The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (novel): Difference between revisions

The trilogy-in-six-books by Douglas Adams and Eoin Colfer. Probably the best-known and most "complete" version of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' story.

The first book, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', was adapted straight from the radio shows. It covers Arthur Dent's last day on Earth, meeting with the other characters, questing for the legendary planet of Magrathea, and the story of Deep Thought.

The second, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/The Restaurant At The End of The Universe|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', also came from the radio version, although with many more changes and a shifting-about of the order of events. These first two books can, in many ways, be thought of as halves of the same story, in a way that the sequels aren't. In ''Restaurant'', the characters visit Milliways, the titular establishment at the rear end of time, Zaphod and Trillian attempt to discover who truly runs the universe, and Ford and Arthur end up on a spaceship full of useless people which crashes into prehistoric Earth.

The third book, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]'', is the most conventionally adventure-ish book of the series; not surprising, since it was adapted from an unused ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' script. Ford and Arthur get pulled back to modern-day Earth, pre-explosion, where Slartbartifast enlists them and, eventually, the rest of the cast to stop the machinations of the xenophobic Krikkitmen, who, at the dawn of galactic civilzation, were responsible for the bloodiest war the universe has ever seen, but who were [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|sealed in a slow-time bubble]]... until now.

The fourth book, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish|So Long And Thanks For All The Fish]]'', is, on the other hand, probably the most character-based of the series. Arthur returns to an unexpectedly-resurrected Earth, but after his adventures among the stars, he's just as [[Fish Out of Water|out of his element here]] as he was when he first hitched a ride on a spaceship.

The fifth, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Mostly Harmless|Mostly Harmless]]'', is a dark romp through the corridors of probability. The Guide has been taken over by the Vogons, and Arthur has lost his love and has settled in as a sandwich-maker in a primitive tribe on a faraway planet. But then Trillian shows up with a surprise -- a teenage daughter, conceived with Arthur's donated DNA.

A sixth book, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/And Another Thing|And Another Thing]]'' was written by Eoin Colfer, author of the [[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]] children's novels, and published in October 2009. Starting where ''Mostly Harmless'' left off, the tone of the book in general is much lighter and removes the [[Downer Ending|downer ending]] the series ended with. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Whether this is an improvement is, of course, a matter of opinion.]]