This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“The President in particular is very
much a figurehead – he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government,
but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but
those of finely judged outrage. For this
reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating
but fascinating character. His job is
not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of
the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had – he has already spent
two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.” – Douglas Adams, Chapter
4, Page 28
“At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this
strange behavior. If human beings don’t
keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months’ consideration and
observation he abandoned this theory in favor of a new one. If they don’t keep on exercising their lips,
he thought, their brains start working.
After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively
cynical and decided he quite like human beings after all, but he always
remained desperately worried about the terrible number of things they didn’t
know about.” – Douglas Adams, Chapter 5, Page 35
“”But what are you supposed to do with a manically depressed robot?” | “You think you’ve got problems,” said Marvin, as if he was addressing a newly occupied coffin, “what are you supposed to do if you are a manically depressed robot? No, don’t bother to answer that, I’m fifty thousand times more intelligent than you and even I don’t know the answer. It gives me a headache just trying to think down to your level.”” – Douglas Adams, Chapter 19, Page 92
Is This An Overview?
Arthur Dent’s home is about to be demolished for a bypass
because the planning council did not properly inform Arthur of their
plans. What the demolishing crew,
Arthur, and the all the humans of Earth did not know, is that Earth was going
to be demolished to make way for a hyperspatial express route as the galactic
council did not properly inform anyone on Earth.
Fortunately for Arthur and unbeknownst to Arthur, Arthur’s
friend Ford Prefect is not actually a human.
But an alien who has been stranded on Earth. Ford saves Arthur by hitchhiking on a
demolition spaceship. A spaceship
composed of a Vogon crew, who are not friendly to hitchhikers. Resistance is futile.
Somewhere else in the galaxy, the reveal of the new
spaceship containing the Infinite Improbability Drive is being stolen by the
President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox, along with a companion,
Trillian. Zaphod is searching for the
legendary planet of Magrathea, a planet that build custom-made luxury planets
for the extremely rich during a former Galactic Empire. Magrathea was so successful that the rest of
the Galaxy became abjectly poor. Against
all improbability, Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, Trillian, and a manically depressed
robot called Marvin, hitchhike across the galaxy. Don’t Panic.
Caveats?
This book blends science fiction and comedy to create
something improbable. Sometimes
prioritizing one or the other, to create a series of meaningless coincidences,
but a meaningful adventure across the galaxy.
There are parts in the book that are inconsistent given the information
provided before, which is acceptable given that the inconsistencies were meant
to be there.
