"Mostly Harmless" by Douglas Adams

"You live and learn.  At any rate, you live."

"Mostly Harmless" is the last book in "The Hitchhiker's" series.  It was published in 1992, about nine years before Douglas Adams' death.

I liked this book better than the previous installment, "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," but it was a bit of a downer.  Subplots involving a corporate takeover of the Guide offices, and Arthur's lost daughter border on the depressing, although there are some genuinely funny moments in this book.

According to Wikipedia, Adams had planned a sixth book to end the series.  Unfortunately, he didn't live to write that one.  Another writer has gone on to write this sixth book, but I refuse to read it.  A "Hitchhiker's" book that's NOT by Douglas Adams?  Why bother?

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" by Douglas Adams

"There is a feeling which persists in England that making a sandwich interesting, attractive, or in any way pleasant to eat is something sinful that only foreigners do.


"'Make 'em dry' is the instruction buried somewhere in the collective national consciousness, 'make 'em rubbery.  If you have to keep the buggers fresh, do it by washing 'em once a week.'


"It is by eating sandwiches in pubs at Saturday lunchtime that the British seek to atone for whatever their national sins have been.  They're not altogether clear about what those sins are, and don't want to know either.  Sins are not the sort of things one wants to know about.  But whatever sins there are are amply atoned for by the sandwiches they make themselves eat."

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" came out in George Orwell's least or most favorite year, depending on whether you are discussing soul-crushing authoritarian dictatorships or novels that made his career.  It is the fourth book in the "Hitchhiker" series, leaving me with only the fifth and final book yet to read.

Despite what the quote above might lead you to expect, it's not all that funny.  Arthur Dent finds his way back to Earth, starts to think that his misadventures in other parts of the universe might have all been a dream, and then a huge alien robot shows up and promptly takes a holiday by the seaside.

It's still a good book, but I would only recommend it if you have read the first three.  Then again, if you've read the first three, it is inevitable that you will read this one, so why bother to recommend it in the first place?

"Life, the Universe, and Everything" by Douglas Adams

"It was a large mattress, and probably one of quite high quality.  Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an infinitely large Universe such as, for instance, the one in which we live, most things one could possibly imagine and a lot of things one would rather not, grow somewhere.  (A forest was discovered recently in which most of the trees grew ratchet screwdrivers as fruit.  The life cycle of ratchet screwdriver fruit is quite interesting.  Once picked it needs a dark dusty drawer in which it can lie undisturbed for years.  Then one night it suddenly hatches, discards its outer skin and crumbles into dust, and emerges as a totally unidentifiable little metal object with flanges at both ends and a sort of ridge and a sort of hole for a screw.  This, when found, will get thrown away.  No one knows what it is supposed to gain from this.  Nature, in her infinite wisdom, is presumably working on it.)"

"Life, the Universe and Everything" was first published in 1981, back when I was six years old and entirely unable to read it.  It is the third book in Adams' "Hitchhiker" series.

This book is my favorite in the series so far.  It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as the first book, and it doesn't feature any concept as cool as "the restaurant at the end of the Universe," but it is really, really clever.  It is also funny, but it's mostly just clever.  The plot of this book was much better thought-out than the first two books, and it's extremely well written, with an eye (and ear) for the English language that leaves most other authors in the dust.

I want to say that the plot is beside the point, but that's not true.  Rather, the plot is a lot more subtle than the book jacket would have you believe, and is just too "layered" to be neatly outlined here.  Suffice to say, there is an alien race about to obliterate the entire universe, Arthur Dent and Co. are left to stop them, and along the way they learn of cricket's sinister origins, the cruel side of reincarnation, and the dangers inherent in challenging thunder gods to a brawl.

It's a great book, and I can't recommend it enough.  Buy it, borrow it, or steal it NOW.  You won't be sorry you did!

"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams

"'Good evening,' it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, 'I am the main Dish of the Day.  May I interest you in parts of my body?'  It harrumphed and gurgled a bit, wriggled its hind quarters into a more comfortable position and gazed peacefully at them.


"Its gaze was met by looks of startled bewilderment from Arthur and Trillian, a resigned shrug from Ford Prefect and naked hunger from Zaphod Beeblebrox.


"'Something off the shoulder perhaps?' suggested the animal.  'Braised in a white wine sauce?'


"'Er, your shoulder?' said Arthur in a horrified whisper.


"'But naturally my shoulder, sir,' mooed the animal contentedly, 'nobody else's is mine to offer.'


"Zaphod leapt to his feet and started prodding and feeling the animal's shoulder appreciatively.


"'Or the rump is very good,' murmured the animal.  'I've been exercising it and eating plenty of grain, so there's a lot of good meat there.'  It gave a mellow grunt, gurgled again and started to chew the cud.  It swallowed the cud again.


"'Or a casserole of me perhaps?' it added."

"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" was first published in 1980.  It is the second book in Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker" series, and as such is the the sequel to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

I read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" a couple of years ago, so my memory of that one was pretty fuzzy.  Fortunately the beginning of this book recaps much of what went before, so it can be read as a stand-alone novel.  The plot revolves around Zaphod's quest to find the true ruler of the Universe, and also (of course) the near-disasters encountered along the way.

It's not, in my opinion, as funny as the first book, but there are some hilarious bits towards the end.  It doesn't really pick up speed until they reach the restaurant for which the book is named, but after that point it's just as good as "Hitchhiker's".  If you loved the first novel, then you'll also like this one.  Even if you haven't read the first novel, and are instead the kind of person who appreciates Monty Python, you'll like this one a lot.