Life, don't talk to me about life.... (The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Date:	24/06/04 (121 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic Humour

Disadvantages: Douglas Adams RIP you are sorely missed

?People of Earth, your attention please. This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. Plans for development of the outlying regions of the galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your earth minutes. Thank you?

That was the moment when the people of earth discovered that they are not alone in the universe; Arthur Dent discovered that his friend Ford Prefect was not from Guildford after all, but a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Beetlejuice and the incredible cult that is the Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy begins.

Back in the late 70?s the Hitch-hikers guide began life as a radio show, written by Douglas Adams, who was also a script editor for Dr Who and previous jobs had included chicken shed cleaner (according to my copy of the book) The idea for the book came when he was lying on his back, drunk in a field near Innsbruck with a Hitch-hikers guide to Europe in his hands.

The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, is an electronic book, with the words ?Don?t Panic? written in large, friendly letters across the cover. It includes much information that is essential to Hitchhikers across the galaxy and Ford Prefect is a writer and researcher updating the book. He rescues Arthur from the premature demolition of Earth by hitching a lift aboard the Vogon ship, the plot continues by them being ejected unprotected into deep space from the ship, where they are rescued by Fords cousin, the ex-president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox, who stole a space ship that he was supposed to be launching, which was fitted with the new infinite improbability drive, which when activa
ted means the ship can simultaneously pass through every point in the Galaxy. The other main characters are Trillian, (an attractive Ape descendent who Arthur had once met at a party in Islington) and Marvin, the paranoid android who has a terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side.

So begins a series of adventures that spans 5 books ?The Hitchhikers guide?, ?The restaurant at the end of the universe?, ?Life the universe and Everything?, ?So long and thanks for all the fish? and ?Mostly Harmless?. The first two books were originally serialized for Radio 4 and are available on cassette, or currently on CD on Amazon at £15.99. On 21 September this year they return to Radio 4, with the last 3 books finally serialized, although there are slight changes in the cast due to the sad death of Peter Jones, the book. The late Douglas Adams himself is also playing a part, as he always wanted to play the part of Agrajag and recorded himself years ago so thanks to digital technology the great man himself can still be part of it.

The first of the books, the Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy, is easily the most popular of the set, it takes the ?heroes? across the galaxy, to Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe. You discover how the earth was built, why it was built, the answer to Life the Universe and Everything, which it is no spoiler for me to tell you that it is actually ?42? and why sci-fi geeks have spent the last 20 years quoting phrases like ?So long and thanks for all the fish? and ?Its Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.?

Douglas Adams does build a very bizarre link between Science Fiction and Religion; the books include whole theories on the existence of God and creation, and you meet Slartibartfast who won an aw
ard for his design of Norway. It opens with a comment that ?one Thursday, approximately 2000 years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change?.

The books therefore are not for everyone, they have a very dry sarcasm running through them with infinite numbers of potential quotes on every page. The audio books are in my opinion the best medium to enjoy the hitchhiker?s guide, probably something to do with the fact that that was the medium it was written for. Every time the characters are encountering certain death you get the monotone voice of the book giving fascinating facts about the universe (which are all true I?m sure!) I am also convinced that this gave the inspiration for Holly in the Red Dwarf series, although Holly is a more interactive version. The books were also made into a TV series, which is repeated every now and then but it is looking decidedly dated and I just didn?t find it as good. There are rumours of a film, which may be a better option with the advances of technology now at their disposal but there is something about the guide, it seems to belong to a normal croud of people who just enjoy a laugh, and I am not convinced a slick, modern film would really do it justice, and would actually take a lot of the character out of it.

No discussion about the Hitch-hikers guide to the Galaxy would be complete without a trip to the BBC website. www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/quiz/ this is an excellent website with quizzes about the show and you can check out other cult shows over the years Star Trek etc the hitch-hikers section even offers a personal profile test for robots wishing to work for the Syrius Cybernetics Corporation I did this test and thought you may be interested in the result:

?You are perky, chipper, and always ready to help out
with advice in a crisis. You will do anything to make your friend's lives easier, but tend not to prioritise tasks well. Most people despise you, as you have absolutely no concept of when to keep your mouth shut.?

So my apologies for anyone I have irreversibly offended, I?m sure it wasn?t intentional, so I?ll just go and soak my head in a bucket of water and thank you for reading my review.

The hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy is available on Amazon for £5.59.

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