Poor Marvin!
I’m glad our heroes are exploring space and time but poor Marvin!!!!

Nastavak jednako duhovit i sjajan kao i prvi dio, a to se ne događa često jer teško je napisati nastavak klasika i ostati dosljedan.
Ovo je istovremeno sf knjiga i filozofija upakirana u lude likove i njihove pustolovine i vječni odgovor -42, na koji ne postoji(barem ne u ovom nastavku) pitanje.
Znatiželja me vuče dalje i do ostalih knjiga (ovo je naime trilogija u pet dijelova) i nadam se da me na kraju ne čeka razočaranje.

Now that I've finished the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy in Five Parts, I have to admit I'm not as enamored with it as I was when I last read it at 23.

This book is over 40 years old so stop now if you haven't read it.

Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillion go through some shit, wind up at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, go through some more shit, and wind up at separate destinations, both punctuating the futility of everything they've done so far. I wonder if Adams had meant this to be it. There's a sense of finality in both threads, both Arthur and Ford on their prehistoric planet and Zaphod and Trillian at the hut of the man that runs the universe.

The jokes are still good, although not as good as the first book. Marvin's final fate or parking cars at the end of the universe is fitting and I have to think the staff on Futurama had it in mind when they left Bender in Roswell in the past and picked up him 1000 years later like nothing happened.

One thing that bugs me now that I didn't notice when I was 23 is that Zaphod is the only character with any agency in the first two books. The rest have things happen to them and they react. They're all very passive.

I guess I'm going to keep going at least through the third book. I'd say I don't want to tarnish my memories of the subsequent books but all I remember at this point is Arthur being a sandwich maker at some future time.

For what it is worth, despite my loathing for the first book in this best-selling immensely popular series I persevered and took a look at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. The same results ensued for me a Hitchhiker's, outdated, trite and weak humour, infantile comedy and almost lazy plotting. The only save at the moment for me is Marvin! One Star Read, I am afraid as I liked this even less than I liked Hitchhiker's! 3 out of 12

2005 read

In his sequel to “The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy”, Douglas Adams continues the adventures of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, and Marvin, in the same funny and unassuming style. Zaphod, still nutty as a fruitcake, looks for the man who rules the universe, while Arthur’s continued search for “The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” churns out the unsatisfactory “What do you get if you multiply six by nine?”.

It makes for a quick read, ever surprising by its sophisms, absurdity and sense of perspective from ‘one’s never alone with a rubber duck.’ to (speaking of planet Earth being destroyed to make room for a hyperspace bypass):
‘Oh, I’ve heard of worse,’ said Ford, ‘I read of one planet off in the seventh dimension that got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic billiards. Got potted straight into a black hole. Killed ten billion people.’

Douglas Adams also touches on deep issues like faith, people management, and ecology, for instance when a civilisation decides to use leaves as currency. The book is surprisingly contemporary given it was published in 1980.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it made me laugh and has a great pace, with every new spaceship, planet, and set full of surprises. Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe, doesn’t disappoint. Also, for some reason, I love the scene at the end of the book.

اینکه یکی از معروفترین و بهترین کوت های کل مجموعه و آقای داگلاس آدامز که همون اول کتابه حذف شده بود شدیدا زد تو ذوقم

The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

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ببینید این مجموعه قدرت تمرکز بالایی میطلبه. به درد کسایی که دنبال داستان یا شخصیت پردازی هستن هم نمیخوره
ولی اگه دوست دارید یه نفر تخیلات دیوانه وارش رو به شکل طعنه آمیز به رُختون بکشه، بِسمِ الگُّربة

Yine uçuk kaçık ve zekice olsa da ilkinin yanında biraz dağınık mı ne? Seriyi gerçekten sevsem de akılda kalıcı olmaması eksi bir durum. Evet cidden hayranlık uyandıracak kadar zekice mizahla dolu bir hayal gücü olsa da vurucu veya çarpıcı olmasını da istiyorum sanırım biraz. Evrenin Sonundaki Restoran fikrine şapka çıkartıyorum. Şu 'son' olan kısım gerçekten son, sınır değil. Kitapta en sevdiğim kısım burasıydı. Neyse, Don't panic. Seriye devam.

Un genio jamás podrá ocultar que es un genio ❤️ no importa cuantas cosas ridículas escriba o piense, hay que ser tan inteligente y tener una imaginación tan maravillosa para lograr algo así... Simplemente me encanta.

Lo hermoso es que no deja atrás la crítica social y nos ridiculiza como raza humana, somos idiotas, Adams lo sabe, nosotros lo sabemos... Burlemonos de eso!

Це 100/10. Перша частина сподобалась дуже. А ця вразила.
UPD: читанням "Уот" Беккета навіяно: Путівник, по суті, - це комедія абсурду, в декоративній обгортці наукової фантастики.

یه تئوری خیلی معروف میگه هر وقت یک کسی کشف کنه که این جهان دقیقا برای چی به وجود آمده و به چه درد می خوره، این جهان در همون لحظه ناپدید میشه و جای خودش رو میده به یه جهان نویی که از جهان قبلی پیچیده تر و عجیب و غریب تره‌.
یه تئوری دیگه میگه که این اتفاق قبلا افتاده.
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بین ما مرده ها ضرب المثلی هست که میگه"حیف زندگی که برای زنده ها هدر میره."
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در همه مواردی که اطلاعات کتاب با واقعیت خیلی تفاوت داره، این واقعیته که اشتباه کرده.
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اگه کسی می خواد در جهانی به بزرگی جهان ما زنده بمونه، نباید به تناسب ها فکر کنه.
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بهترین جا برای برای شنیدن صدای این گروه یه زیر زمین بتون آرمه است که حدوداً شصت کیلومتر از صحنه دور باشه.
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زندگی به خودی خود و به اندازه کافی بد هست، چرا آدم باید یه چیزی از خودش بهش اضافه کنه.
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کسانی که بیشتر از همه سودای حکومت کردن بر مردم رو در سر دارند، درست به دلیل همین آرزو، کمتر از همه آدمهای دیگه برای این کار مناسب اند.
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به هر کسی که میتونه مردم رو راضی کنه که بهش رای بدن و رئیسش کنن، اصلاً و ابداً نباید اجازه داد که رئیس بشه.
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This book goes a million different directions and sometimes it’s hard to follow. But that’s kinda the point. And it’s fun nonetheless.

Douglas Adams wove two major plot threads into the first two books of his Hitchhiker's series. The more famous regards the destruction of the Earth, pan-dimensional mice and the ultimate 2-digit number 42, in case you're curious. Less famous, but equally integrated into the narrative, is a cloak-and-dagger tale of inter-galactic conspiracy, the pursuit of power and self-performed brain-modification. For a cabal of powerful men seek 'the true ruler of the universe' and the enigmatic Zaphod Beeblebrox cons himself into the quest, only he can't remember how or why he'd do such a thing.

That this second story proves less memorable shouldn't surprise, for by comparison it's a more standard yarn. There's a villain (an instantly-unlikeable publishing executive named Zarniwoop), procedural-style investigation (Zaphod probes his own brain to find evidence of the surgery he can't remember performing on himself) and a tidy resolution (the ruler of the universe is found and the villain is left stuck out in the rain, literally.)
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But we might learn something from how Adams treats Zarniwoop; why cast a publishing executive as a contemptible schemer whose clandestine operation ultimately proves pointless? Is this an allegory for a publishing world corrupted by a need for manufactured significance and grandiose plotting? Perhaps.

But more telling is the title; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, referring to that magical establishment that houses the best sequence in the whole series. It's a dinner date that riffs on food and astrophysics while giving us the conclusive variation on dinner-and-a-show. Yet at the same time, this amazing reservation is a pure excursion, having nothing to do with any of the ongoing plot threads. Our heroes dine-in seeking enjoyment, not galactic secrets. And in the following quote we find Adams at his least sarcastic, a hint about what he deems truly important:

'The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?'

Edited 7-11-19