May 16, 2022

A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Book Review

This classic by Douglas Adams is one of the top three most popular sci-fi books of all time, and for good reason - it is relentlessly funny and philosophical at the same time!

Published in 1979

Brent: 4 stars. Nonstop zaniness and an incredible number of jokes. I also really enjoyed the fourth book in the series, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, which is a very cute love story with a great big mystery to pull you along.

Cody: 4 stars. An utter classic. Hitchhiker’s Guide inspired so much that came after it, has fantastic spiritual views on the universe, and its silly characters remain memorable forever.

Dune book cover — 224 pages; 6 hour audiobook

Here's the setup:

This is a very hard book to summarize.

Arthur Dent is a normal British man who wakes up one day to bulldozers outside his home - the local council wants to tear down his house to build a new bypass. His friend Ford Prefect convinces him to get up from his protest in front of the bulldozers and nip over to the pub before the world ends. They get a beer, and then the world does end when a Vogon fleet shows up to destroy the Earth to make way for a new space bypass. Ford and Arthur are snatched away just in time up onto one of the Vogon ships as stowaways - it turns out Ford is an alien hitchhiker who has been stuck on earth for 15 years waiting for a UFO to fly by. And then they are off on an unbelievably zany romp around the galaxy as the last survivors from Earth.

And that’s all in the first few pages.

Hugonauts' Thoughts:

Hitchhiker's Guide is truly incredible! So much joke density and such a wildly detailed and zany plot. The chapters are only a few pages long, but every single one feels like it has something big happening in it, and every page has a joke (and it's almost always a good one). That makes it so hard to stop reading - you always want to know how the characters are going to get out of their latest crazy situation.

What really sets the novel (and series) apart and makes it timeless is the way Adams' raises big philosophical questions and answers them in a truly unique way. Instead of trying to dispense wisdom or tell you how to live your life, the books poke fun at the entire notion of universal answers to life's big questions. Adams suggests we could all do with taking life a little less seriously and finding our own answers to those big questions instead of looking for them from other people. '42' is the most famous example of this, but the books have so many other related jokes that are just as good.

The 4th book, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, might be Brent’s favorite of the series though. It's relentlessly hilarious, has a somewhat tighter central plot than some of the other books, absolutely nails its big philosophical moments (God's last message to his creation is one for the ages), and somehow also manages to be a very endearing, not at all too-sweet love story at the same time.

So, so many creative works have been inspired by HGTTG. Futurama, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Rick and Morty, and Everything Everywhere All At Once all came to mind right away - and we’re sure you can think of a few more. Its legacy in comedic writing and in science fiction is immeasurable.

Rest in peace Douglas Adams, thanks for making something so wonderful with the time you had, and for inspiring so much amazing work that came after. So long, and thanks for all the fish. We know you remembered to bring a towel.

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