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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams

 

Reviewed by Ruby


The book is very similar to the movie, but at the same time it is very different form the movie. Very different.

Like the film, Arthur Dent's house is about to be demolished, as is his planet. He is saved by his friend Ford, who is, in reality, an alien that writes for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Unfortunately for Ford, he's been stuck on Earth for the past 15 years.   

They end up on a Vogon ship and then are ejected into space, where they are picked up by the Heart of Gold. That ship was stolen by the President of the Galaxy. This is where things go differently than in the film. And to tell you the truth, I like the way the book does it better.

They make their way to a planet called Magrathea, that supposedly doesn't exist. It's a myth. Well they find it. On this planet they build custom planets for people. It's very expensive, and the rest of the galaxy went bankrupt from buying so many custom planets. So the people of Magrathea went into deep sleep until their custom planets could be afforded once again. Well, that happens in the film, but there is this entire scene involving the President's running mate that is no where in the book. Maybe it's in an other book?

It turns out that Earth was custom built by mice. Because they wanted to find the ultimate question for the ultimate answer given by the computer Deep Thought. They were five minutes away from finding out the answer when the Vogons destroyed the planet. A little pissed, they got the ship to Magrathea, so that can order a new Earth. But, apparently mice are as lazy as the rest of us and htey don't want to go through a ten million years experiment again, so the want to take Arthur's brain. Since he was there only a moment before the Earth was destroyed they figure the question was imprinted on his brain.

Arthur and the rest make it out and then head over to the restaurant on the other side of the universe. The mice, on the other hand decide to make up an ultimate question and head back to their dimension.

I liked this book. It was kooky and fun and didn't take itself seriously. I really didn't like the style of writing, because in some parts it wasn't exactly clear what he was trying to say, but other than that I really enjoyed the book.

Grade: B