bye bye dolphin (So Long and Thanks for All the Fish - Douglas Adams)

Member Name: brownp1

Product:	So Long and Thanks for All the Fish - Douglas Adams
Date:	24/10/01 (378 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: best in a very fuuny series

Disadvantages: no

Well this is the 4th book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, so it’s a bit of an oddity already, What’s even odder is that Hitchhikers is primarily known as a lunatic spin on sci-fi conventions and yet this is more of a romantic novel.

No come back, it may be romance but the mind that thought up the fact that the Earth is a giant computer run by mice trying to find the question of life the universe and everything to which the answer is 42 isn’t going to write a conventional Barbara Cartland bodice ripper.

The book starts with our hero Arthur Dent being deposited back on Earth after years travelling the vast reaches of space, which is a tad strange considering the Earth was destroyed by the Vogons in the 1st book.
He hitchhikes back to his house that hasn’t been destroyed after all and resumes his life, except on the journey home he’s seen a girl’s photograph and fallen in love. He eventually bumps into the women of his dreams – Fenchurch - named, like Brooklyn Beckham, after the place she was conceived, unfortunately in this case the ticket queue at the tube station. After several false starts they eventually hit it off when Arthur shows Fenchurch how to fall without hitting the ground and disappear into the sky to amaze air passengers with their version of the mile high club.

There are little performances from Ford and Marvin who are really only there to tie the book into the rest of the series and a couple of fine cameos:

The Rain God who is always being rained on and knows 231 different types of rain

Wonko the Sane who live in an inside out house so he doesn’t have to enter the asylum, but like Arthur and Fenchurch knows the last message of the dolphins.

We also get to know God’s final message to creation.

From a judge a book by its cover viewpoint search the charity shops and find an old copy it will be black with a small
picture of a sealion on the front and somehow this seems illogical yet somehow correct. Newer copies just look a bit of a mess and somehow less friendly and readable.

In summary whilst not feeling as one with the previous books this is actually the best in the series, with less tangential lunacy and more gentle humour plus more rounded characterisations and a better plotted plot.


PS The Dolphin’s message is hidden in the title of the book

PPS in case you’re wondering about God’s final message……





…. Go read the book

Summary: