Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... book 6?!

[Tim]

I'm cautiously optimistic about the new book, which I heard about like two years ago I think... Eoin Colfer has been working on it for a really long time.



I thought the new movie was amazing. It captured the spirit and essence of the books and the narrative style really well, and was really funny in its own right. Though I wasn't entirely sold on the "second head under the chin" thing with Zaphod, I thought the actor played Zaphod amazingly well, and Mos Def was great as Ford.

[theDreamer]

Yeah, the head was in the wrong place, further coupled by the fact that in the books it was DESCRIBED to be on the shoulder.

What with him being at the party and having a cage on his shoulder, and when he opened it, a second head was there.

[Master Gunner]

I loved the movie. I agree with Zaphod's head and the end joke thing (although that was still funny outside of the context of the books, only knowing what "end" actually means ruins the joke) though.

[Mad Madam Mimm]

Egh, the movie annoyed me.

I know that the story is never the same from one medium to the next (radio series to book, for instance, has huge differences) but it irrtated me how similar the stories were for a large proportion of the time, and then it suddenly shot off on a huge tangent.

Actually, I think ifr I watched it again now, I'd be a lot less irrtated by it. I mean, everything else about it was brilliant. EvenZooey Deshannel (sp) as the American Trillian was very amicable.

Fun fact: The pub in the film is walking distance from my house. It's quite a long walk, and uphill, but still.

[InsaneFool]

Define "quite a long walk". I mean, I walk upwards of 10 kilometers to get places and I wouldn't consider those places to be "walking distance".

I realize how little sense that makes, just roll with it.

[Mad Madam Mimm]

Umm... for an able bodied person, probably twenty minutes... twenty five... But it's still deemed Local.

[notomtolose]

I didn't like Mostly Harmless. I guess I felt the same way as Adams himself, that it was far too bleak.

The recent movie was acceptable watching material. Problem is, the best parts by far were the monologues they pulled directly from the book. So, not really worth seeing unless you need to convince yourself to read the books, which you certainly should. At least the first four!

It seems like the motivation for writing the new book is to draw attention to the series again, which is a laudable motivation. In this spirit I'm willing to accept the idea. If the book isn't great, then like anything else, I can just pretend it doesn't exist. It's not like the series was ongoing so as to be 'marred' or 'ruined' by a poor entry (eg. Star Wars).

[Zethyr]

Mostly Harmless all but destroyed my love of the series. I really hope I can love it again.

[baggins_of_41]

I have no idea of the circumstances surrounding the writing of Mostly Harmless and I could be completely wrong, but while reading it I got the strong sense of a man who had been forced to write something he didn't want to. It felt like Adams had been strong-armed into writing yet another Hitchhiker's book and responded with a big "Screw you!" to his publisher and fans.

I almost imagine Adams saying to himself, "You want me to write another one? Fine. 'Once upon a time, all your favorite characters who had died or disappeared came back to life. They all really annoyed each other and had a generally bad time of it until the big, ugly aliens came and put them out of their misery. Then the multiverse blew up and I lived happily ever after since there's no way in hell you're going to be able to force me to write another one of these damn stories after the way I ended this one.'"

I'll be interested to see how this sixth book handles the rather sticky problem of following up from MH. If the author can pull it off, I will be extremely impressed.

Personally, I still prefer the BBC mini-series to just about any other form the stories have taken- though, that may just be because it was my introduction to it.

The new movie was alright, but it seemed to be too Americanized. Most of the really good dry British humor was removed and too much slapstick inserted. I particularly missed the extended dialog between Dent and Prosser concerning the location of the plans for the interstate bypass.

[ThrashJazzAssassin]

Stop dissing Mostly Harmless! It rocked!

Yeah, the head was in the wrong place, further coupled by the fact that in the books it was DESCRIBED to be on the shoulder.

What with him being at the party and having a cage on his shoulder, and when he opened it, a second head was there.

But every version of the story is different. Thus what was in the books is not canon as far as the film is concerned.

[Mad Madam Mimm]

But it's also described that way in the radio series and pictured that way in the tv series. Perhaps it is written differently in the stage adaptation, but the majority of sources agree Zaphod's spine is "Y" shaped.

[notomtolose]

I have no idea of the circumstances surrounding the writing of Mostly Harmless and I could be completely wrong, but while reading it I got the strong sense of a man who had been forced to write something he didn't want to.

I almost imagine Adams saying to himself, "You want me to write another one? Fine. 'Once upon a time... the WSGMM (Whole Sort of General Mish-Mash) blew up and I lived happily ever after since there's no way in hell you're going to be able to force me to write another one of these damn stories after the way I ended this one.'"

That's EXACTLY what I thought when I read it. EXACTLY.

"I'm sick and tired of hearing about these books, as if I've not written a word since. There, see? Now NOBODY can ask for another one!"

Over the years I've come to expect I was probably reading too much into it, but you never know.

[Gordon Fearman]

The thing about the H2G2 movie is that...it sucked. Geez. Anyone who thinks otherwise listen to the radio series. In fact, everyone listen to the radio series. I think they really botched a lot (everyone but Ford) characters. Zaphod, is established to be smart but laid back and lazy. The fact is that the writers of the movie tried too hard to give a reason for Zaphod going to Magrathea and they pretty much left out the part where he's being controlled by a past him.

[MotorWaffle]

hm, interesting. I was a fan of Artemis Fowl, but part of me wonders if Colfer can do justice to Adam's style of writing. I think this is gonna fall in the same mental catagory as the Sherlock Holmes movie under "might be great, but proccede with caution"

[Timelady]

So according to [html=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/eoin-colfer/and-another-thing.htm]the internet[/html], this comes out October 12th. I'm still not sure if I'm going to read it or not.

The Artemis Fowl books were entertaining, to be sure, but they really were nothing like Adams's writing. Still, I'd almost be more impressed if the author put his own spin on it instead of imitating Douglas Adams.

[Zivlok]

I'll read it, and try not to be too disappointed. Also, I have been complemented by Eoin Colfer on my height.

Also, the movie was awesome. Adams' vision was to have all the adaptions glaringly contradict each other - for example, in the graphic novel, Marvin smiled. And the opening sequence of the film was great.

[Keab42]

The film was fantastic, it had the spirit of H2G2 but retained that idea that all adaptations should be different, and you can't beat Stephen Fry as the voice of the guide.

I do get the feeling that this will just be a gigantic fan fic, so instead of paying for it with my hard earned pennies, I'll be wandering along to the library instead.

[Tim]

BTW, Douglas Adams, as I understand it, wrote most of the new H2G2 movie, so people saying it deviated too much should consider that.

[Keab42]

That was the point, it was meant to deviate from the books a lot of the new plot points were in Adams' screenplay.

[branmyson]

I have become increasingly pessimistic over all "sanctioned" fan fiction... The last straw being those by Brian Herbert. I have now made the general rule that if the author dies, the end of the story goes with him. If there is something of a manuscript left behind at the time (a fairly complete one at that) I may consider it. But, beyond that, my rule is that they are going to be trash.

[Gordon Fearman]

So according to [html=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/eoin-colfer/and-another-thing.htm]the internet[/html], this comes out October 12th.

The BBCode you're looking for is url= not html=

[Keab42]

Now about halfway through the book and so far my impression is that it is fanfic. Well written fanfic, but fanfic nonetheless.

The problem is that the characters don't quite act as they should, there's something slightly off with their personalities, certain traits exaggerated too far, others almost completely forgotten. The structure to get them from the end of book 5 to this book is awkward and doesn't quite feel hitch-hikery to me. I'm also not going to forgive Colfer for what he did to Zaphod, so far I've found absolutely no reason for him to have done it.

The jokes also fall flat, the place names either just don't have Adams' humour or are just Adams' ones recycled, and character names try too hard usually being an obvious pun when read aloud. The only one that impressed me was Doxy Ribonu-Clegg which I believe is a subtle nod to Adams himself.

I think the problem is that Colfer is a children's author, a very good children's author, but still a children's author. This is his first adult book and it shows. He could have cut his teeth on something else and returned to this, or he could have written his own book in a similar vein and it probably would have been better because he wouldn't be limited by characters that are not his own.

has anybody else read this now?

[WallCat]

wait......Eoin Colfer? seriously? i mean i love the Artemis Fowl books, but i don't know if he's right for the Hitchhiker series....

[BritchesStitches]

I really enjoyed the movie, and in fact, while reading And Another Thing I kept thinking the style was more similar to the movie than the previous book. I just finished it recently and I think it's a fine ending to the trilogy. While it the jokes might not be true Adams, and they certainly aren't as pertinent to human culture/politics/etc, I think the humor in general is a great imitation of Adams'.

And what a lot of people seem to forget is that the books are neither the original, nor the definitive canon, each version of Hitchhiker's has its own canon (the radio plays, the movies, books, etc.) and Adams loved changing things up. The movie was made by Douglas Adams to be more 'Hollywood'. (and if you didn't crack up watching the sperm whale/bowl of petunias then you have no soul.)