The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
So I just bought a nice, leather-bound omnibus copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy written by Douglas Adams.
First of all, I like the introduction, written by Douglas Adams before his untimely death in 1992. It explains how Hitchhiker's began, which was quite interesting seeing as how it didn't begin with a book. Also, he does mention how the fact that everything Hitchhiker's contradicts itself is actually part of what makes it somewhat interesting.
I have just finished (re)reading the first in the series, known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"This is not her story. But it is the story of that terrible, stupid catastrophe and some of it's consequences. It is also the story of a book, a book called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occured, never seen or even heard of by any Earthman. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book."
The plot, in a nutshell, is about an ordinary guy named Arthur Dent.
On one Thursday morning, a race of aliens called the Vogons come though and destroy Earth. Arthur escapes by one coincidence: one of his friends happens to be an alien stranded on Earth for fifteen years and happens to know how to hitch a ride on a spaceship. This friend, Ford Prefect, happens to be a field researcher for said remarkable book. In a series of highly improbable coincidences, driven mostly by a device on a spaceship (This device is called the Infinite Improbability Drive (which means that the higher the chances of it not happening, the more likely the ship is to make it happen.)) they meet up with Ford's semicousin, the soon to be ex-President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zaphod is traveling with a chick he picked up at a party he gate-crashed, Trisha McMillian or simply Trillian. Trillian had been flirting with Arthur before Zaphod flew her away.
This group discovers the lost planet of Magrathea, which was a corporate planet that made it's profit designing luxury planets. Turns out Earth was one of these planets. Commissioned, paid for, and run by mice who are really a race of hyperintellligent pandimensional beings. Earth is a computer set to discover the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (which we know the answer to be 42.) It was destroyed 10 minutes before the discovery of that question.
The book is peppered with excerpts from the Guide, like why carrying a towel is important, how to make a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, what a Babel fish is (a parasitic being that feeds on the brainwaves you hear and allows you to translate any language you hear) and the legend of Magrathea.
It introduces strange characters, not only the ones I've mentioned, but describes at length the Vogons (and why you should steer clear of their poetry) and Marvin the Paranoid Android (a very depressed robot.)
It rambles and goes off-topic and contradicts itself and loops back around again. All with a dry but very very good sense of humor. It's an intriguing story, provided you can follow it.
First of all, I like the introduction, written by Douglas Adams before his untimely death in 1992. It explains how Hitchhiker's began, which was quite interesting seeing as how it didn't begin with a book. Also, he does mention how the fact that everything Hitchhiker's contradicts itself is actually part of what makes it somewhat interesting.
I have just finished (re)reading the first in the series, known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"This is not her story. But it is the story of that terrible, stupid catastrophe and some of it's consequences. It is also the story of a book, a book called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occured, never seen or even heard of by any Earthman. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book."
The plot, in a nutshell, is about an ordinary guy named Arthur Dent.
On one Thursday morning, a race of aliens called the Vogons come though and destroy Earth. Arthur escapes by one coincidence: one of his friends happens to be an alien stranded on Earth for fifteen years and happens to know how to hitch a ride on a spaceship. This friend, Ford Prefect, happens to be a field researcher for said remarkable book. In a series of highly improbable coincidences, driven mostly by a device on a spaceship (This device is called the Infinite Improbability Drive (which means that the higher the chances of it not happening, the more likely the ship is to make it happen.)) they meet up with Ford's semicousin, the soon to be ex-President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zaphod is traveling with a chick he picked up at a party he gate-crashed, Trisha McMillian or simply Trillian. Trillian had been flirting with Arthur before Zaphod flew her away.
This group discovers the lost planet of Magrathea, which was a corporate planet that made it's profit designing luxury planets. Turns out Earth was one of these planets. Commissioned, paid for, and run by mice who are really a race of hyperintellligent pandimensional beings. Earth is a computer set to discover the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (which we know the answer to be 42.) It was destroyed 10 minutes before the discovery of that question.
The book is peppered with excerpts from the Guide, like why carrying a towel is important, how to make a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, what a Babel fish is (a parasitic being that feeds on the brainwaves you hear and allows you to translate any language you hear) and the legend of Magrathea.
It introduces strange characters, not only the ones I've mentioned, but describes at length the Vogons (and why you should steer clear of their poetry) and Marvin the Paranoid Android (a very depressed robot.)
It rambles and goes off-topic and contradicts itself and loops back around again. All with a dry but very very good sense of humor. It's an intriguing story, provided you can follow it.