Mostly Brilliant . Review on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The - Douglas Adams

And the rest can be described by any superlative. One of the few books where I simply could not stop laughing. Douglas Adams Sci-Fi series is a highly recommended read ( run and get a copy if you haven't read it till now). This wonderful parody started out as a Radio Series, before it gained enough popularity and got published as a series of books. All the books form one story and should be read in the chronological order.

Arthur Dent, the protagonist of the book is a simple man (a loser, most of the times). One day, on a particularly bad morning, he learns that his house is being demolished, as it is in the route of an expressway which is going to be built. Ironically, the same day he learns that the planet earth will be destroyed as it is in the way of a hyper expressway being planned. And this is how the book stays, during the course, crazy, unpredictable and totally hilarious.

The book presents us with crazy ideas, ( I wonder what he took to come upon them) like a restaurant at the end of the world (end of time, ie when the world is destroyed.), the restaurant offers to its patrons a sumptuous meal with a wonderful show of the world being destroyed.

In Adam's universe, humans and earth are insignificant and in the 'Hitch Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy' (the bestselling book of all times) humans are described as 'Harmless' which of course was later edited to 'Mostly Harmless' and as already told earth was insignificant enough to be destroyed for a highway.

Also even on earth, humans are not the most intelligent beings, they rank third. Mice and dolphins being the first and second respectively. There is a planet, which is used for creating other planets. And earth was created by them as an experiment to find the answer of the universe. (or rather the question). Therefore earth is not just a planet, but also the world's most powerful computer. And it was destroyed just before the answer was found.

There are seemingly endless anecdotes, which I can quote from the book, but that will mar the review as I certainly cannot match Douglas Adams's flair for funny writing. But at this point there are a thousand incidents hovering in my mind which I want to share. So the best solution is to, find a copy and read it. I haven't yet met a person, who has disliked or even was neutral to the book and I would just use positive superlatives for the book.

One of my favorite characters in the book is the person who rules the universe. I am sure after the little we see of him, that he is the best person to rule. (you will have to read to understand what I am talking about). Then there is Zaphod Breeblebox, who is the president of the universe (but does not rule, totally ceremonial), till last notice he was absconding with the fastest spaceship in the universe.

OK I will stop now and you guys can read the book.

Anyway, good bye and thanks for all the fish (comments?)