I appreciate Douglas Adams a bit more each time that I read him. This was unsurprisingly lovely and funny and very enjoyable. It's a wonderful thing to read if you're having a bad day and it's rainy outside (or hey, even if it's sunny).

I don't think I really noticed it before, but reading through this I kept finding myself thinking that Douglas Adams could easily have been a very successful "serious" writer too, if he had wanted to be one. He's a wonderful writer, and there are a couple of turns of phrases throughout this book that are really beautiful. They'll be immediately undercut by something funny or ridiculous, but that only makes them stronger.

This one needed more Zaphod Beeblebrox, though.

”There is an art to flying, or rather, a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

”My doctor says that I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber,” he muttered to himself, “and that I am therefore excused from saving universes.”
Ford Prefect

Volume three of the Hitchhiker’s series, in which Arthur Dent learns to fly, we are introduced to the ancient and terrible Krikkit Wars, and we learn about the Rory, a prestigious award presented for the most gratuitous use of the word Belgium in a serious screenplay. Oh, and Slartibartfast rescues Ford and Arthur on his Bistromath powered spaceship to commence upon a quest to save the Universe from premature destruction.

Life, the Universe, and Everything presents a classic example of a joke being carried on too long. It still contains much of the mad wit of the earlier two volumes, but begins to get thin and worn around its edges. Perhaps the biggest mistake was introducing something actually discernible as a plot into the inspired madness (the book-long quest to save the Universe). Somehow this structure distracted from the inspired madness I had grown accustomed to.

I could not relate more to any other fictional character than to that alien guy going around the universe and insulting everyone on his way. This looks quite of an idea to me... Now, to the opinion.

I have to admit that I have misunderstood the series. It was silly of me to think that the series are going to follow an interwoven adventure and I was wrong: each book has its own. Even though I would have wished for more of an integrated storyline, I cannot blame the author for expanding it into multiple dimensions.

This third instalment in the series got me in strange ways. Sometimes it made me silently scream cut it out! at obviously bleak passages, and sometimes it made me go back and snicker at those hilarious punchlines again.

Either way, I decided not to binge read the series but leave the remaining parts for the time of my aroused interest.

As fun and silly as the previous instalments. The best part was that random guy going around insulting everyone.

I'm getting very bored of this series. While I like the characters and I understand the humour, I'm not laughing. I read these novels with a smile, not a smirk.

No doubt about it: Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its sequel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe were five-star novels. Anyone would want to read these laugh-out-loud funny books you'd again and again. But the third book in Adams' series, while amusing, doesn't prove to be as good.

Sure, there are some funny scenes, such as when Arthur Dent braves killer robots to return to Lord's Cricket Ground to deposit ashes. (Any more details on that would spoil the novel.) Life, the Universe, and Everything also shows Arthur Dent gaining confidence and coming into his own in his new life. But whereas the first two novels were uproariously funny and quite clever, Life, the Universe, and Everything feels tired and the plotting careens from chaotically comic to just chaotically confusing. It's worth reading, but don't get your expectations too high.

DNF'd at just before the half way mark.

Nonsensical musings, no semblance of plot whatsoever, things happening with no explanation and what Douglas Adams littering what he considered to be funny anecdotes throughout.

As I type this I have no real idea what the book was even about to the point I'm left even more confused than Arthur.

I was planning on finishing the series but after this I don't know if I can honestly be bothered. Which is a shame because it's not as if they're long books. At 200 pages I should have gone through this in a day or two.

I have thus far resisted the urge to put reviews on here for books that already have a zillion reviews because I think books with few or no reviews at all need me more, but frankly, I'm starting to struggle to think of obscure books I've read that aren't very similar to something I've already reviewed and I don't want to repeat myself. Anyone who reads and likes my reviews knows I put a lot of effort into them, and I always include something personal. I don't want that to change, but here I am with a zillion review book - a rare fiction book at that, and another story to tell.

When I was at school, about 40 years ago now, I had a very competitive friendship with a boy named Stuart. We were always discovering new things and trying to introduce each other to them. All the people and things he introduced me to - The Stranglers, Ian Dury, The Comic Strip Presents...., chilli con carne, MC Escher, Salvador Dali, Scott Joplin, Woody Allen, to name but a few - make me remember him every time they cross my path still, even though we fell out and went our separate ways nearly 30 years ago. Strangely enough, as it was me that went on to be the writer, though we both liked SF, it was Stuart who did most of the reading, and he tried to introduce me to a lot of authors. He mostly failed. I was a very stubborn boy and I at least thought I knew what I liked, and when he came at me with Douglas Adams one day, I must confess I didn't like the sound of him at all. To use the current vernacular, he sounded like a right bellend, and the more Stuart went on about how brilliant and amazing he was, the more I did not want to read any of his books. Finally. Stuart got so worked up about it that he offered to read any book I suggested in return and for some reason I gave in. I was amazed to hear that Stuart had not read any Asimov, so I lent him "Earth Is Room Enough" from my collection. In return I got "Life, The Universe And Everything".

I doubt there is anything much about these Hitch-Hiker books that you haven't heard before. In my opinion the first three are out of this world. I read them all 4 or 5 times in as many years. The fourth book in the series, which I read when I was 18, I think, I found hugely disappointing, so much so that, when some years later I heard there was a fifth book and my girlfriend went out and bought it for me....I never read it.

I don't know what happened with me and those first three Hitch-Hiker books. Either I grew out of them or I just read them too many times. All I know is that last time I started to read them, when I was about 30, I think, I was very disappointed and I had to put them away and admit the moment had passed. I daren't look at them again, but they will forever shine like beacons in my memory.

I've seen the BBC TV series a few times and I've seen the Hollywood movie too. I've also got the original radio series somewhere, but I've never listened to it. I read "Dirk Gently...." at some point but I didn't really care for it. I bought "The Long, Dark Teatime Of The Soul" and once again never read it. I'm in a bit of a quandary now because those first three books made me have unrealistic expectations of everything else with Douglas Adams' name on it, which is really weird, because I'm a Dr Who fan, and Adams also wrote "The Pirate Planet" in 1978, which has an extremely good claim to the dubious title of Worst Dr Who Story EVER.

Sublime. Awesome. Magnificent. Life-changing. This book made me want to stand up and applaud. It made me laugh out loud over and over again. It blew my mind. I simply cannot imagine my life without those first three Hitch-Hiker books in it, and this one in particular, the third one, which I read first.

Wherever you are now, Stuart, and whatever you are doing with your life, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.

Life, the Universe and Everything (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3), Douglas Adams
After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Arthur Dent is met by his old friend Ford Prefect, who drags him into a space-time eddy, represented by an anachronistic sofa. The two end up at Lord's Cricket Ground two days before the Earth's destruction by the Vogons. Shortly after they arrive, a squad of robots land in a spaceship in the middle of the field and attack the assembled crowd, stealing The Ashes before departing. Another spaceship arrives, the Starship Bistromath, helmed by Slartibartfast (a character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), who discovers he is too late and requests Arthur and Ford's help. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هشتم ماه مارس سال 2019 میلادی
عنوان: زندگی، جهان و همه‌چیز؛ نویسنده: داگلاس آدامز؛ مترجم: آرش سرکوهی؛ تهران: نشر چشمه‏‫، 1397؛ در 222 ص؛ شابک: 9786002297556؛

کتاب «زندگی، جهان و همه چیز» جلد سوم رمان دنباله‌ دار «راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها» است. رمان «راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها» مشهورترین اثر نویسندهٔ معروف انگلیسی، داگلاس آدامز و از پُرخوانشگرترین، مطرحترین و موفقترین رمان‌های طنزآمیز و پست‌ مدرنیستی ادبیات معاصر جهان است که با استقبال گستردهٔ خوانشگران و اقبال منتقدان ادبی روبرو بوده است. داگلاس آدامز این رمان را سال 1978 میلادی، در قالب فصل‌های به‌ نسبت مستقل اما پیوسته، به عنوان داستان‌های دنباله‌ دار کوتاه برای رادیو بی‌.بی‌.سی. نوشت و سال 1979 میلادی در قالب رمان منتشر کرد. داستان «راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها» درباره سفر کهکشانی پُرماجرای مردی میان‌مایه از طبقهٔ متوسط انگلیس به نام «آرتور دنت» و نقش ناخواستهٔ او را در یافتن معنای زندگی است «آدامز» در این اثر با نقل داستانی ماجراهایی که در فضای بین‌ کهکشانی و سیاره‌ هایی دور از کرهٔ زمین رخ می‌دهند، زمین، زمان، قدرت، مراجع و اتوریته‌ های جهان معاصر، آدم‌ها و مفاهیم، افکار و کردار انسان‌ها را با زبانی کنایی و طنزی متعالی به نقد می‌کشد. راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌ زن‌ها پس از انتشار با استقبالی کم‌ سابقه روبرو شد و آدامز چهار جلد دیگر این رمان را با عنوان‌های: «رستوران آخر دنیا»، «زندگی، دنیا و همه‌چیز»، «خداحافظ و ممنون از اون‌همه ماهی» و «بیشترش چیز خاصی نیست» در سال‌های 1979 میلادی تا 1992 میلادی خلق و منتشر کرد. «راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها» هم عنوان جلد نخست و هم نام مجموعهٔ پنج‌ جلدی این رمان است. داگلاس آدامز سال 2001 میلادی درگذشت و پس از مرگ او ایون کالفر، نویسندهٔ ایرلندی با بهره‌ گیری از آرشیو، یادداشت‌ها و نوشته‌ های چاپ‌ نشدهٔ داگلاس، جلد ششم و آخرین جلد این رمان را هم با نام «راستی تا یادم نرفته»، در سال 2009 میلادی منتشر کرد. آدامز در رمان راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها، ژانر علمی ـ تخیلی را در ساختاری مستحکم و پیرنگی پُرکشش و جذاب، با طنزی عمیق، چندپهلو، پُرمعنا و هنرمندانه و زبانی روان تلفیق و اثری بدیع و بی‌همتا خلق کرده است. ا. شربیانی

I'm feeling some series fatigue after binge-reading this and the second book over the weekend. I don't know if this was indeed a weaker/more confusing volume or was it just the fact that too much of a good thing can sometimes be bad. Either way, I had some difficulty finishing it and I think I won't be reading the 4th and 5th book anytime soon. It gets 3 stars (2,5 actually) because despite it being really confusing and at time frustrating, it still had a lot of fun and hilarious moments.

Arthur Dent finds himself living alone on prehistoric Earth, in a cold damp cave. His friend Ford Prefect, bored has wandered off early without saying a word to Africa Arthur learns later. The duo time travelers are here not voluntarily and have tried to adjust, the whole gang's been scattered all through the Galaxy not a fun situation. Marvin the depressed but amusing robot, has conversations with a talking mattress in a strange planet, Trillian at a party that never ends and Zaphod Beeblebrox is sulking on the Heart of Gold, his spaceship ( almost, he "borrowed it")... a lonely man. Never too well does Mr.Dent live, he's no great farmer or hunter not even very brave. Scraping just enough food to survive in this alien world, yes it's good old Terra but to the Englishman it might as well be Mars and speaking to trees to keep from becoming, insane ? The only excitement in the five stranded years here, ( or four?) came after a couple of trips around the Sun sometime ago. A spaceship landed in front of Arthur's dull cave and coming down the ramp a tall gray- green alien stranger said "You're a jerk , Dent". The flabbergasted Arthur mumbled some incoherent noises which should have been words, before the alien went up the ramp again and left as quickly as he arrived. This mysterious creature is an immortal so lacking in things to do he has devised an activity maybe not the most worthwhile he himself acknowledges, and quite impossible also. To go and visit everyone in the Universe and insult them," a man can dream can't he ?" Don't hate Mr. Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, every man wants a hobby to keep busy. At last Prefect returns from Africa and tells the caveman about his bloody adventures there, more importantly of instability in the fabric of Space-Time as a sofa magically appears and disappears before their eyes. Ford Prefect says to Dent for their salvation go after it , running wildly down the hill the two jump, fall, roll trying to capture the piece of furniture as it gyrates fades in and out always moving up and down . At last jumping on the sofa and presto their back home immediately inside Slartibartfast. Ironically, the old retired planet builder's spaceship (but first landing on a cricket match, in London) only to discover the Planet Krikkit, wants to destroy the whole Universe, again...ouch .They must prevent them somehow but how ? It seems the unfortunate inhabitants of this sad world at the edge of the galaxy, have the worst night sky anywhere. Blackness, no stars or other planets even moons they lack ...nothing to see, a complete gloomy tedious darkness. A gigantic space cloud precludes any view not a fun place for stargazing, which really ticks them off you can imagine . A previous... conflict a little disagreement, you may say if you're in a grumpy mood...
war, just ten billion years before had devastated the galaxy, thousands of warships millions of killer white robots sent by Krikkit before it was stopped, not a very glorious conflict. The sequel could succeed in their deadly mission, such is the universe.... The five "friends" need to get together again, very soon indeed...They require each other's company.

As a continuation of Douglas Adams' famous The Hitchiker's Guide Series this was, as indicated by the foreword, one of the most plotted in the series. But as also indicated by the foreword, you don't read The Hitchiker's Guide Series for the plots. So, you ask me, what do you read it for? You read it for the sense of wonder about the crazy place the universe is. You read it for the comedy of Douglas Adams, for his creative and zany use of made up people, places, words...for his use of language. He is a wizard, transforming words into wit to power a laugh within the inner sanctum of your mind as a reader. When you think you've got him figured out, that's when you realise that actually you haven't.

I read elsewhere when attempting to discover what I could about the literary idea of 'deus-ex-machina' that while it is generally frowned upon as poor storytelling that Adams was able to use it brilliantly for humour. Reading this third instalment of his series I saw again that yes, he was able to do exactly that! And at the same time his use of deus-ex-machina also contributes ultimately to the plot (which we as readers of Adams do not care for). In many ways, perhaps unintentionally, Adams therefore shows that he can also use the literary device of 'Chekhov's gun'. Characters and plot ideas introduced earlier in the piece never really go away. Some may be simple ideas thrown in their for an occasional laugh, but if you see Adams mention a fact or a character specifically, especially in a way that's out of the story's usual context then that character or fact will appear later. Such as the idea in this story of flying (and the re-incarnated character - which I thought was brilliant!).

I won't bother with a plot summary. I doubt anyone can sum up the plot in any way that makes much sense. I will say that if you've read the previous books and enjoyed them then this is a similar continuation. If you haven't read any of the previous books don't jump in now. I recommend going back to where there's Vogon poetry and the destruction of the world with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.