Book Review: Found & Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Found: The Missing Part One, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I last plowed by way through Haddix’s books back when I taught sixth grade, which is the ripe age at which her books are best read at the earliest - particularly her ambitious multi-volume dystopian epic, Among the Hidden. But now that I’m back teaching fourth-graders, many of whom are not thinking at the level at which she writes, I haven’t revisited any of her work. Until now, with three books in her newest series - The Missing - which plays with the theoretical physics of time travel a la Doctor Who or Lost.
The premise of this first book involves a deceptive mystery that haunts thirteen year-old Jonah and his best friend Chip - both of whom were adopted under mysterious circumstances. With the help of his younger sister Katherine, Jonah and his friend plunge headlong into a time-travelling paradox that ends with a cliffhanger that is signature Haddix style. And without giving any spoilers away, all I will say is that Haddix has created an alternative history as to why and how some people from history have disappeared.
If her first series, Among the Hidden, were perfectly suited to television serial adaptation, it is clear from book one in The Missing that she has struck gold again. Not only am I eager for book two, but also for someone in Hollywood to realize the potential for this second audaciously promising science fiction series.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
This being my second read through Adams’ first novel in his ever-expanding trilogy - and, yes, there have been at least one more in recent years thanks to his fellow countryman, Eion Colfer - I was delighted to find that little has changed in my memory and perception of this hilariously wicked sci-fi spoof. Arthur Dent is just as stupefied, Ford Prefect just as mad, and Zaphod Beeblebrox just as nutters.(Not to mention Marvin being just as depressed. And can I tell you how hard it was not to hear Alan Rickman’s voice in my head whenever Marvin showed up on the page?)
A few random thoughts that occurred during this second reading in over twenty years:
Adams passed too soon. But the misadventures of Dent & friends live ever on and on.
I last plowed by way through Haddix’s books back when I taught sixth grade, which is the ripe age at which her books are best read at the earliest - particularly her ambitious multi-volume dystopian epic, Among the Hidden. But now that I’m back teaching fourth-graders, many of whom are not thinking at the level at which she writes, I haven’t revisited any of her work. Until now, with three books in her newest series - The Missing - which plays with the theoretical physics of time travel a la Doctor Who or Lost.
The premise of this first book involves a deceptive mystery that haunts thirteen year-old Jonah and his best friend Chip - both of whom were adopted under mysterious circumstances. With the help of his younger sister Katherine, Jonah and his friend plunge headlong into a time-travelling paradox that ends with a cliffhanger that is signature Haddix style. And without giving any spoilers away, all I will say is that Haddix has created an alternative history as to why and how some people from history have disappeared.
If her first series, Among the Hidden, were perfectly suited to television serial adaptation, it is clear from book one in The Missing that she has struck gold again. Not only am I eager for book two, but also for someone in Hollywood to realize the potential for this second audaciously promising science fiction series.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
This being my second read through Adams’ first novel in his ever-expanding trilogy - and, yes, there have been at least one more in recent years thanks to his fellow countryman, Eion Colfer - I was delighted to find that little has changed in my memory and perception of this hilariously wicked sci-fi spoof. Arthur Dent is just as stupefied, Ford Prefect just as mad, and Zaphod Beeblebrox just as nutters.(Not to mention Marvin being just as depressed. And can I tell you how hard it was not to hear Alan Rickman’s voice in my head whenever Marvin showed up on the page?)
A few random thoughts that occurred during this second reading in over twenty years:
- Although the sci-fi wonkiness is timeless, it was obvious that the late Douglas Adams was writing in the age before the Internet. Take, for example, the Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic. If he were writing this today, I have no doubt that he would have called it the Galactic Wide Web. Or something to that effect. (Sub-Etha brings pneumatic tubes to mind.)
- The titular guide really is a spoof on Lonely Planet, if you were to put all of their published country and region guides together and have the cast of Monty Python write them. Think about it, folks.
- I suspected it when I first delved into Doctor Who a year ago this month, and it is reaffirmed yet again. Adams’ influence on the Doctor is evident from the silliness that he injected into that series during the Baker years, and which is at the heart of his whimsically crazy narration here in Hitchhiker’s. Too bad he didn’t live to see the new Who take off into the stratosphere of a growing worldwide fandom the likes of which it had never seen during its original run.
Adams passed too soon. But the misadventures of Dent & friends live ever on and on.