Sad to say, the series is finished. What a delight from page 1 to 803 or whatever it was. This particular one is maybe not completely 5* but there's no way to rate the whole series so this will represent it. It's almost like I just want to start all over again, but alas/fortunately, there are many books in my must-read-immediately pile. So - so long and thanks for all the fish - and laughs. Douglas Adams lives eternally.

I've tried to like these books, but they are so silly and pompous that I just can't.

Well, this series was quite a tumultuous read. I really enjoyed myself reading this and, as the humour is very witty and clever. However, sometimes the setting is so random it took me some time to understand what was actually going on. Having read the last book of the series, book 4 feels a bit pointless. Nevertheless, I recommend anybody interested in the series to read it completely!

Blechh! Worst. Ending. Ever! I've heard that Douglas Adams wrote this book during a bad time in his life (hey, we all have 'em), but this book more or less stinks. I have chosen to forget that this book was ever written, and that the series ended on a definite high note with "So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish". Those of you who have not had your minds poisoned with this bit of tripe would do well to skip it altogether.

When I first read this book, I was fourteen. I thought it was bleak and dreary compared to the first four books and didn't enjoy it at all.

But now, as an adult, Adams' writing makes SO much more sense. Yes, this book is indeed darker than its prequels, but it delves deep into the human psyche, into the dichotomy of our choices, into how no matter however much we achieve, nothing seems to be enough.

There is Tricia McMillan (The version of Trillian in an alternate reality who didn't "run off" with Zaphod) who has two master's degrees in Mathematics and Astrophysics and is currently working as a successful news presenter. And yet, despite her laurels, there is the underlying doubt about how her life would have turned out IF she had left with Zaphod. It has been 17 years since then, and she is still trundling about life, dissatisfied with what she has been dealt, wondering what would have happened if she had made the other choice.

Then again, there is Trillian, the one who DID leave with Zaphod all those years back. She has moved on from her eclectic boyfriend and is a successful news reporter covering crimes and wars across several galaxies and universes. Despite all her successes, despite all the adventure in her life, she is assailed by the question of how different life would have been if she had a child. So, she goes to a sperm bank and manages to birth a daughter. This child, called Random, is supposed to be her ticket to normalcy. But she soon realises that she prefers jumping from one alternate reality to another and all Random does is tie her down. Unable to deal with the responsibility, she hunts down Arthur Dent (the only human to have left the earth, and hence, the only possible candidate to be Random's father) and tells him it's time he took the responsibility of his daughter.

There is Arthur Dent, depressed and homesick after losing the love of his life - Fenchurch - to a hyperspace jump. He moves from planet to planet in search for some semblance of normalcy, until he stumbles upon the homely planet Lamuella where most of the population is backward and still hasn't moved on from their hunting and gathering days. Arthur uses the only talent he has - making sandwiches - and stays on as the much-loved local sandwich maker, finding happiness in cutting the perfect bread slices and training local boys to take up his place when he is gone.

This idyllic life is shattered to pieces when Trillian arrives and dumps Random in his life.

Random - the daughter he never knew he had. Random - the ten-year-old young woman who has only known a life of jumping from space bars to sub-ether parties with a mother who never really wanted her. Random, who never had a home or a father. How is such a soul expected to adjust to Arthur's life of - what Ford Prefect calls - "mind-boggling boredom"? Naturally, she takes the first exit she finds, pulling Arthur and Ford into an adventure they hadn't forseen, one that brings this awe-inspiring journey of five delightful books to a satisfying end.

There is humour. But there is also a lot of pain. There is pain in Tricia/Trillian's sense of never being satisfied, in Arthur's loss of his love and his home and his desperate but ultimately futile attempts at being a good father, in the heart of the reader who sees the characters make mistakes you wish you could jump into the book and stop them, but realising that even that would be futile, for they would only go where their hearts led them.

There is pain in knowing that no matter what you choose, there will always be doubt that you could have chosen differently and that life could have been better.

This a brilliant masterpiece of a book. This is philosophy disguised as comedy.

If anyone tells you to not read this book, ask them to reconsider after reading my review. And also, a few quotes by Douglas Adams himself -

Let the past hold on to itself and let the present move forward into the future.

Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen. Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.

You see, the quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.

Sometimes if you received an answer, the question might be taken away.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

Every single decision we make, every breath we draw, opens some doors and closes many others. Most of them we don't notice. Some we do.

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A pretty great way to wrap up this epic. I wasn't sure where things were going to go after Volume 4. This has some pretty great adventure with Arthur trying to find a place to just live - he ends up on some backwater planet and introduces them to the art of sandwich making. The daughter character is a lot of fun.

The ending, bitter-sweet as it is, was pretty satisfying. It's nice to a long series to have a good conclusion.

تموم شد؟
خیلی تاثیر گذار بود :)
آخرین کتاب از سری کتاب‌های راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها...جالب بود دوست داشتم...
همین.

Let me just say that 'Mostly Harmless' totally shocked me out of my chair.
I read the first four books and pretty much loved the humor, storytelling and not to mention the characters.
Some new characters are made in 'Mostly Harmless', and if I had to choose a favorite new character, it would be Random. Random as in her name IS LITERALLY RANDOM.
The irony of the whole story made me really, really excited. The whole tale goes in a roundabout of time and space and ends up where we started.
The ending was totally mind blowing. i couldn't believe it. If you read it, you'll know what I mean.
Bravo, Douglas Adams!!!! You have done the improbable--to break my heart and make me sob at the end. Only very few books have manged to make me cry at the end(e.g: Artemis Fowl book 8, Sarah's Key...)
Lots of irony and lots of very funny jokes, RECOMMENDED!!!
And the reason why I gave it four stars?
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW?
Spoiler alert..
Because every single main character died at the end.
:) Even though the books over, I still go hitchhiking the universe with my trusty towel.
Good luck to all you!!
And remember.
THE UNIVERSE IS A LOT SAFER IF YOU HAVE A TOWEL WITH YOU.

This book took me monthssss to finish and I'm not proud of it.

ظاهراً آدامز موقع نوشتن این جلد حال روحی خوبی نداشته و دپرس بوده و بعدها از تیرگی پایانش پشیمون شده و می‌خواسته یه جلد ششم بنویسه که فرصتش رو پیدا نکرد و فوت شد و نویسنده‌ی آرتمیس فاول جلد ششمش رو نوشت که اکثراً حسابش نمی‌کنن و همین جلد رو به عنوان پایان پذیرفتن
آره.. کل مجموعه یه پوچیِ فان و بامزه داشت ولی پایانش دیگه زیاد بامزه نبود و فقط اون پوچی رو منتقل می‌کرد و با این حال من راضی بودم و با سلیقه‌ام سازگار بود
در ضمن، حتی با استاندارهای راهنمای کهکشان هم باز این جلد تا وسط‌ها خیلی گنگ‌تر و خر تو خره. در جریان باشید

Siamo alla fine del lungo viaggio. Ultimo capitolo della saga e ciò non può che avvenire in modo divertente, tipica impronta di Adams. Nel corso delle pagine si avverte una certa convergenza a un finale che poi quasi manca. Eppure il tutto si conclude riportando tutti i nodi al pettine. Una lunga avventura tra non sense e impossibile si conclude con una logica tutta sua, anche convincente.

So I’ve finished the 5 part trilogy, now in audio format. This review is from #2 to #5 (this one). The first is read by Stephen Fry and is delivered in exactly the way in which Mr Adams would have wished.

The other 4 are read by Martin Freeman and are delivered in a manner which could only make Mr Adams spin in his grave like a dervish. I assume they asked Mr Freeman to narrate as he starred in the truly dreadful Hollywood film version, which is also likely turning Mr Adams like a Doner kebab on acid. Let’s at least hope it’s in the opposite direction.

Take a brilliantly written tale and suck all the humour out and you’d be left with this. Avoid. (3 stars because the story is still magical … despite).