(1982/2009) Douglas Adams, Pan Macmillan, £7.99, Can$14.99, Aus$22.99, pbk, pp210, ISBN 978-0-330-50875-5
This is the third novel Pan Macmillan have re-released as part of all five of the original Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy in the 30th anniversary year of the first's publication which itself came out a year after BBC Radio 4 first broadcast of what was to become a minor national phenomenon that was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
In a nutshell The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is SF comedy at its very best. If you are unfamiliar with it then check out my review of the first novel in the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of five (soon to be six).
This book covers much of the ground appearing after the second half of the first radio series and the subsequent 'Christmas edition' (or first episode of the second series) and so for my money is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy just after its finest moments: after the first series, though good, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy never reclaimed the dizzy heights of its start. This is no doubt because Douglas Adams was a painfully slow writer and the success of the first series, and first two books, meant that the pressure was on to deliver more and something had to give. Alas it was a bit of the extremely high standard he had previously set. But no matter, this novel is still an entertaining read.
Arthur and Ford escape prehistoric Earth and arrive at Lords (London) cricket ground. There they are just in time to witness a bunch of white robots looking like cricket players make of with the Ashes (the real-life cricket trophy). It transpires that the robots are part of a plan to destroy the Universe. Once again meeting Slartibartfast (one of the designers of the original Earth who did the crinkly bits around Norway) they are on an adventure only this time the very Universe is at stake.
Now I know that for some my saying that this book and subsequent volumes in the Hitchhiker series were not up to the vertiginously high standard of the first two (Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and [Up: Fiction Reviews Index | SF Author: Website Links | Home Page: Concatenation]
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