Please, before anything... DON'T PANIC.


This review is harmless, well mostly harmless.

I think that one of the things that one has to keep in mind while reading this book is that it was written in 1979. Having this important factor in perspective, it's quite astonishing the vision of Douglas Adams, the author, presenting a lot of visionary elements, starting with the very "book inside the book", I mean The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, since it's presented as an electronic book. which now it's a very common way to read a lot of books now. Also, he mentioned stuff like "touch-sensitive screens" that yet again, it's now something introduced in our daily lives. Science-Fiction, the good science fiction is defined by being visionary in the moment to be published and a fact, years later. Just like Verne's work predicting events like space rockets and nuclear submarines.

n  The President of the Universe holds no real power. His sole purpose is to take attention away from where the power truly exists...n

Obviously, beside the mesmering tecnology stuff that he predicted, the signature style here is his remarkable sense of humor, SMART sense of humor. In literature and pop culture in general, there were been unforgettable examples of computers like the cold HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey and the noble K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, also robots like the loyal R2-D2 from Star Wars and the logical robots from I, Robot short story collection. However, nothing of that can prepare you to the experience of meeting "Eddie", the Main Computer of the Heart of Gold spaceship or Marvin, the Paranoid Android. This is one of the best traits of Douglas Adams' wit in the development of artificial intelligence. I wasn't surprised since some months ago, I read Shada by Gareth Roberts but based on the Doctor Who's unaired script written by Douglas Adams where you find another priceless example of a computer with a personality that only Adams is able to develop. You laugh and laugh with them BUT not only because they's funny but also they are truly logical as artifical intelligences in their way to react to situations. Adams' impact of how presenting artificial intelligence can be found too in another novel of Doctor Who, Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris, where the author showed how well he learned Adams' lessons.

n  Resistance is useless!n

I believe that Douglas Adams' involvement in the production of the iconic British sci-fi TV series Doctor Who as script editor and writer of three stories, it was fated since I found remarkable similarities on the premises of both works, this novel and the TV series. Both has a peculiar fellow who stole certain machine and along with companions is travelling around. So, it wouldn't a surprise that he got some inspiration since Doctor Who was widely known since 1963 specially on its native country, England. Of course, his participation on another British TV institution like Monty Python's Flying Circus was a relevant point for Adams to explode his humoristic potential.

n  To boldly split infinitives that no man had split before...n

It's possible that people unfamiliar with Adams' work could think that since this is a novel with comedy, they could think that it can't be a "serious" science-fiction book. However, the brilliance of this novel is its capacity of offering smart humor while using scientific concepts like the theory of faster-than-light objects. Even you won't be able to fight against his priceless explanation behind the UFOs' sightings.

Without spoiling anything, I think that my only reason of getting off a star in my rating of this great novel was its lacking a proper closure. I understand that this the first book in a trilogy of five books (yes, you read correctly, it wasn't a mistake) so the adventures and mysteries will continue in the second book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. However, it was quite unsettling when you are having the time of your life reading it and the book just stopped to have words. I describe it like that since I didn't feel an ending. It was indeed just like the impossibility of not finding more words in the book. What I can give to Adams is that that was quite improbable but in my opinion, quite unlikely way to just "ending" this book.

Certainly I want to read the rest of this great n  TRILOGYn of n  FIVEn books. (Yes, yet again, you read well, and it isn't a mistake)

چقدر این داستان جذاب بود!
راهنمای کهکشان اثر خودش رو روی زندگی واقعی گذاشته. برنامه ی ترجمه ی Big Fish! کامپیوتر Deep Thought! حوله ی استاپ زن ها!!!
چقدر خوشحالم که این داستان رو خوندم. بعضی قسمت ها واقعا خندیدم و یا با نیش باز لبخند زدم. بعضی قسمت ها هم با خودم گفتم ینی این مهملات چجوری به ذهن نویسنده رسیده؟!؟

شخصیت های داستان با قهرمان ها خیلی فاصله دارن. تو این داستان با یه رئیس جمهور ازخودراضی، یه اتواستاپ زن عجیب، یه زمینی بی خبر و بدبخت، یه ربات افسرده و یه کامپیوتر چاپلوس طرفیم.
ایده های داستان واقعا ناب هستن. این خاص ترین کتاب علمی تخیلیه که تا به حال خوندم! بارها و بارها غافلگیر شدم.

بهتون توصیه می‌کنم حتما و حتما و حتما بخونیدش!
خیلی هیجان زده ام که بقیه ی داستان رو بدونم. ای کاش می‌شد برای ادامه ی داستان به نمایشنامه ی رادیویی اش گوش بدم. شرط می‌بندم اونجوری لذت داستان صدبرابر می‌شد :)

پیوست :
فیلمشم دیدم و بانمک بود! البته کتابش بهتره!

Nothing to review here, awesome no matter how many time you read it.

Es el primer libro de humor con el que de verdad me he reído.

Es una historia disparatada en la que todo encaja perfectamente y hace que tenga sentido.

Al principio me costó entrar en la historia porque tenía que estar muy atenta al haber tantas palabras inventadas, pero poco a poco te acostumbras y la lectura se hace más ligera.

Todos los personajes tienen algo que los hace especiales. Marvin es genial, cada vez que aparecía a mí me daba la risa. Y el pobre Arthur, que no entiende nada de lo que está pasando... La escena con los ratones ha sido hilarante.

Y por último hay que destacar el trabajo del traductor/traductora/traductores (no he encontrado quién fue). Tuvo que ser dificilísimo sacar adelante este trabajo y que todo quedase tan bien. Sin duda, se merece/merecen un premio.
*Ya los he encontrado, no había mirado aquí en Goodreads

Probably should have smoked something before and/or during the reading of this.

Awarding one star for each of the following:

Digital Watches
Babel Fish
Marvin

I don't know how many times I've read this masterpiece of perfectly logical nonsense but there is a reason I try to read it every year for Towel Day (25th May). This year, I've decided to finally read the entire "trilogy" (which is also why I started a bit early).

Today must be a Thursday (funny that it actually is) because Arthur Dent has never gotten the hang of those. As it were, this particular day was when a demolition crew came to demolish his house to make way for a bypass. Shortly after, planet Earth follows its example for a hyperspace bypass. But not to worry, Arthur survives thanks to his friend Ford Prefect, who's actually an alien. They end up hitchhiking through the galaxy with a copy of the titular book, some babel fish and - of course - at least one towel. After all, there is more to the blue marble than meats the eye and it has to do with the answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Along the way, we get overenthusiastic spaceship computers, a depressed robot, a Galactic President that would make the current one in the White House look perfectly ordinary, some mice and an award-winning engineer.

This is one of those books that you either love or hate. Not least because humour is a fickle thing. Douglas Adams managed to perfectly capture the silliness, ridiculousness and nonsense behind human existence, bureaucracy and the many questions we tend to philosophize about and wrapped them all up in a space adventure. He managed to put his finger exactly on the stupid stuff and emphasized the things we probably should pay more attention to. Such as gorgeous fjords.

As light and funny as this book seems on the surface, it is a deeper analysis of all of us; an attempt at making sense of a couple of things while not taking anything too seriously because life's too short for that (the author, sadly, proved that).

Definitely a classic that deserves all the different adaptations (it actually started out as a radio drama and was only turned into a novel later). Looking forward to finally finding out how the journey continues.

In my experience, readers either love Adams' books or quickly put them down. I, for example, quite literally worship the words Adams puts on the page, and have read the Hitchhiker's Trilogy so many times that I have large tracts of it memorized. But both my wife and father couldn't get past book one: the former because she found it too silly, and the latter because he found the writing to be more about "the author's personality" than plot and character.

Whatever.

The first three books in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, the Universe and Everything--are inspired lunacy. The ideas, plots, puns, jokes, and phrases that fill their pages have influenced an entire generation of not only writers, but people from all fields. For instance: the Babel Fish software that translates foreign websites for you is named after a species of fish that Adams created in book one; you can find dozens of recipes online for Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters; the chess computer Deep Thought that lost two matches to Gary Kasparov in 1989 was named after a computer in book one; and seriously, who hasn't heard that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42? (For more of these, consult wikipedia.org's entry on "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Cultural References".) Chances are, if you're reading these books for the first time, you'll be surprised to see how many everyday things were named after Adams' creations.

The books aren't, of course, without their problems. Adams himself admitted that the Trilogy had, and I paraphrase, a long beginning, a long conclusion, and not much in the middle (though I can't remember where I read that). He was also regularly accused of writing for the sake of cranking out one-liners. The books as a whole jump about like a manic puppy on methamphetamines, and there are at least a few jokes in there that will completely fly over the heads of any readers who lack a basic comprehension of quantum physics.

Despite this, the Hitchhiker's Trilogy remains as the single most entertaining and enjoyable series of books I've ever read--a position they've occupied for some fifteen years. Adams' wit and wisdom still baffle me in their greatness, and he remains to this day one of only two authors who can regularly, consistently make me howl with laughter (the other being Terry Pratchett). Readers beware: if the Adams bug infects you, you will have it for life. And you'll never be sorry you let it bite.

Not sure what it was about this book that made me not like it as much as I was hoping. When I was growing up I remember watching the BBC TV show and playing the text adventure on my Commodore 64 (yes, I am getting old). Before I actually read it, lots of my friends recommended it and the cool, edgy people all loved it (basically, the hipsters of the 90s!

Ich habe den Anhalter schon sehr oft gelesen und bestimmt es das am häufigsten von mir gelesene Werk. Insofern kann ich mich wohl als eingefleischter Fan sehen, der dazu beiträgt, diese Satire zum Kult hervorzuheben. Ich habe es nun zuletzt in einer Leserunde hier auf Goodreads wieder mal mitgelesen und das war eine neue Erfahrung, denn ein Großteil der oft deutlich jüngeren und ausnahmslos weiblichen Mitlesenden stand di Lieblingswerk viel kritischer bis enttäuscht gegenüber. Ist es das Schicksal eines humoristischen Buchs, dass es bei sich wandelnder Gesellschaft und Humorempfinden seine Zeitlosigkeit und damit seinen Kultstatus verliert? Wird Douglas Adams in 20 Jahren nur noch von einem versprengten Haufen von Nerds gelesen? Gehöre ich jetzt auch schon zu den Alten, die von früher schwärmen, als Ende der 70er Jahre mit Monthy Python und Douglas Adams endlich mal eine andere Art von Humor über Film und Buch in Deutschland einzog, welches zu der Zeit noch von Otto und Mike Krüger geprägt war?

Ich habe auch diesmal beim lesen wieder oft gelacht. Das Buch hat über die Jahre nichts an Freude bei mir eingebüßt. Manche Anspielungen können die Jüngeren wahrscheinlich einfach nicht mehr verstehen, ob es sich um Digitaluhren oder um Bob Dylan-Songtexte handelt. Für mich ist das Buch auch kein Sci-Fi im eigentlichen Sinne. Es ist eine Satire mit jeder Menge genial verpackter Gesellschaftskritik an vernunftorientierten Homo Oeconomicus, der sich für die Perle der Schöpfung auf der Erde und damit auch im Universum hält. Douglas Adams zeigt Arthur Dent, dem einzigen Überlebenden der Menschheit auf, dass die Erdlinge nur kleine Staubkörner, die den falschen Idealen nachgerannt sind. Er dreht den Spieß um, macht die Mäuse zu den Herrschern über den Menschen und uns zu Versuchsobjekten. Er zieht das Streben nach der Wahrheit und dem Forscherdrang durch den Kakao, in dem er uns eine Zahl als Antwort auf die Frage nach dem Sinn des Lebens gibt. Da kann ich mich als Volkswirt herrlich darüber amüsieren, da ich oft genug die Welt in mathematische Modelle packen musste und froh war, wenn die Lambda-Gleichungen am Ende aufgingen. Trotz allem Klamauk und Slapsticks über Handtücher und Umgehungsstraßen steckt in dem Buch für mich viel mehr dahinter. Ich liebe es.

طنز کتاب را خیلی درک نکردم و با خود کتاب هم آن‌چنان ارتباط برقرار نکردم.

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تاریخ تکامل هر تمدن مهمی تو کهکشان از سه مرحله مشخص و مجزا می‌گذره: زنده موندن، دانش اندوختن و تکمیل کردن دانش. به این مراحل می‌گن مراحل «چه‌جوری، چرا و کجا». برای مثال مهم‌ترین سؤال مرحله‌ی اول اینه «چه‌جوری غذا پیدا کنیم که از گشنگی نمیریم؟» مهم‌ترین سؤال مرحله‌ی دوم، «چرا غذا می‌خوریم؟» و مهم‌ترین سؤال مرحله‌ی سوم، «خوشمزه‌ترین کباب رو از کجا می‌شه خرید؟»
شاید بتوان گفت که غرب در نیمه دوم قرن بیستم درحال گذار از مرحله دوم به مرحله سوم است. مسائل و پرسش‌های مهم فلسفی و سیاسی اهمیت خود را برای اغلب مردم از دست داده‌اند، چرا که پاسخی برای آن‌ها یافت نشده و کوشش‌ها به‌جایی نرسیده یا آدمی را به‌جایی نرسانده‌اند. در غیبت این پرسش‌ها لذت یا همان مرحله سوم آدامز «خوشمزه‌ترین کباب رو از کجا می‌شه خرید؟» به دغدغه اصلی بدل شده ‌است. پیش‌گفتار مترجم- صفحات ۹- ۱۰ کتاب
واقعاً عجیبه. دقیقاً همون موقعی که آدم فکر می‌کنه زندگی از این بدتر نمی‌شه، یه اتفاقی می‌افته و آدم می‌بینه که خیلی بدتر از این هم هست. صفحه‌ی ۱۰۶ کتاب

n  n    “I don’t want to die now!” he yelled. “I’ve still got a headache! I don’t want to go to heaven with a headache, I’d be all cross and wouldn’t enjoy it!n  n

I found my love for Sci-Fi comedy when I read The Martian. And this was a good addition to my read shelf in that accord. I loved the moments I spent with this book. Unlike The Martian, this book would also work well for non-Sci-Fi readers. Because there is soo much humour you can't repress your laugh and enjoy this book.

OVERVIEW
Earth is scheduled to demolition for the construction of hyperspace bypass by Vogons, a galactic race. Arthur Dent is saved by his friend, Ford Prefect, who is actually an alien. Ford hitches the lift on Vogons' Spaceship. When Vogons find them in their ship, they throw them in the open space. We can live in space without breathing for 30 seconds. But they are saved in 29 seconds by Heart of Gold, an incredibly fast spaceship which can cover every corner of the universe in fraction of a second. This spaceship is stolen by Zaphod, the president of galaxy. With Heart of Gold, they find a legendary planet named Magrathea. This planet is known to manufacture planets.


RANDOM THOUGHTS
=> I liked every character. Everyone was humorous. Arthur and Ford were my favourites. I also liked Zaphod.

=> Hyper-intelligent race, mice, build a supercomputer, Deep Thought, on Magrathea. It was built to determine the answer to life, universe and everything. After seven million and so years, it calculated the answer 42. But it was confusing. So Deep Thought build another supercomputer to calculate the question to this answer. This supercomputer was Earth which would calculate the question in ten million years. But five minutes before completing its task, it was demolished by Vogons.
WHAT?!

It's that time of the year again when I take out the towel I embroidered with "42" as well as "Don't Panic" and sit down to enjoy this classic and silly scifi story.

The story is well-known to most but let me recap real quick:
Arthur Dent is losing his house because of a bypass. Funnily enough, he doesn't have to suffer the injustice for long because the planet Earth is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass as well.
His friend, Ford Prefect, turns out to be an alien who tells him all about interstellar hitchhiking. Thus begins an epic quirky adventure through the galaxy, meeting aliens that use poetry as a form of torture and trying to get our home planet back.

Many say this book in a mess. And in many ways it is. But it's a good mess. The kind of mess life itself is. Humour is when you laugh no matter what. Douglas Adams was great at showing the tragedy in life through humour, making the characters here so lovable that I have no problem reading the story every year on the day he died far too soon (aged only 49) of a heart attack.

Here's to you, DNA, thanks for all the fish!


...
Yeah, I'm reading it again ... Especially for Towel Day ... xD
...
Every year I'm reading the book for Towel Day now (the third time by now) and every year it's as good as the very first time. xD Simply brilliant! 42!