"... a book called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or even heard of by any Earthmen. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book."
Remarkable is definitely an accurate description of this book.
The Earth is to be demolished by a Vogon Constructor Fleet for a hyperspace bypass and for Ford Prefect, it's his ticket back into space. However, unbeknownst to Arthur Dent, he was to accompany Ford.
As if his day could get any worse, Arthur is dragged from his to-be-demolished house to a pub. Then to be told the Earth is being destroyed and whisked onto an alien ship. From there onward, nothing is quite familiar or normal to Arthur, there isn't even any cornflakes. Having a strange Babelfish smacked into his ear, meeting the President of the Galaxy in a stolen Government ship, and discovering a mysterious planet which actually builds planets for others, to then find out Earth was originally built for mice and a second one is in the works, has a way of making someone feel pretty uncomfortable. Luckily the guide is there to tell you "Don't Panic" in friendly letters across the front.
The Hitchhiker's Guide is a book which has stood the test of time repeatably, with a radio show, book series along with spin off books, and multiple TV and movie recreations. It's packed full of satirical British humor, with the added touch of humorous tangents that move from the actual story, and teamed perfectly with an outlandish Sci-Fi plot which provides more than enough fantasy, laughs and intrigue to last a life time.
But it's not all jokes and weird commentaries from bizarre characters, it does actually make some clever comments on what we as a species do.
For example, the use of the super computer, Deep Thought, built by scholars to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything, spends millions of years thinking to only comeback with 42 as it's answer gives the impression of Adam's belief that maybe that ultimate question is in fact meaningless and there isn't one solid answer. Also, the description of Earth in the guide as being "mostly harmless" provokes a kind of feeling that maybe there are even bigger and better places withing the galaxies, and our precious planet is simply harmless, that's it.
However, this is just speculation. It could, and most likely, is just nonsense.
So overall, I definitely recommend this book and the rest of the series, but also giving the BBC TV adaption a watch to get some addition visual aids but to also show that actually it follows the books very closely. Which is a rarity, and makes for a far more nostalgic and familiar read/watch. That's what I found anyway, I watched the TV episodes when I was younger so reading the books and hearing the voices and seeing how word for word it is made it just that bit more special.
It's a cult classic comedy series set in space; How could you resist this combination, so effortlessly pulled off by Adams?
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