The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

9/6/2003

Arthur Dent is having a bad day. In the morning, while brushing his teeth, he heard rumbles of construction equipment. He had just discovered that his rural England home was about to be demolished to make way for a new bypass. In protest, he laid down in front of the equipment so his house couldn't be knocked down.

His odd friend, Ford Prefect, came by. Ford seemed rather stressed and insisted Arthur join him a the local pub. After coming to a deal with the construction foreman, Arthur reluctantly followed Ford to join him for a couple beers. Ford was muttering nonsense about the end of the world in the next few minutes. Except it wasn't nonsense. A Vogon construction space ship came by and blew up Earth to make room for a new outerspace bypass.

Now Arthur is an intergalactic hitchhiker on a Vogon spaceship in hyperspace. Ford stuck out an electronic thumb and they were picked up. Unfortunately Vogons don't appreciate hitchhikers. Arthur and Ford are now about to be chucked out the airlock into the vacuum of space. It really hasn't been a good day.

That is the beginning of the lunacy that is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a tongue-in-cheek novel about the strangeness of life. Arthur is the human who is involved by chance, so gives the viewpoint of the book. It's humorous - okay outright funny. This was originally a radio serial in England that was so successful that Adams finally took one of the versions and turned it into a novel. The novel then had four sequels, keeping the humorous style.

I first read this around 15 years ago, have since seen one of the television representations and heard one of the radio broadcasts. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is part of many science fiction reader's culture. If you haven't found it yet, do so! Always take a moment to laugh - it's good for your health. That makes this book a healthy read as well as a fun read.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy includes all five novels in the series for a good price. It is available at , or you can purchase just this novel alone.