A Rediculous Space Adventure
I am pretty sure this is a Sci Fi classic. Mine is the 42nd anniversary edition, which tells you this isn’t a new book. It’s also a hilarious nod to a joke within the book. 42 is suddenly my favourite number now.
This book is wacky fun. We follow along our not so remarkable human friend Arthur Dent as he (first chapter spoiler) is ripped away from Earth just before it gets demolished for a galactic threw road. Sounds ridiculous? That’s because it is. And the rest of the book continues to be so. Douglas Adams kept finding new unexpected ways to make me laugh in this book. Be it an underhanded comment mocking todays society or a hilarious dialogue that smashes our wacky characters together. My favourite character is easily a robot named Marvin who is a highly sophisticated machine capable of vast computation who is only used for menial tasks such as fetching tea. But he is self-aware and therefore he is constantly depressed.
I think the only negative thing I can say about this book is the ending. This book doesn’t really have a plot, as we are simply flung from one ridiculous occurrence to the next. As a result, the book does not really have a proper ending. Instead, I felt it was abruptly stopped and it is now up to us to immediately buy book two and see what happens.
There was also a moment past the half way point of this story where I did not feel compelled to keep reading, and I dropped the book for a few days before finishing it. I guess this could mean the pacing could be better, but this is not an epic fantasy novel. I think this small book can easily be read for a few chapters, then dropped for a few days and read later. I certainly felt no guilt doing so. Or you could read a small amount on your public transport every day. It is not a very demanding book of you. Just take 20 minutes out of your day and have fun reading incredibly funny space shenanigans.
The Hitchikers Guide to The Galagy is a comedic space adventure full of crazy worlds and weird people. Would recommend it to anyone who wants to have a laugh.
Rating: 7/10