I wasn’t prepared for how funny and clever this book turned out to be.
Reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (which will now be referred to as simply Hitchhiker’s) was like listening to a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. It was a wakey adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Hitchhiker’s is fun, incredibly creative, and has excellent world-building.
For those who haven’t read it, Hitchhiker’s starts with the, not so sudden, destruction of Earth. Turns out there was a notice that the Earth was going to be destroyed to make room for an intergalactic highway. Earth had the opportunity to appeal but the notice was off-planet so no one saw it. Luckily for a British man named Arthur Dent one of his friends, Ford Prefect, is actually an alien hitchhiker. Ford saves Arthur from the planet’s destruction and the rest of the book consists of the two of them hitching rides across to galaxy to find Arthur a new home.
The more I think about it, I realize that Hitchhiker’s reminds me of Rick and Morty. Both have social commentary, strange creative worlds, and fast-paced actions that push the story forward. I wonder if Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon took some inspiration from Hitchhiker’s when writing their show (but I’m too lazy/don’t care enough to google it).
I love talking about the humor of Hitchhiker’s because it’s one of the reasons I bothered to pick up this book (well that, and a cute guy recommended it to me). I’ve always been wary of the literary sci-fi genre because of how seriously I heard these books take themselves. It’s all deep philosophical debates with the very serious subject matter. Hitchhiker’s isn’t that kind of story. Its villains are an alien race who tell bad poetry and super-intelligent rats. The closes thing Hitchhiker’s comes to philosophic insight is with The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, and even that turns out to be a joke.
That is not to say that the Hitchhiker’s is unable to discuss deep topics. Occasionally, Authur will mourn the loss of his planet. Unfortunately, the galaxy’s antics don’t really take a break for his grief and the next zany thing will happen. It’s amazing how few people care that Earth blew up and billions of lives were lost (If they wanted to live, they would have filed that appeal).
The one drawback of the novel is that it stuffed full of made-up words, as someone who has always struggled with reading, this made it hard to get through the book. A lot of times I just skimmed excerpts from the in book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy because of how alien some of the words were.
Despite that hurdle, it was more fun than trouble so I rank this book a 4.5 out 5 Bable fish.
I Think Thinks 