Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide

5 star:		(235)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

While reading this book, you will frequently find yourself debating a few things in your mind. One of those things is: "I really need sleep, but I need to read this book more, I just don't know what to do..."

This book is really a collection of all five books in the Hitchhiker's trilogy (um, ya, five books shouldn't be in a trilogy but thats how this series works), written by Douglas Adams. However, I had no previous experience with these books or with Douglas Adams and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them in this form. I couldn't image having read one of the books, then having to wait to get the other one. This series really is meant to be read in its entirety. The entire story flows throughout each book and needs to be read in order too.

So here is the story, a terrible accident is about to befall earth which drags the main character, Arthur Dent, on a wild romp throughout a hilarious Galaxy. Arthur just wants to get back home to Earth which leads to the stunning climax. This series is full of one liners, two liners, and even some three liners. If your a fan of British comedy, British satire, sci-fi, or just great literature then Douglas Adams weaves a tale that will appeal to you.

The first book in the series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy really should be required reading in school, it really is that good.

Most "funny books" wouldn't even attempt to dissect the absurdity of our so-called civilization, this is what sets the Hitchhiker series apart from anything else. At points you see that while it may be funny -- all it really is, is insightful. The ridiculousness of humanity is displayed brilliantly -- through aliens. You'll find yourself laughing out loud.

As far as the ending to everything, it is one of the best endings of any series ever (in my opinion of course). It really instills an important moral, whether you get it at first or not, you may have to think about it a while. The ending also wraps up everything and makes perfect logical sense. The spontaneous happenings will have you on the edge of your seat until the very end too.

This series deals with what it really means to be alive and what the meaning of life really is. Isn't that really what everyone wants to know anyways? The answer might be so funny you'll die laughing!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is being made into a movie too, due out in 2005. I don't see how it could live up to the high standard set by this book but we will have to see.

If you enjoy this I'd highly recommend THE LOSERS CLUB: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez, a somewhat unrelated (not sci-fi) but very amusing and FUN book. Short, quick, and funny -- that's how I like them.

Overall, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy really is great! A must read by everyone!

Great stories, and I was very, very happy to find this book for such a good price! It's a huge book physically, but not that awkward to read, especially considering it's actually five books disguised as one...

Very pretty with its gold lettered cover and gold-edged pages adding up to a pseudo-sophisticated presentation, it's fun to read in public... a very nice, but "extremely religious" lady came up to me at a cafe and praised me for reading the bible... I didn't have the heart to tell her it was a very different kind of guide book lol.

Wonderful to get if you like Douglas Adams' work, or want a (very) solid dose of British humour, or just want to be one of the ones counted as knowing precisely where your towel is ;)

Spoofing a very wide range indeed of sci-fi themes in always-surprising ways, this extremely well-written opus had me laughing and admiring and enjoying myself throughout. This is serious [comic] literature!

It's actually impressive. The book came in a very good state. It was an international shipment, so it took well over three weeks' (such is the case with int. shipping.) I think it was a really good deal.

Douglas Adams has been taken from us all too soon by a heart attack. I was deeply affected when I heard the news because Mr Adams had given me such incredible joy with these books. The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe are particularly great.

These books bend your mind and have you looking at things in new ways (just what are the mice really up to?), bringing great insights and new meaning. Oh heck, actually they are just downright, laugh out loud hilarious. You can't read them just once, you will be addicted.

When you've just finished a book that's as thick & heavy as a dictionary, it is all too tempting to write pages and pages in review of it. However, I will spare you as much as I can.

The basic premise of the novels is that Ford Prefect is a hitchhiker and writer for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." He hitches rides all around space, writes up his experiences and sends them in to his editors. As the novel opens up, it's roughly 1980 in England, and he's been stuck on Earth for 15 years because Earth (as we know) has not really made contact with other planets and so he can't find a ride out of there (here). In that time, he has made friends with Arthur Dent, one of the absolutely most endearing characters I've ever come across in literature (even more than a Hobbit).

When we first meet Dent, he thinks his greatest battle for the day will be to lie in front of the bulldozers which want to knock down his house. Little does he know that Earth is also about to be knocked over (obliterated really) for a hyper-space by-pass. Prefect, however, catches on and rescues Dent at the very last minute...Whether or not this was a good thing is up to the reader to decide.

While Adams shows his literal genius for comedic timing and absurd humor within the bounds of Earth at the beginning, once he is freed of all constraints his writing style blazes with unique talent. Every page is so filled with parody, dry wit, perfect timing, and mind-boggling fictitious science that it leaves you laughing aloud and reeling at the same time. I realize that his humor is not for everyone...but for anyone who enjoys satire and for anyone who is frustrated with the insanity of life, this book brings the proverbial comic relief.

From what I've read from hard-core Douglas Adams fans (and there seem to be quite a few of those), books #1, 2, and 4 in this series are Adam's purest works. #3 and 5 are a bit heavier in tone. #6 (Young Zaphod Plays It Safe) is simply baffling.

For those who don't like science fiction, I would say that that shouldn't really be a problem here. While Adams does invent some very funny alien races (like the race with 50 arms that was the only one to invent deodorant before the wheel), his focus clearly isn't imagining how different life can be. Everything in his novels is a satire of humanity - from the bureaucracy to the androids to the laws of physics.

Of all the wonderful things I could dwell on in Adam's work, the last thing I would like to mention is that of all action/adventure stories I have ever read, I think Adams has created a few of the most realistic heroes. Dent, Prefect, and Zaphod - though somewhat resourceful - aren't particularly strong, bold, courageous, intelligent or smooth. They bungle any number of situations, and only Trillian has a real moment of brilliance. And yet, no matter how much they might want to simply run and save their own hides, a sense of duty to man/life nags at their conscience and keeps bringing them to help save somebody. Ultimately, I think this balances out so much of Adams ironic humor about how stupid life can be. Yes, life is absurd at so many levels, but Adams never abandons our Western Civilization ideals of the value of life and our duty to help each other.

Oh, and the dialogue is priceless!

There are those who don't get "The Far Side" by Gary Larson. It's too wacky and weird. There are those who don't like the wit of "Calvin and Hobbes," passing it by for simpler humor.

There are those who hate "Monty Python" because it's "stupid" or "ridiculous." And there are those who hate the humor "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or "Pride and Prejudice," as its wit is deep and veiled.

Now try and envision an amalgam of these two approaches to comedy. Witty lines, and wordplays, combined with floating penguins and Vogon poetry. You have to be pretty quick to understand some of Adams' jokes regarding quantum mechanics, yet silly enough to laugh at the manic depressive robot, and the apathetic mention of the destruction of Earth. Douglas Adams is simply the best at combining wit with irony and absurdity. And this is simply the best book in which to find his genius.

If you are an Adams fan then this is for you, My copies of the 5 books are all in a rotten state after years of reading and rereading, and I wanteed a tome to keep. Apart from the additional Zaphod story I will not read this for many years. i know it verbatim. Those raised on Pratchett and Rankin might find Adams' humour a little dated to be fair, but he was first and he cannot be replaced.

Cleverer than Pratchett and nowhere near as predictable, Adams seems to start at the beginning and then just bimble along through the narrative, but previous issues reemerge to show that the first three books, at least, were all part of a masterplan.

I love this book. It has acompanied me on several trips (none of which I have hitchhiked through, though). And, of course, the intro by Douglas Adams adds a bit of class. The main charatcters in this book are all somewhat normal, although a few lean more twords a few fish short of a fish fry. (Tacky, I know. But isn't it delightful?) In this book, the author tells a tale which has made me laugh out loud in class precisly when I shoulnd't have. It is a wonderful book!

P.S. Im not really trying to be helpful, just trying to get others to read it.

I'm sure there is probably a fitting word in some far off galactic language but my bablefish is malfunctioning so I'll just have to resort to the English I have on hand. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy includes all five books in the Hitchhiker's "trilogy" plus the short story "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe". Douglas Adam's had intended for there to be only three books but due to fan demand and the excess ideas running around in his head, lo and behold the trilogy became a series though most fans still refer to it as the trilogy. As a side note, Adams was in the beginning stages of writing a sixth book, The Salmon of Doubt, when he died.

Anyhow, back to the book, the first part, "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", is the start of the beautiful (and slightly insane) series. The Hero? of the book is Arthur Dent, a man who wakes to find his house about to be demolished to make way for a hiway. He thought the big yellow bulldozer was the worst of his problems until his friend Ford Prefect tells him that Ford is an alien and that the Earth is going to be demolighed to make way for a SuperGalactic Hiway. Anyhow they are saved from Earth in the nic of time and so begins Arthur's amazing adventure through the cosmos. The characters that Arthur Dent meets along the way are well thought out and interesting such as the tempramental Zaphod Beeblebrox with his two heads, Marvin the chronicly depressed robot, and the annoyingly cheerful spaceship doors.

Of all the books included in this collection the first one is my favorite. You can almost see the crazy ideas oozing out of Douglas Adam's genius head. Read this book and witness the birth of your obsession. In these books there are no limits of time, physics, anatomy, or anything really and Adams takes full advantage of this like no other author I have read.
The other books in the series carry on the craziness of the first with most of the same characters and also some memorable new ones. After the first book, my next favorite has to be the fifth one "Mostly Harmless" which centers on Arthur's daughter Random.
Now This book is probably not for everyone. Such as if you have no sense of humor, are obsessed with neatness and order, or have a horrible fear of the number 42. Otherwise, buy this book and get ready to laugh out loud at the absurdity and incredible imagination that is The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.