Rating:
English cover:
This series consists of five relatively short books:
1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3. Life, the Universe and Everything
4. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
5. Mostly Harmless
The edition I have includes all five of them.
The story follows Arthur who is trying to save his house from being Demolished as part of the plans for a new highway. Then, his best friend Ford Prefect reveals that the whole Earth will be destroyed because of an intergalactic highway.
It turns out Ford is an alien. He helps Arthur escape on a passing spaceship, thus, starting their journey around the galaxy. Along the way they meet the two-headed president of the galaxy, a woman from Earth who is his girlfriend and a depressed robot.
As they move from one adventure to the next, they learn of a great threat that could destroy them all.
This book has short chapters and is easy to read. It’s often absurd, but I guess you wouldexpect that from a satire.
This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. I laughed out loud many times while reading it.
The author understands people and the society we built perfectly, with all of its flaws, but more importantly know how to present that in an entertaining yet weirdly revealing way with only a few lines.
Every aspect of human society is criticized in an absolutely halarious fashion. The book talks about science, police, academic circles, the relationship masses have with authority, religion, bureaucracy; it mentions how easily people can be manipulated to think and behave in a particular way, how governments make rules in a way which allows them to do something even if it is blatantly unjustifable.
On several occasions it shows us that the biggest issues come from the fact people refuse to look at the situations they are in, to acknowledge a problem and do something about it.
The book highlights the importance of thinking for yourself and not taking things at face value. You must consider not just what happenes but also why.
The book tells us that it might be impossible to fin the meaning of life. We see that not every question has a perfect answer or that we might be asking the wrong questions, focusing on all the wrong things.
Originally, I wanted to highlight the most interesting quotes, but I quickly gave up on that idea – there were so many great ones that I would have had to highlight the whole book.
Forshadowing is perfect. Even elements that seem random end up coming together in the end. This is truly one of the most creative books ever written.
I probably wouldn’t have given this book a chance had there not been for Youtube. The title seemed weird and way outside of what I normally pick up. On top of that, I was never a huge sci-fi fan. However, I heard many people praise this series and describe it as a satire so I eventually decided to give it a try and thank God i did, because it is amazing.
I read many passages, even entire pages, to my mom and we both found it simultaneously hilarious and absolutely brilliant. My mom told me that she would have completely overlooked this book had she heard of it before I read it because of its silly title and because she hates non-realistic stories, but that doing so would have been a mistake. And that just might be the biggest compliment this book could ever receive.
It seems like the series was suppose to end after the book three. Thus, the other two are a little weaker. The humor and the analysis of human society are the same, but the story itself is not quite as good.
Furthemore, the stakes are not nearly as high. The story in the first three books is absurd and hard to take seriously, but the author somehow managed to make the stakes feel high despite that, especially after the main threat to our heroes was introduced. However, that was mostly gone from the last two installments.
They are kind of aimless as if the events are just happening randomly without the main characters trying to accomplish something.
Some characters don’t appear after the book three and I am not sure they got the ending they deserve.
I’m also not sure how to feel about the ending itself.
On the one hand, it is a logical result of people’s habit to not think, to not trust one another and to not communicate properly; thus, it is in line with the book’s themes. On the other hand, the main characters have always acted differently to everyone else, challenging the initial assumption about humans or at the very least representing a different possibility (aproach to life) and in that context the ending doesn’t make sense at all – it betrays everything they stand for.
Please, don’t get me wrong – I still loved the last two books. Some of the funniest moments in the whole series are in the book four and the relationship between Arthur and a new character introduced in it is amazing. I’m just surprised that these two books turned out the way they did. Considering how big the galaxy is there could have been countless stories which are in line with things established earlier in place of what we got. I think the series was taken in the wrong direction and once that happened there was no going back.
I wonder if it would have been better had the series ended after the book three. We wouldn’t have gotten countless funny moments and sarcastic commentary, but the fourth book felt pointless and is by far the weakest and the ending of the fifth one was questionable so finsihing the series when it was at its highest might have been a better solution.
Having said that, I am endlessly amazed at the author’s ability to express his criticism of society in just a few sentences and in a way that is both entertaining and easy to read.
Absurd elements don’t feel forced. They are not there just so the author could make a point, they fit into the world he created and you can just go on a ride, enjoying the story, the worldbuilding and the humor without being hyper focused on the topics discussed. It speaks volumes about how creative the author is.
If you do pay attention to the topics in the story there is even more to love about it. It will make you think and that’s ultimately what books are all about.
I wrote the review in March of 2024 and I already knew this was going to be my book of the year.
Despite all the praise no review can do this book justice. You simly have to read it yourself.