The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless

In the first five books (I discovered in Australia that there is now a sixth book out) of a three-book series (yes, it’s a three-book series – read the introduction), Adams crafts multiple universes where everything is so illogical, or blatantly obvious, that anything is possible. You MUST read these books. I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by itself, but the rest of them I read together in the compiled format of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. As a result, I always read them assuming it was one continuous story, but this time, I read them with the intention of seeing each book separately, and I liked them much more. Which is saying something because I already love these books.

The stories follow Arthur Dent, from Earth, Ford Prefect, from a planet near Betelgeuse, Tricia McMillan/Trillian, from Earth, and the first few include Marvin the Paranoid Android and the antics of the galactic president, Zaphod Beeblebrox, also from a planet near Betelgeuse. The series starts off with a bang, literally, as the Earth is demolished to construct a hyperspace bypass. Afterwards, our heroes wander the galaxy for a few stories, accidentally getting themselves out of disastrous and deadly serious situations, eating steak from a cow that asks to be eaten, and saving the universe on multiple occasions. Everything happens haphazardly, with much miscommunication and misunderstanding, and although it seems that the characters blunder around blindly, they always end up in the right place. Eventually, Arthur returns to Earth, Ford returns to wandering, and Tricia/Trillian takes up another career. They all reconvene in a parallel universe in the fifth installment, and plenty of excitement ensues.

Adams is spectacular. His characters are amazingly crafted, and his writing in general is brilliant. He has sharp satire, biting wit, and the physics of his science fictional universes makes perfect sense (as far as I can follow it, that is). His metaphors are so completely unpredictable (“the yellow constructor ships hung in the air exactly the way that bricks don’t”) or his reasoning so blatantly obvious (“the trick to learning how to fly is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss”) that his universe makes perfect sense even if it doesn’t seem possible. In that way it reminds me of Catch-22 – so perfectly argued with illogic that you can’t make a competent comeback. Adams also creates a world so fantastic that it almost compares to Harry Potter – and that is ridiculously high praise coming from me. Read these books. They are entertaining, unexpected, and will make you laugh out loud.