Sunday, June 3, 2012

Book 2: And Another Thing by Eion Colfer


I love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, every version of it that I have experienced—I have unfortunately never heard the radio shows.  While I love these stories, I was extremely hesitant to read this continuation to the trilogy.  Could it really be Hitchhiker’s without Douglas Adams’ craziness?  Well, after finally getting over my prejudice I can say that part six of three is fun but that something just didn’t feel right to me.

Picking up where Mostly Harmless left off, Earth is about to be obliterated, again, when Arthur, Trillain, Ford, and Random are put into a virtual reality to live out their life before they die.  The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy mark 2 that brought them to Earth was able to do this for over a hundred virtual years before having to shut down, it’s energy sapped.  After they get back to reality, Zaphod improbably comes in the nick of time, with his heads now separated.  This makes him simultaneously smarter and dumber, making escape unlikely.  Despite Zaphod’s ineptness, Bowerick Wowbagger, the immortal on a mission to insult everyone in the universe, rescues all of them. 

After leaving Earth, the group is given almost no time to breathe before they are off on another adventure, this time in a dark matter space ship that formally belonged to Thor.  Their mission now is to save the last colony of Earthlings from annihilation by the Vogons and along the way they meet gods, fall in love, hate, despair, whatever, with themselves and others. 

So if you got through that muddled explanation without crossing your eyes, you’re doing well and might enjoy this book.  Colfer definitely brings a nice level of zaniness to the table and stays true to the characters.  While reading it I laughed out loud several times, but it still didn’t seem weird enough.  Maybe I’m just being picky.  I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys the original series; it has the right spirit.  When I am done with my giant ‘to read’ pile I will reread HG2G to see if I’m just imagining how crazy it was.

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