SFU: Similarities With Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

[Nukethewhalesagain]

I am still early on in the book but I have already noticed some similarities and I wondered if there were more. Thematically, both books are obviously very self-aware and quick to find humor of Sci-Fi trope. The main characters in both books travel in a device that works in a slightly confusing way. And both are quick to point out how impossible it is to do everything in the book.

Hitchhiker's Guide is my favorite book of all time so I may be stretching here but has anyone else found any similarities?

[terpkristin]

The robot/computers in both books share many depresseive likenesses.

[Joe]

I agree, the negative operating system reminded me of Marvin, and in general, I found similarities in the humor. I also love Hitchhiker's guide, so I did not think this was a bad thing at all.

[Kate]

The sort of free-wheeling exploration of ideas that bore only the most tangential relationship to the plot reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide in a good way.

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Adams is much more fun though. Wu seems very maudlin. Not that it's bad, but it's like he's the emo Adams. I haven't encountered anything truly wacky like Zaphod Beeblebrox in Wu. There's a lot mor eintrospection I think.

[Matthew]

There are similarities, but only on the surface. At its core Hithhiker's is a comedy that also happens to be about science fiction. There isn't that kind of go-for-the-punchline humor here. Yu's humor is a consequence of the story, not the focus.

To me it reads more like a sort-of biography hidden inside an sf novel. As if Yu is saying "some of these things happened, not necessarily in this way and the time machine is pure McGuffin".

[Will]

I haven't read Hitchhiker's, but I figured there would be some similarities. I need to add that to my todo list.

[John (john)]

Early in the book I had felt that Yu's writing style was similar, sort of as Kate mentions above, but where I loved Hitchhiker's and read it voraciously, I got worn out by this book about halfway through and had to force myself to finish.

[Scott]

"Early in the book I had felt that Yu's writing style was similar, sort of as Kate mentions above, but where I loved Hitchhiker's and read it voraciously, I got worn out by this book about halfway through and had to force myself to finish."

John, I couldn't agree more! I was enthusiastic when I started and at about halfway through I find myself pushing through, the interest has decreased.

[Nukethewhalesagain]

After just finishing the book, I have to agree with pretty much everyone here. At first the book had similarities with Hitchhiker's but it's really trying to do different things. Once the actual plot gets going the author stops the wacky world building and its all introspection from then on.

I liked the book but I was expecting something different.

[Martin]

I found more similarities with the writings of Douglas Coupland and his acute personal descriptions that is more about the relationships between the characters, where the comedy lay in the absurd situations and personal destinies. Not that I didn't see the similarities with Adams as well.