And Another Thing…

The author missed the point. The guide was supposed to occasionally pop up with interesting background information. Instead it dominates the story and actually makes comments about what the characters are saying. For example, in one section it went like this: * Character: …just like the alien race X. * Guide: Well actually alien race X wasn\’t like that. * Character: Further, this is why I\’m write. * Guide: That\’s a lie. The author doesn\’t understand the difference between the Guide and a snarky, all-knowing narrator. Another example of this is when the Guide has a bunch of background information on A. Dent and all of the various ways he died across all of the various realities. How is that even possible? The Guide isn\’t a god and no Guide researcher would have wasted time and effort researching this one person of no importance.

I have read worse books; or more to the point have put down poorly written tomes half read due to boredom or annoyance. I wanted to like this effort, really I did. Sadly it did not have the pacing or gleeful wanton abandon of the original trilogy. I can not be the only one who felt all the guide entries and footnotes contained in this effort were distracting from whatever the story was supposed to be about in the first place. And if you are going to make Wowbagger a primary character but not have him interact with Marvin (a Marvinless HHGTTG book, sacrilege). It almost felt like I was watching a favorite movie but all the actors had been replaced by understudies. There were several points during which I would flip forward to find out how many more pages before the end of a boring chapter. I never did that on the originals; and not only cause most of the chapters were about a page and a half long; Douglas knew how to keep the pace going and if he did wander down an odd path, the payoff at the end would usually be worth it. So this book gets 2 MEHS and let us all hope there are no more attempts to bring this series back from the afterlife.

This feels like a must read for me, to get some closure after the death of Douglas Adams and the seeming demise of his clever band of characters. Though I enjoyed some furtherance of the characters, I was not nearly as compelled to delve into the book, flipping page after page as I was when I read the ultimate Hitchhiker\’s Guide to the Galaxy. The new format of \’guide notes\’ rather than random run on sentences like the original, broke up the story a bit to me, and seemed to take me out of it. Colfer did an outstanding job, though, of mirroring Adam\’s quirky style and dry satirical comedy, but he didn\’t explore much new territory which each previous book had. The story was full of great references to the former books and the universe it had built, but he didn\’t add anything new to that universe. But that may have been intentional as a show of respect for his great predecessor, so I can\’t really knock it for that. I was a bit disappointed that Arthur and Ford were not nearly as prominent of characters in this story. With all that said, the last act of the story brings things together and gives satisfying-ish endings in the very froody hitchhiker\’s style. All in all, I view this book as a must read for Guide fans for its loyal nods to the original as well as a wrap up that it seems Adam\’s may have gotten around to if it wasn\’t for his untimely demise. You will enjoy, but at your own peril!

I\’ve always been a huge H2G2 fan. I decided this year I would reread the series and give this book another shot. There are some really great bits that fit the series very well. I really love the whole cosmic gods thing Mr Colfer had going on. There were several parts that were absolutely hilarious. But. It felt like Mr Colfer had a checkbox of things to add every few paragraphs to remind you this is in the H2G2 universe. It really sticks out like a sore thumb and messes up the fluidity of the story. I really would love an alternate ending for Arthur and Co. but this just isn\’t it. Even when it seemed like there would be an acceptable ending, that checklist came around and mussed it up. Like he was trying too hard to be Douglas Adams. I feel like this would have been a significantly better story if Mr Colfer just wrote what he wanted instead of trying to adhere to a checklist. That being said, it\’s still H2G2 content, so yeah, read it.

To be honest I was prejudiced against this book before starting it. I was a first generation devotee of the original in all its 3 formats the radio, tv and books. As the series grew into a 5 part ‘trilogy’ the cracks were already showing. The original radio/tv/2 volumes told a complete story that came to a tidy end with a clear point, it was clever, funny, reflective and refreshing. The subsequent volumes of the series struggled a bit with a coherent story, the fantastical plot twists in multi-dimensional-space-time were often too forced for comfort and some sequences were a bit long and tortuous (the Krikit Wars in particular). But Adams had a personal style of writing, the characters were his and told in his voice retained their humour and reflection, that was enough to make great reading. Over 15 years after the last part of the ‘trilogy’ and a shortly after the death of Adams any new book written ‘from Adams’s notes’ was always going to look suspiciously like something done for financial gain by the publishers rather than for any artistic merit. And so it was. There is nothing terribly wrong with it but nor is there much to like about it either. Zaphod Beeblebrox needs to be written in the Big A’s voice anyone else writing the character, irrespective of their qualities, just isn’t going to feel like the real thing; the same is true of Arthur, Ford and Trillian. There is also the issue of the missing Marvin, come on if you’re going to do swan song you need the full cast. Eoin Colfer was never going to win here, if he had tried to keep to Adams’s style it would have looked fake but imprinting his own dents the characters – a lose, lose situation (unless you are counting the cash). The strength of Adams’s work was always his characters and here they are not the same, Zaphod is smarter, Ford more hedonist, Arthur has become competent (even wise), Marvin is missing and Trillian – actually I wasn’t especially happy with the Trillian character by end of ‘Mostly Harmless’ the only female characters (Trillian and Random) in the series were less than positive images of womanhood (okay the males are hardly great representatives of maleness but they are utterly likeable in way that Trillian wasn’t in the end). If you’re a devotee I guess you ought to read it but set expectations low and you won’t be too disappointed. I did after reading this try Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books and I can see why he was chosen to have a go at this gig, I know I’m a bit old for them but I am enjoying them, a lot more than ‘And Another Thing’ which really ought not to be a thing at all. It is however only a book and can’t do much harm.

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