The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, By Douglas Adams
(Reviewed by Dom)

Okay, so the word ‘classic’ is thrown around much too often, which in the end actually cheapens the word. But in this case we have no choice; Douglas Adams penned not just a classic, but a masterpiece.

2009 marks the book’s 30th anniversary, and it holds up perfectly. Ask anyone who has read it multiple times and they’ll tell you that they laugh just as hard each and every time. Adams practically invented the world of humorous science fiction, and immediately set the bar impossibly high.

In the tale, our hero is just your average guy, a rather mundane man named Arthur Dent. He’s miraculously rescued from Earth just moments before it’s obliterated to make way for an interstellar bypass. Little does he know that his friend, Ford Prefect, is a researcher for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and has been stranded on Earth for many years. …

Suddenly Arthur is hitchhiking through the galaxy, asking questions and getting the most confusing and hilarious answers. The characters are beautifully drawn, the scenes are hilarious, and the sarcastic/satirical writing is near perfect. Yes, you’ll find some poignant, thought-provoking barbs…but you’ll laugh the whole way through. Adams, who died in 2001, was a genius.

The book’s directive is simple: Don’t Panic! That’s still pretty good advice, thirty years later.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Dom and Jane Book Club. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.