Bir dünyalının galaksi yolculuğuna zoraki çıkışı ile başlayan kitap — işte tam burada birisi otostop çekiyor –, tüm evreni aşıp dünyaya pekte benzeyen bir yapay gezegende son buluyor, ya da bulmayada bilir ; okumak isteyenler için daha çok ayrıntı vermek istemiyorum ama uzay ve bilim ile ilgili temel bilgileri olanlar için — güneşin ışınlarının dünyaya geliş süresi, dünyanın yarı çapı, dünyaya en yakın yıldız sistemi prosima centauri, sonsuz maymun teoremi vb bir çok gerçek bilgi kitapta kullanılmış– ve tabiki bir de bilim kurgu seviyorsanız tam aranılan kitap.

Kitabı farklı yapan bir diğer şey de sarkastik benzetmeler ve anlatım;...Gerçekte gezegende yunuslardan daha zeki bir tür daha vardı ve onlar da zamanının büyük bölümünü davranış araştırmaları labaratuvarlarında tekerleklerin içinde koşarak ve insanoğlu üzerinde korkutucu derecede ayrıntılı ve kurnaz deneyler yürüterek geçiriyorlardı. İnsanoğlunun bu ilişkiyi de baştan aşağı yanlış anlaması bile aslında bu yaratıklarının bir parçasıydı.. Bölüm 23 — fareler bizim üzerimizde deney yapıyor demek istenmiş —

I think I might need to lie down and cry a little now... [Prtf]

This could possibly be one of the most epic books of all time, easily passing up the biography of Chuck Norris and the complete works of J.K. Rowling. I have read all 5 books at least 8 times over and can pretty much recite the first chapter of the first book from memory. At night i fall asleep to the gentle sounds of Stephen Fry reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy from my AM/FM 2 disc CD/cassette radio player box.
Though you can start with any of the five books, i wouldn't suggest starting with any one but the first, otherwise your head has a tendency to explode. The story starts out in the quiet rather boring life of one Arthur Dent. Upon getting up one morning, he finds that there are several rather large and yellowish bulldozers preparing to destroy his home. He is somewhat angry about this and makes the most logical choice to go lay down in front of one to stall for time. Things go badly for him, and, a couple hours later, the Earth gets vaporized in a brutal sort of way by a rather nasty group of slug-things called Vogons. Luckily, Arthur has the brains to be chummy with Ford Prefect... who just so happens to be an alien hitchhiker from the planet Betelgeuse. Ford uses a fancy ring to hitch a ride on the nearest Vogon ship just seconds before ole' Earth kicks the bucket.
Throughout the next four installments of the series, Ford Prefect and Arthur journey through the universe visiting such places as Magrothea, a nifty little planet where they make custom order worlds for rich people. Another exciting place they journey to is the odorous world of Vogsphere. Bad luck befalls the duo, and they are almost fed to the Ravenous Bug-Blatter Beast of Traal. On a brighter note, they manage to kill a jeweled crab with the door of a spaceship. They are supported by a colorful class of characters including the two-headed, charismatic President of the Universe, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and his (from what im told) pretty sexy girlfriend, Trillian.
I would suggest this book to anyone and everyone. However, a sense of humour is required. Without it, you will undoubtedly be as lost as Willy Wonka is in a nutritional foods store. There are some groups however that should not read this work of excellence even if they have a sense of humour. They include, but are not limited to, animals, seeing as how the absence of opposible thumbs might make it difficult for them to turn the pages, and PETA, because they will be angry that animals were not given equal rights as humans in this review.

Finally I've read this popular witty classic sci-fi. The series is definitely worth praise although the last story - Mostly Harmless - seems too dark and depressive. The best parts were authors hilarious narration: the plot couldn't stand a chance without it.

İroni ve kronoloji kavramları kendilerine yeni birer biçim bulmuş olabilir bu kitapla. Evrenin saçma sapanlıkları ve aşırı sistemli rastgeleliği üzerine, aynı şekilde saçma sapan ve aşırı sistemli bir kitap. Her şey yerini buluyor ama tam o anda bulunan şeyin orada olmadığı ortaya çıkıyor. Şaşkın bir arayış ve anlamsız buluşlar, tekrar, tekrar ve tekrar.

Keşke Marvin için başlıbaşına bir bölüm olsaydı :/

Elveda ve bütün satırlar için teşekkürler :)

This review is for the first two books only.

I have a confession to make: I am allergic to sci-fi. The kind that has as its hero a humanoid who lives in 23345 AD on a dystopian red planet, where he must fight slimy insectoid aliens whose sole purpose in life is to lay and hatch their filthy eggs on human bodies. The guy is barely human anyway, with half his face swathed in shiny robotic gear with glowing red eyes that look like the battery-powered tip of my 10 year old’s toy laser gun. Or instead of being half-android, he is half Vulcan or Neptune or whatever and thus has the emotional life of a plant. He would speak in pseudo-scientific jargon, something like, “ I must get the quark-photon-intercellular battery on my jet-propulsion pack to work so that I can get back to my Hyper Drive Interstellar Pod and shoot off to Alpha Centauri XYZ2345 in 10,000 times the warp speed along the space-time continuum”. I could feel my brain slowly turn to mush after barely ONE page of dialogue like that. He would have a robotic sidekick that looks like my Brabantia Dome Lid Waste Container with a string of blinking Christmas light around it, except that it can also speak in a metallic voice that somehow sounds like my mother-in-law in one of her bad days. Oh, and there will be other more sympathetic alien life forms that look like the misbegotten offspring of a camel and an orangutan, or some rubbery stuffed toy that the dog had chewed to bits. In short, I just can’t see why I should care about the fate of these monstrous, barely human creatures. Why waste precious time reading about some trash can android or an alien that looks like the Elephant Man on a bad hair day while there are perfectly normal, realistic HUMAN characters out there?

My favorite genre is historical fiction; you know, those books about human beings who either have been dead for centuries, or never existed at all, written by people who cannot possibly have any first-hand knowledge of the period that they’re writing about? Nothing could be more different than science fiction, something that I have not touched in 20 years or so.

So, what am I doing with The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus, 832 pages of sci-fi drenched in techno babble and redolent of the smell of a million alien armpits?

Well, for one thing, it’s included in the BBC’s 100 Big Reads, which for some reason has become my guide to a worthwhile reading list that is not solely composed of the classics. The other thing is that it’s supposed to be one of the funniest books ever written ---I can always overlook the sci-fi for the funnies. And the characters are recognizably human, or at least sort of human, although one of them is called Zaphod Beeblebrox, (which, incidentally would make a good brand name for a laxative) and has two heads and three arms. The other two are genuine human beings from Earth --- or carbon-based ape-descended life forms --- take your pick, and the other one is a human looking alien with ginger hair (a hideous genetic mutation that should be bred out in real humans). And he is conveniently named Ford Prefect. No need to memorize ridiculous alien names when a simple English one will do.

And now that we are superficially acquainted with the protagonists, it’s time to summarize the plot of this sprawling intergalactic tome --- except that there is no real plot to speak of. Well, actually there is something about looking for the Ultimate Question --- ‘What is the meaning of life?’ --- which is of interest to all life forms in the universe, at least to those that have the brain capacity to ponder such things. But mostly they just bounce around from one bizarre planet to another, having weird adventures in which they meet, among others, a paranoid android, rebellious appliances, a comatose intergalactic rock star and a megalomaniac book publisher. Ultimately, the barely there plot is nothing but an excuse for an absurdist farce through which Adams pokes fun at organized religion, meat-eaters, politicians, big businesses, environmentalists, the publishing industry and other pet peeves. Some parts are brilliantly funny, especially in the first book, while others had me scratching my head and wondering whether he was high on something when he wrote them. Certain sections are mind-numbingly boring and confusing in that special sci-fi way. Oh, and the constant smugness and non-stop zaniness are grating after the second book or so, and I just lost interest completely after finishing it.

At least I know now that ‘babel fish’ is not just a strangely named online translation program. And that it is possible to write a book about what is essentially nonsense and have it become a major pop culture icon. But I’m also mightily relieved that I can stop hitchhiking through THIS universe, which is probably too cool and too clever for me to completely understand.

And this shall be my last sci-fi book for the next 20 years.

Classica trilogia in cinque parti (e appendice). A tratti irresistibile, con trovate geniali e esilaranti, è però inadatta ad una lettura "tutta d'un fiato": avendone già letti i primi volumi, ho voluto gustarmi l'intera saga, e devo ammettere che qualche momento di stanca c'è stato (e l'appendice non è agli standard di Adams).

Inquietante, ad ogni modo, la preveggenza dell'Autore (come spesso nella sci-fi): la Guida, in fondo, è un moderno notebook con accesso a Wikipedia...

In questi libri non si trova solo la risposta alla vita, l'universo e tutto, ma anche una delle migliori analisi politologiche di sempre:

"Il maggior problema, ossia uno dei maggiori problemi (ce ne sono tanti) che l'idea di governo fa sorgere è questo: chi è giusto che governi? O meglio, chi è così bravo da indurre la gente a farsi governare da lui?
A ben analizzare, si vedrà che: a) chi più di ogni altra cosa desidera governare la gente è, proprio per questo motivo, il meno adatto a governarla; b) di conseguenza, a chiunque riesca di farsi eleggere Presidente dovrebbe essere proibito di svolgere le funzioni proprie della sua carica, per cui; c) la gente e il suo bisogno di essere governata sono una gran rogna."

If you are going to read the complete “Hitchhiker” series then I recommend buying “The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” as it contains all five of the books in the series. Having them in one volume encourages you to read them soon after each other, and I think that enhances the experience.
The collection also contains the horrid story “Young Zaphod Plays It Safe” and it is a waste of space in the text. But, that is a small quibble, and the story is short.
I enjoyed the series, mostly, and I would recommend it to certain readers. For more specifics see below where you will find my review for all five of the novels in chronological order.

1. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is short and never gives much development (character or plot) but it seems appropriate for this tale. The novel reminds me a lot of Vonnegut in its style and presentation. Short chapters and biting satire mixed with fantastical plot devices. And it all works!
The introduction and first chapter of this novel are funny and pull you into the book. There are moments that are so clever and witty that you will find yourself re-reading certain lines for no reason other than to enjoy them once again. Chapter 23 of the text (perhaps the book’s most famous) is brilliant and to the point. It is very short, funny, and kind of wise. Its opening line, “It is an important and popular fact that things are not often what they seem” could be a thematic statement for the book. One of the novel’s key devices is the idea that Earth is an experiment, and without revealing too much, I will say that it gives the novel its focus.
Also enjoyable are the characters of Marvin the paranoid android and Eddie, the shipboard computer on “The Heart of Gold” (a spaceship that serves as the novel’s main setting). Some of the text’s best moments and lines belong to them, and I was more endeared to them than I was to the novel’s two human characters.
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a delightful and quick read and I will be continuing my trip through the galaxy with its sequel, “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.”

2. “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” reads like a typical adventure tale, and it is more in this genre than its predecessor “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. The restaurant of the title is a place where the characters go and can literally watch the end of the Universe during dinner. Trust me, the way Mr. Adams explains it, it makes sense!
The plot of the novel begins right where its predecessor left off, and the set up is that space psychiatrists plot to kill Arthur Dent and Trillian because they are the last survivors from Earth, which we found out in “Hitchhiker” was an experiment designed to answer the purpose of “Life, the universe, and everything.” The psychiatrists do not want that question answered because they would be out of business. And with this clever premise it is off to the races.
In this delightful and quick romp of a novel we get to meet space psychiatrists, rock stars, and the ruler of the universe. And it goes without saying that none of it is as expected. The satire of the rock stars and bands is wonderful, as is the clever jab at rock stars that use to flee tax jurisdictions to record albums. In the book one mega space rock star even goes into “suspended death” for two years for the tax deductions.
The last 20 pages of the book contain some pretty rough satire of modern professions and social dynamics. And then the text ends abruptly, like Mr. Adams was leading you into the next novel. It worked, because I will be continuing my journey with these hitchhikers. You should too!

3. Of the three novels that I have read so far out of the five that compose the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series, “Life, the Universe and Everything” is the weakest, but it is still incredibly good. The whole book feels like a Monty Python sketch, but the first few chapters especially feel that way. It works, but it does get a little tiresome after a while.
The humor in this text is mostly through wordplay. It serves the book well and is a strength of this novel because in terms of plot “Life, the Universe and Everything” is all over the place. The unity of the wordplay and humor serves to coalesce (as much as it can) a very scattered text. Especially enjoyable is a clever discourse on swear words, their usage and how they evolve and change. In the world of this novel the word “Belgium” is their equivalent of the F-word. This part of the novel is a witty piece of satirical writing, and is very enjoyable.
There are two interesting bits in this novel I would like to share in this review. The first is one of my favorite cameo appearances in this entire series thus far, the character of Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged. He is an alien who through an accident has immortality and is bored to tears. So he makes it a mission to insult everyone in the Universe. His occasional appearances in this story are a joy. Another aspect of the text that I enjoyed is that the ultimate question and answer to everything remains unexplained. There is also a thinly veiled satire aimed at religious symbols where it seems Adams is mocking finding value in such things. It is an engaging section of the text.
I will be moving on to the fourth book in this series soon. I have enjoyed this ride so far!

4. This fourth novel in the series begins exactly as the first one, word for word, with one small twist. You can decide for yourself what you think of that twist. I did not care for it, as it shifts the focus in this text from the ones that preceded it. “So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish” begins with Arthur Dent back on earth, which is no longer destroyed (it was blown up in the first book of the series) but the explanation for how this is so is best glossed over if one wants to fully enter the world of the text. This novel does not feature the other characters from the previous three, so fans of Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian will be disappointed. Other series staples such as Ford Prefect and Marvin the Android make cameos in the novel’s final pages, but they seemed forced and not all that interesting in the context Mr. Adams uses here.
This are some shining moments in this book, among them chapter 25 in which the author’s persona intrudes into the text to answer the question “Does Arthur Dent f-word?” We also get to see “God’s final message to His creation”, and it is actually not a letdown.
At one point in the novel Arthur tells someone “See first, think later, then test” as the best way to approach something one does not fully comprehend. If you don’t take the last two parts of his advice while you are reading “So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish” you can enjoy the text.
I am anxious to see how the series concludes in installment 5, and I will be traveling that way soon.

5. "Mostly Harmless" is a great example of a writer extending a series by one book too many. Of the five books in the "Hitchhiker" series numbers four and five don't add much to it, and take a lot from it. "Mostly Harmless" just feels out of sync with the books that preceded it. Stylistically it is also very different, the chapters are much longer, the humor is much rarer, etc. It is not a good change.
A big flaw of the text is that our hero Arthur Dent does not even show up until chapter seven, and even when he does there is no transition from how we left him in book four, "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." From chapter seven to almost the final 40 pages the chapters alternate point of view between Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. I found Prefect's story boring until his storyline merges with Dent's about 3/4s of the way through the novel.
The book does have some good moments, particularly chapter nine in which it finally feels like the other novels in the series. Arthur Dent goes to the planet Hawalius to seek the advice of the oracles that inhabit it. In this chapter we see sparks of the Douglas Adams from the previous texts and it is a joy to read. There is also a witty cameo appearance by Elvis, which is cleverly woven into the plotline.
As has been stated in previous reviews "Mostly Harmless" is a dark text, almost nihilistic in its themes. The series ends in a uncharacteristic manner. Although as a reader I did not like the ending per se, I do feel it was kind of appropriate. It feels jarring and out of place at the same time. I can't say much more without spoiling it. Regardless it does give the series a sense of definite completion, and I think that is a good thing.

I didn’t get my laptop but I am still writing a review. Bravo for me.

This series was so fun to read – at least the first three books. I’ll get to that later.

I never realized how many modern-day phrases were references to this series. I knew there was a movie but I never watched it, only a few bits in passing while my brother was watching it.

I didn’t have a problem with reading this series, it didn’t put me into a slump, but I can see how it can do this to any reader. Because there is just so much information being thrown at you and you need to filter what is important and what is not and how can you do that if the very point of this book is not to make sense. Usually, the things you never thought could be important are important here – like towels. Towels are a big thing here.

You will have a wild ride with our diverse set of characters as they go through adventures in space. In the first three books.

The fourth book is different from the rest of the series, being a love story. And it’s not even set in space. So that was kind of disappointing. But the reading experience was okay for me.

Unlike the fifth book that was just bad. That is the sole reason why this book is a 4-star read and not a 5-star read.

If you are new to sci-fi check out the first three books and if you like them, check out the last two of the series, but set your bar really low. This was a unique series and I am pretty sure I won’t read anything like this soon, so kudos to that too. Now so long and thanks for the fish.
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This was a wild and fun ride. All of the reviews are coming in after I get my laptop back.

So Long and Thank Heavens I Somehow Read it All! : 2/5

Enjoyed first two books namely "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Restaurant at the end of the universe", but other three books are mostly unbearable. May be the Brit Humor did not get me at the hello or I'm too old for this series. Sorry Mr. Adams but I ain't got any feels even for the Marvin the Paranoid Android! *Chuckles*

Šta da kažem o jednoj od meni najdražih knjiga? Urnebesna… Artur Dent misli da je njegov najveći problem bager, koji planira da mu sruši kuću, radi izgradnje obilaznice. Ne zna da vogonska flota upravo planira da razori celu Zemlju radi izgradnje svemirske zaobilaznice. Artur će se, u društvo neobičnog (što ne čudi, jer je došao Betelgeza pet) Forda Prefekta, naći u beskrajnom svemiru gde će proći kroz brojne neobične situacije.
Univerzum u nevolji, je pisan pod velikim uticajem Vodiča. Preporuka do kraja Vaseljene i nazad…

So, the bloke and I reread this together, one chapter a night, over many, many months. I read the first three in a mad rush as a teenager, consumed as most readers of Adams are by the sense that this writer understood me, my values, my sense of humour so perfectly that nothing would ever touch it. I waited with eager anticipation for each subsequent volume - rereading the first three so often my copies are falling apart and I can recite whole passages. I surprised myself with how much I liked the sly humour of Dirk Gently, but like many fans, felt that he should be dedicating his energies to the genius of HHGTTG. When he died, I was actually devastated - the first time a 'celebrity' death had hit me like that.
So it was a surprise upon rereading to discover that actually, I don't think the last two books are very good. The genius is strong with the first three, the zany and the clever and the 70s and the future all mixing perfectly into can't-read-cause-laughing-too-hard, but the tone shifts in the long gap between Life, the Universe and Everything and So Long and Thanks for All The Fish. The 80s introspection and celebration of mundanity creeps in, the books focus much more on Dent's inner life, and are not the better for it. Trillian inexplicably turns into a talk-show-host type figure, and the sense of each scene being a delight in itself falls away in relation to a more conventional moving through a plot, and the plot itself seems tired. They are still worth reading - moments of genius like Fenchurch and Arthur flying on Earth, pretty much anything with Ford and no Arthur, and Old Thrashbarg is a wonderful creation, but I found myself secretly relieved to get to the end. I wanted to go back to bloody marvellous Marvin, and two troopers arguing themselves to death, froody mattresses.
There is nothing in the world as good as the first three books in this series, I suspect, so I'm sticking to my five star rating. But I guess I suspect Dirk Gently was the real recipient of Adams more brilliant ideas of the 80s/90s.