(mild spoilers ahead)

It's terribly amusing that the majority of reviewers have tossed this fifth part to the trilogy aside, banished it from their mental schemata of the series so as to acknowledge only that which ends well. I think it says a lot about the readership that they took in the entirety of the first four books without picking up on the melancholy and nihilistic subtext to Adams' writing. I mean, the first book ends with the discovery that the meaning of life is 42.... how much clearer does it need to be in order convey the ultimately meaningless adventure that Adams saw life in this universe to be? More importantly, at what point did that fact ever stop him from telling a spectacular story?

It is the journey, more than the end, that defines us and the worlds we live in. I think Arthur's encounter with the man on the pole in Hawalius can be taken as a pre-emptive response to those who would invariably decry the novel to be "too bleak": humans seek to be protected from knowing the things we don't want to know about, and it leads us to miss a great deal of understanding, experience, and acceptance, sometimes with dire psychological consequences. A reader may not want to know how the story of Arthur and his companions ultimately ends, or how any story that goes on long enough must end, but it's a blind and willful ignorance that serves no purpose but to save us seeing reality, in all its complicated and multidimensional depth of cause and effect and pure probability.

Personally, I found this book to be a brilliant and thought-provoking conclusion to a sharp, touching, and gloriously honest series. The ending of the novel, with Arthur at peace and Ford laughing wildly, is the most honest part yet. I pity any reader who doesn't get that.

The original trilogy would definitively have been enough

Arthur Dents´ journey forcefully continues, including making fun of topics like
Astrology
It´s funny the first time but has no potential for more and deeper gags, because ridiculing it is so widespread.

New management
That´s a better one, especially because it´s including The Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy. A nice comment on capitalism and economy in general too.

Primitivism
Making fun of back to the roots is always easy but, similar to astrology, not really the freshest comedy trope.

Combined with some other ideas, old and new characters, and quite a depressing undertone, Adams created another average part of the series after the already weaker fourth one. It´s kind of as with Frank Herberts´ Dune, it just doesn´t get better. And in both cases, the problem is that the series expanded after its initial success without the author having planned for it like in a big sci fi or fantasy series. These are so great and getting better with each part because the writers accelerate towards an end that has been prepared in years of hard work. In Adams and Herberts cases it´s more as if an already rusty old car gets a big tuning. That may first look good but finally can´t hide the fact that the original quality and driving fun have long been gone.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

3.5 stars

While Mostly Harmless was still a fun and quirky wild ride, it doesn’t quite stand up to the level of the other books in the series.

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

I have absolutely loooooved this series, so so so much.
Now, with that declared, I have to say I was just as disappointed with this one as I was with the last, actually more so. I did still enjoy it but I just found this one to be rather gloomy, especially the ending. Not quite what I was expecting at all. The first three were definitely on a whole other level compared to that of the last two.

***

Since finishing and after some googling I read ...
'Douglas Adams frequently expressed his disdain for this ending in retrospect, claiming that it was too depressing and came about as the result of him having "a bad year;" "People have said, quite rightly, that Mostly Harmless is a very bleak book. And it was a bleak book. I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note, so five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better kind of number." He had planned to write a sixth book to undo this 'mistake', but never got around to it before his death'

Whilst this of course doesn't take away my disappointment, it does make me see the book/ending a little differently.
I do know there is a sixth book (one I have been adamant I would not read and did not count as part of the series) .. the official sequel And Another Thing..., which is written by Eoin Colfer, who undoes the ending regretted by Adams ... so maybe I will pick this one up soon after all.


“A beach house isn't just real estate. It's a state of mind.”


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


“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.”


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


“It can be very dangerous to see things from somebody else's point of view without the proper training.”


“You cannot see what I see because you see what you see. You cannot know what I know because you know what you know. What I see and what I know cannot be added to what you see and what you know because they are not of the same kind. Neither can it replace what you see and what you know, because that would be to replace you yourself."

I swear I am cursed at this point or something because all of these well known older Sci-Fi series seem to fizzle out into nothingness by the end. Mostly Harmless is the furthest from the brilliance that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was and represents a weird tonal shift which makes this final entry feel even weirder compared to the rest of the series.

انقدر از بقیه شنیدم جلد پنجم خوب نیست که با ترس و لرز رفتم سراغش.
ایهاالناس چه مرگتونه؟! این جلد نسبت به قبلیا دارک‌تره ولی کمدی ماجرا هنوز سرجاشه و این پوچی و بی‌‌معنایی از جلد اول هم بود. این مجموعه خودِ خودِ کازمیک هارره. لاوکرفت هو؟ مگه وحشت لاوکرفتی فقط هیولاهای ‌عجیب و غریب با اسمای غیرقابل‌تلفظه؟ (گرچه راهنمای کهکشان هم کم موجودات عجیب و غریب با اسمای غیرقابل‌تلفظ نداره!)
دنیا بزرگ، پر از احتمالات پیش‌بینی‌ناپذیره. از موجودات ناشناخته بگیر تا تصادفات بی‌معنی‌ای که قوانین شناخته‌شده‌ی ما رو زیر پا میذارن. حتی درک حقایق این دنیای بی‌انتها از توان ما خارجه

...گرداب چشم‌اندازِ کامل وحشتناک‌ترین نوع شکنجه است. اگه آدمو بندازن تو این گرداب، آدم میتونه یه نگاه کوتاهی به بی‌انتهاییِ غیرقابل‌تصور جهان بندازه. یه جایی تو این بی‌انتهایی یه فلشِ بی‌نهایت کوچک به چشم میخوره که به یه نقطه‌ی میکروسکوپی اشاره میکنه که روش نوشته شده «این تویی!»

به طوری که در جهل و نادانی به سر بردن بهتر از دونستن این حقایقه.

من رو از دونستن چیزهایی که لازم نیست بدونم برحذر دار. من رو حتی از دونستن اینکه چیزهایی برای دونستن هست که من نمیدونم برحذر دار من رو از دونستن اینکه تصمیم گرفتم چیزهایی رو ندونم که تصمیم گرفتم ندونم‌شون برحذر دار. آمین.

نتیجه این دانش هم چیز خوبی نیست. ماروین با شخصیت واقعی بشری و ظرفیت ذهنی بزرگتر از یه سیارهْ افسرده‌س. یا بهتره بگم چون شخصیت واقعی بشری و ظرفیت ذهنی بزرگتر از یه سیاره داره افسرده‌س! وقتی به پراک سرم حقیقت تزریق میکنن و ازش میخوان حقیقت رو بگه، حقایقی عجیب، وحشتناک و تصورناپذیر رو میگه. چیزهایی غیرقابل‌فهم و ترسناک که میتونن آدم رو دیوونه کنن.
مجموعه سرشار از پوچیه. پاسخ به پرسش نهایی درباره زندگی، جهان و همه چیز چیه؟ ۴۲!
آگراجگ بدبخت چپ و راست تصادفی به دست آرتور دنت کشته نشد که شما بگین کتاب آخر یهویی دارک شد. شاید برای انتقام سراغ شما هم بیاد. از من گفتن بود.

Overall I enjoyed this book quite a bit. There was a bunch of stuff set up in the last book that were quite interesting, and while I think this book continued with some of those things the ending is quite abrupt (even though this is a reread I forgot just how abrupt the ending is so that was an interesting twist). I still have some questions that I wish were resolved, but overall its just a good continuation of all the shenanigans as seen in the previous book.

CAWPILE Ratings:
Characters: 7
Atmosphere: 8
Writing: 7
Plot: 7
Intrigue: 9
Logic: 6
Enjoyment: 7

Like its predecessors in the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, "Mostly Harmless" is a very quick and easy read. Douglas Adams' writing style is light and entertaining, containing just enough words to let you know what's going on, rather than going on and on describing each and every detail. In this way, the story flows along quite nicely. While the beginning of the story did tend to drag on a bit, once it picked up, I found it to be very engaging and amusing. The character development of Arthur and Trillian -- both going a little mad at not being able to return to Earth -- along with their surprise daughter Random, is at once hilarious and heart-warming. The supporting details in this installment meshed flawlessly with those in the previous Hitchhiker books, which in my mind produced a story that was both nonsensical and yet made perfect sense at the same time. Don't forget to bring your towel, and if anyone asks you what the meaning of life is, it's still 42!

Douglas Adams finishes off the series with a flourish.

Arthur goes space hermit.

Arthur Dent has been misplaced both in time and space. Now, he also gets displaced in an alternate universe somehow. And that's NOT the weirdest part here. Sadly, the group split up generally. Thus, we also follow Trillian's journalistic career, Ford's attempt at surviving the HHGs corporate structures and Arthur's stint as the sandwich maker - until he suddenly meets his daughter.

"Mostly Harmless" is the the HHG's definition/description of humans. Which is a weird thing to choose as a title considering how few humans are in this book. Just as weird as the apparently random chain of events that has our friends go through all kinds of situations that didn't tell us much of anything.
If you think about it, it might have been a brilliant comment by the author about how life happens while you're busy making plans or hoping this or that would happen. How life is "just one damned thing after another".

Nevertheless, this lacked the sharpness of books 1 and 3. In fact, this installment was downright pointless and lacked the usual hilarity that even book 2 had in places. Yes, I chuckled at Ford's adventure in the corporate world and the description thereof; I also liked the daughter’s fascination with Arthur’s watch; but that was about it. All the other bits were ... just there. There wasn’t any actual substance to anything here. It was all just so random - apparently the point the author was trying to make, in fact, because that is Arthur’s daughter’s name (she’s a very weak metaphor for life if you ask me). There was no real point to any of it.

No idea what happened, it just makes me sad - and I’m glad I listened to the advice of people who already know the series and read this as #4 because if this had been the finale to the "trilogy", I'd have been thoroughly disappointed. It would also not really have been much of an ending.

2.5 stars rounded up because ... well, it's DNA. I wonder what happened. Too bad we can't ask the author anymore.

Mostly Harmless (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #5), Douglas Adams

Finally, in Mostly Harmless (published in 1992), Vogons take over The Hitchhiker's Guide (under the name of InfiniDim Enterprises), to finish, once and for all, the task of obliterating the Earth.

After abruptly losing Fenchurch and travelling around the galaxy despondently, Arthur's spaceship crashes on the planet Lamuella, where he settles in happily as the official sandwich-maker for a small village of simple, peaceful people.

Meanwhile, Ford Prefect breaks into The Guide's offices, gets himself an infinite expense account from the computer system, and then meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Mark II, an artificially intelligent, multi-dimensional guide with vast power and a hidden purpose.

After he declines this dangerously powerful machine's aid (which he receives anyway), he sends it to Arthur Dent for safety ("Oh yes, whose?"—Arthur).

Trillian uses DNA that Arthur donated for travelling money to have a daughter, and when she goes to cover a war, she leaves her daughter Random Frequent Flyer Dent with Arthur.

Random, a more than typically troubled teenager, steals The Guide Mark II and uses it to get to Earth. Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Tricia McMillan (Trillian in this alternate universe) follow her to a crowded club, where an anguished Random becomes startled by a noise and inadvertently fires her gun at Arthur.

The shot misses Arthur and kills a man (the ever-unfortunate Agrajag). Immediately afterwards, The Guide Mark II causes the removal of all possible Earths from probability.

All of the main characters, save Zaphod, were on Earth at the time and are apparently killed, bringing a good deal of satisfaction to the Vogons. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوم ماه اکتبر سال 2018میلادی

عنوان: بیش‌ترش چیز خاصی نیست؛ نویسنده: داگلاس آدامز؛ مترجم آرش سرکوهی؛ تهران: نشر چشمه، ‏‫1399؛ در 232ص؛ شابک9786220107064؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی تبار آمریکایی - سده 21م

عنوان سری و نام کتاب نخست از این سری «راهنمای کهکشان؛ برای اتو استاپ زن‌ها» است، که ماجراهای آن خارج از جو زمین میگذرد؛ با توجه به اینکه از این سری یک نمایش، یک سریال تلویزیونی، یک بازی كامپیوتری، سه جلد کتاب کامیک استریپ و یک فیلم سینمایی تاکنون اقتباس شده و از سوی دیگر به بیش از سی زبان گوناگون ترجمه و چاپ شده، بی شک یكی از شاخص‌ترین آثار ادبیات علمی ـ تخیلی نیز به شمار می‌آید؛ کتاب دوم سری با عنوان «رستوران آخر دنیا»؛ و کتاب سوم با عنوان: «زندگی، دنیا و همه چیز»، و کتاب چهارم «خداحافظ و ممنون از اون همه ماهی» و کتاب پنجم «بیشترش چیز خاصی نیست»، که همین کتاب نخستین بار در سال 1992میلادی منتشر شد؛

در کتاب پایانی سری سفینه فضایی آرتور پس از مسافرت ناامیدانه در اطراف کهکشان، بر روی سیاره لاموئلا سقوط میکند، جاییکه او با خوشحالی در یک دهکده کوچک با مردمان ساده و آرام زندگی میکند....؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 15/12/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

3.5*
Петата и последна, писана от Адамс, част на Пътеводителя отново забързва действието, вкарва нови загадки, разрешава стари, завихря въображението на читателя с оригиналния си сюжет и поддържа доброто настроение със сатиричния си стил на изказ. За съжаление обаче на фона на предната книга, в тази се случват твърде много неща за твърде малък брой страници, а и самият край е някак рязък и незадоволителен. Краткият разказ за младия Зейфод може и да хвърля малко светлина върху финала, но не без да остави и своята диря от въпроси без отговори. Надеждата ми е в Оуън Колфър и неговата шеста част (от общо три) на Пътеводителя.