Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part XI)
Humourous? Yes. Laugh out loud funny? I’ve never read a book that made me do that, unless you consider Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side, but then never when I was alone. My sister and I would read them together and we would be laughing until our sides hurt and have tears in our eyes.
Good times.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is book one of the four book trilogy. That’s your first taste of the humour of Douglas Adams.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980)Life, the Universe and Everything (1982)So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984)I started reading this in 1985, so I was lucky to be able to read them one after the other. The first book is definitely the best with each successive one being slightly less original but the series was entertaining none the less.
The story begins with Arthur Dent laying in front of a bulldozer which was going to demolish his house then moves on when his friend Ford Prefect (who he doesn’t know is an alien until then) helps him escape the Earth’s demise—ironically being destroyed to make way for an intergalactic freeway.
Much of the humour is Monty Python-esque, being odd and bizarre. A good example is Vogon poetry (the Vogon’s being an alien race from the planet Vogsphere) which is described as the third worst* poetry in the universe, to which I will not subject you to.
I also won’t spoil what they finally discover is the answer to the “Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”**
Not the first sci-fi book that incorporates humour—Asimov and Vonnegut often used elements of humour—but this one is relentless in its inclusion.
A must read series for science fiction fans.
-Leon
*Behind the poetry of the Azgoths of Kria and that of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings.
**It’s not what you might think.
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
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