked the book. ...more
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Read in January, 2001
So good! One of my summer intern friends (2001) at Lehigh University in PA loaned me the whole Hitchhiker's Guide series when he found out I had never read it. It was hilarious. I really liked the movies too. Definitely a must read if you're getting into Sci Fi, are a nerd, or just plain hate bureauocracy. (There's an alien race that is a satire on British queues and some people's obsession with filling out forms in triplicate, etc.) Anyway, GOOD TIMES! Read this book!
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Read in November, 2008
recommends it for:
Humor/ Sci-Fi Readers
In this Fourth installment of the Hitchhiker's series Arthur Dent somehow, after a long needed vacation, returns to Earth even though he distinctly remembers it getting demolished to build a intergalactic highway 8 years ago. Even more wierd is that no one seems to remember this event and everyone just remembers a hallucination. As he returns home even more questions start to appear: Who left the fish bowl for him? Where did all the dolphins go, and what was God's last message to creation? t...more
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The fourth book in the increasingly misnamed Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy is really a romantic comedy in which the male lead just happens to have returned from an eight year trip around the Horsehead Nebula. And so we enjoy the love story of Arthur Dent and Fenny playing out above the streets of Islington.
A parallel universe has furnished us with a new Earth and the Vogons destroying the original has been explained away as just another conspiracy theory. Arthur was hopin...more
A parallel universe has furnished us with a new Earth and the Vogons destroying the original has been explained away as just another conspiracy theory. Arthur was hopin...more
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fiction (on 275 people's shelves)
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