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And Another Thing...

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I just finished reading Eoin Colfer's sequel to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series (titled And Another Thing...), and I was surprised to discover that I actually liked it.  At least, I liked it better than So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless.

It wasn't without its problems, such as the overuse of "froody" and the many, many mentions of Eccentrica Gallumbitis, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon 6, from the original series.  I assume he did this in order to make it "feel" more like a Hitchhiker's Guide book, but they grow old very quickly.  The book also had much more of a plot than any of Adams' entries in the series did.

But I did feel that Colfer managed to capture the overall spirit of the books quite well, and it was a much more fitting ending than Adams' apparent killing of all the main characters at the end of Mostly Harmless.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the book.  I'd give it a 7/10.  My rankings for the series, in order of my favorite to least favorite:

Life, the Universe, and Everything (3rd book)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1st book)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (2nd book)
And Another Thing... (6th book)
Mostly Harmless (5th book)
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (4th book)

So, has anyone else read it? What did you think?

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I'll have to pick it up.  I am re-reading The Meaning of Lif right now.

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 (Edited)

I'm in the process of reading it right now, but I'm not all that far yet. Although I am enjoying it, there is one thing that annoys me, and it's the CONSTANT references to the previous books, in an almost Family Guy-esque "Hey, you remember when we (insert event from first or second book here)?" and I just want to tell Colfer "You know we've read these books already, right? That's why we're reading this one in the first place!" Does he quit doing this later in the book?

But other than that, it's a quite enjoyable read.

EDIT: Arthur calling people "mate" kind of bothers me a little as well. He's far too stuffy for that.

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

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He only does that in the first, say, quarter of the book or so.  I could be wrong about that, since it didn't really bother me as I haven't read the first five books in quite a long time (I didn't even remember who Random was when I started reading it).

You'll be incredibly sick of "froody" by the end of the book, though.

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I agree with your assessment 100% ChainsawAsh. My problem with the book it spent such a long time erasing the ending of the last book that once the main plot started it seemed to stop just before it got really interesting. It has the right style, but at times the references do feel rather forced. I'd read it again, which is more than I can say for 4 and 5. I only own 1 and 2, and bought the first arc of the radio drama from iTunes, which I love more than the books.

My Review from back when I read it.

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Go buy 3 now!!!  Otherwise you are dead to me.

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Agreed.  3 is fantastic!  How can you not own the book with Agrajag in it?

I also prefer the first two radio shows over the books.  The remaining radio dramas that adapt books 3-5 (and attempt to reconcile the continuity issues caused by using book 3 as a sequel to radio show 2) are decent, but obviously suffer from many of the same issues that books 4 and 5 suffer from.

Now that I think about it, I've never watched the entirety of the BBC TV series ... I should get on that ...

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ChainsawAsh said:

Now that I think about it, I've never watched the entirety of the BBC TV series ... I should get on that ...

If you can look past the cheap production values (which I find part of the charm), it's a great series.  Nice DVD extras too.

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Bingowings said:

This is what the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy has to say about Daleks.

I saw this the other day - hilarious, and very well done!

Oh, and Frink, I've seen the first two episodes of the BBC show, I just haven't seen the whole thing.  I liked what I saw so far quite a bit - very faithful to the radio series.

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I'll grab 3 next time I see it. Might as well have the actual trilogy....

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