And Another Thing

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

Part 6 of 3

By Eoin Colfer

Penguin Books (2009)

Following the death of Douglas Adams in 2001, Eoin Colfer took on the job of writing this outlined but never finished book. I was a bit apprehensive about a different writer taking over such a great series but he is a good choice as he has captured the Adams style of humour very well.

“The Cyphroles are tiny …gastrozoa who absorb the hostile energy emitted by their predators… This makes the predators angry and so the Cyphroles can swim faster … gas dragons have learned to approach the Cyphroles casually, whistling a little tune or pretending to search for a few coins they have mislaid. The Cyphroles always fall for these tricks as nature gave them large energy filters and tiny bullshit detectors”

In this book we rejoin Arthur Dent as he rejoins the real world. He has spent some time in a virtual reality where, free of the risk of being blown up, he has actually found time to enjoy life and get a decent cup of tea. Readers of the series will remember that Arthur’s main activity is finding new versions of Earth, then having them blown out from under him by the Vogon Destructor Fleet. They have a contract to destroy Earth no matter whether it is a copy or exists in another dimension. The Vogons take their contract seriously and will not rest until the last Earth and Earth man (that’s Arthur) are destroyed. Just before the last Earth was blown up Zaphod Beeblebrox managed a crafty deal where some rich Earth people and their servants were transported to a Magrathean Earth-like planet so they could avoid the destruction. The Vogons have now found out about this new Earth and it must be destroyed as well to fulfill their contract.

Arthur, of course, is now on that planet. He, Trillian, their daughter Random, Zaphod and Ford Prefect have been brought there by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. Wowbagger has had enough of his immortal life of insulting people and now wants to die. Zaphod has promised him that his old buddy, the god Thor, can arrange that for Wowbagger (only a god can kill an immortal). Zaphod as usual has been rather free with the truth – Thor will kill him first if Zaphod cannot talk his way out of trouble. Even if he can, the Vogons will kill them all anyway when they destroy the planet. Once again it appears Arthur is going to die.

Most of the familiar characters are there. The Guide is still represented with its not-always-helpful information, such as:

“There is a theory, postulated by Schick Brithaus, which states that the Universe is built on uncertainty and that a definitive statement / action creates a momentary energy vacuum into which flows a diametrically opposing statement / action. Famous vacuum-inducing statements include

Surely that’s not going to fit in there?

And

I am sick of betting the same numbers every week. They are never going to come up.”

Arthur is coming to grips with his place in the Universe and is resigned to the fact that every time he starts to feel happy something will go wrong. Zaphod’s ego is still bigger than many planets. The Vogons are as mindlessly bureaucratic as ever.

Although Colfer’s hand is now controlling the pen it is still the world of the Hitchhikers Guide as we have come to love it.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.1 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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