Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams

"Mostly Harmless," once again taking the title from a memorable concept in the first book, occurs an unspecified several years after the events of the last book and sees the "thirty-ish, tall and never quite at ease with himself" last human survivor Arthur Dent living the simple life of a sandwich maker on a planet not dissimilar to his own Earth which was destroyed by the Vogons surprisingly early in the first book. Similar to the way he last book was handled, a device which I was not fond of in either book, the different characters' experiences are told in seperate chapters before their meeting later on. One of my favourite aspects of the earlier ...

This, the final, enticing instalments of Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series stands very much apart from the earlier books. Whilst it retains Adams' sharp wit and intelligent story telling, it is lacking some of the friendly "togetherness" feel of, particularly, the first three books of the series. Perhaps it's because Arthur Dent is, at last, forced to make it on his own in the Universe. Perhaps it's because The Guide (Hitch-hiker's Guide of course) has been taken over by the mysterious (and comically named) "Infinnidim Enterprises". Trillion too, or more frequently, Trisha McMillan, has her own, independent ...

I read in the paper that before his untimely death Douglas Adams had been struggling for 11 years on and off to write the 6th and as it proved final book in the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. On his PC were numerous unfinished drafts none of which he was happy with – and I believe that a version of these, still unfinished, will be published with other of his works in the near future. Possibly the reasons for this massive example of writer’s block can be seen in Mostly Harmless the 5th book in the trilogy. Mostly Harmless as well as being the title of the book seems to be his attitude whilst writing the book. It has a feeling of being written ...