Skip to main content

Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – Paranoid Android Joke, Paranoid Android Joke

Adams knows how to blend satire with Sci-fi, and this is done seamlessly in the critically acclaimed, Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Not only had this book introduced me to the over the top, subtly-be-damned, satire shown on a grand scale.

My favorite Dr. Who episode is like something out of The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, the main characters arrive in a future New York where thousands of people (Hundreds of thousands?) are stuck in an underground traffic jam that many of them have been stuck in for 40 or more years. It even uses a bit of Sci-fi to explain this ridiculous situation, which of course is semi-bunk. Then there are cat people and giant crabs which live in the fast lane. That’s the kind of stuff I love (The name is Gridlock, I suggest that you watch it.)

Parts of it don’t really make sense, but it is showing how situations which are ridiculous now could become even more insane in the future. And Adams revels in this feeling, in the book the Earth is destroyed (This happens early in the book so it is not really a spoiler) by a fleet of aliens known as the Vogons, but the only reason they do it is because they want to make an interstellar highway through the area.

When the people of Earth beg the Vogons to not destroy their planet, the aliens complain that it was decided at the nearest planetary hall, and if they wanted to combat the construction they should have lodged a complaint, and the place to do so was only a couple solar systems away.

The book is full of this type of humor, but that’s not all it relies on, it also utilizes plenty of interesting sci-fi concepts while relying mostly on character-based humor. And it manages to boast one of the best cast of characters that I know. There’s a clueless human named Arthur, an egomaniacal alien driven by his overwhelming need to have fun, and a personal favorite, Marvin the Paranoid Andriod, the most depressed machine in existence.

The book is fantastic and if you want to start a new series then I suggest you start with  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy and then move on to its wonderful sequels.

I’d rate it Great to Brilliant.

(For those of you who haven’t read my previous posts this is my system for rating books, Awful - Bad - Good - Great - Brilliant.) 

 Thank you for reading and have a nice day! 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt – In which Economics prove to be cooler than Algebra

Novel: Nonfiction THE CHARACTERIZATION. WAS. INCREDIBLE. I jest of course, as this book contains no characters and really isn’t like any books I have previously reviewed. This will make it difficult to review it, as in the end, the purchase really just depends on whether you would buy and read a book SIMPLY to know some interesting facts and get a slightly skewed perspective. Levitt says at the end, that he knows the book won’t make a big difference. It might make you treat a few people in certain jobs differently, it might make you distrust common knowledge more often. But other than that, I can scarcely say that the book will leave an emotional impact on you. It’s not necessarily boring so much as…not engaging. Let me start from the beginning. The book was written by Steven Levitt, an economist, and Stephen Dubner, a writer. Levitt is apparently something of a wild card in the economist biz, as he comes to conclusions which disturb many, and enjoys looking in...
2 comments
Read more

Review: Zen in the art of writing by Ray Bradbury – The literary equivalent of getting high

Ray Bradbury is my favorite writer. I love his short stories, his novels, his poems, and Fahrenheit 451 is my favorite book of all time. I wanted a book that would make me a better writer but would not be boring and tedious. So when I found out that there was a book by him, about writing, I decided that I had to have it. I had looked up some good books about writing and the moment I saw the name Bradbury I clicked on it. I scrolled through a list of quotes from the book and was fascinated, there are many great quotes from the book, and each one seemed to have life energy and being to them. So after reading only several quotes from the list I became very hyped for the book. And I was not disappointed because Bradbury writes with enthusiasm and honesty. While starting the first two chapters I became so enwrapped with the book that I went outside and began yelling the words out like a preacher quoting the bible (I was not drunk at the time, I was just very happy and really I’m j...
2 comments
Read more

Short story: The Long Trail

When I was younger, I was walking on a trail. My family would often visit trails on vacation, we were not the hotel, lounge about kind of vacation family. My mother and father both loved the wilderness, as did I and the majority of my four siblings. But this particular trail was longer and more tedious than any other trail in memory. It seemed to stretch on forever, and the gravel it was made from certainly didn’t improve the condition of our feet. I can’t recall how many times I had to stop because my legs or the legs of one of my siblings hurt. But we trudged on nonetheless, our stomachs growling all the way. Our whole family wasn’t together, my father was up ahead of all of us, my mother was behind me, Jacob (my second younger brother) and Noah (my brother) with our little sister Lilly. My older brother, Gabriel, was bringing up the rear. I remember Lilly catching up, and us stopping to stare at some deathly white worms, which lay on the surface of a stream, spotted a...
2 comments
Read more