Don’t panic and don’t forget to bring a towel...

 

 

Antihero: Arthur Dent

Genre: Adult Fiction / Science Fiction

Citation: Adams, Douglas. The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, London : Pan Books, 1979.

 

 

 

 

 

Annotation:

 

In its first 3 months of publication the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy sold over 250, 000 copies. The book is an adaptation that Douglas Adams wrote of his BBC radio series of the same name. The novel is the first of five books in the “trilogy”.

 

Ordinary, hapless and rather dull English man Arthur Dent has the most extraordinary day which turns into an unbelievable adventure. The story begins with Arthur lying in front of a group of bulldozers in order to stop them from bulldozing his house to build a bypass. His protest however is interrupted by the arrival of his friend Ford Prefect. Ford is desperately trying to explain to Arthur that his home is the least of his problems as his home planet is about to be obliterated.

 

Ford tries to explain to Arthur that an alien race known as the Vogons intend to destroy the Earth in order to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Disbelieving Arthur is shocked when he realises that Ford is telling the truth. The two friends escape certain inhalation by hitching a lift on one of the demolition ships.

 

This is the start of an intergalactic adventure for the rather unwilling Arthur. With no home to return to and no understanding of the universe around him what follows is an entertaining hilarious read.

 

Reluctant Arthur joins with a cast of incredible characters such as Ford’s semi-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox who is President of the Galaxy and a depressed robot named Marvin who are searching for the a planet of legend called Magrathea.

 

Arthur will be tortured by the third worst poetry in the known universe, kidnapped and separated from his companions, find a super computer which took seven million years to calculate the answer to “Life, the Universe, and Everything” and if that’s not crazy enough go on further adventures to find “the Question” which gives the answer some meaning. Arthur’s search will set him against a race of hyperintelligent and pandimensional beings that were responsible for the creation of the super computer, Deep Thought.

 

Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy is a quirky and sarcastic intergalactic tale which ends with the group deciding to go to the Restaurant at the end of the universe for lunch. It is a unique and a favoured novel of its generation.