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The world explodes -- again -- 'Hitchhiker's Guide' sequel released today
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Eoin Colfer picked up Douglas Adams' mantle, ran with it, and connected. The world blows up again.
And Colfer is a success at his first adult book, And Another Thing, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Part Six of Three.
My young friends and I know Eoin Colfer because we are fans of his Artemis Fowl series -- books for kids, and kids at heart, about a criminal mastermind youth, a fairy underworld, a pixie commando, and lots of sci fi plot twists like cryogenics and time travel. I try to ignore the tunnelling troll that farts dirt.
But first, Douglas Adams -- the late, unfortunately. Here, according to Wikipedia, is the basic lowdown on the Guide, or H2G2 as it was dubbed by author Neil Gaiman.
"In all versions, the series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman who, with his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and researcher for the eponymous guidebook, escapes the demolition of Earth by a bureaucratic alien race called the Vogons. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's semi-cousin and the Galactic President, unknowingly saves the pair from certain death. He brings them aboard his stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold, whose crew rounds out the main cast of characters: Marvin, the paranoid android; a depressed robot; and Trillian, formerly known as Tricia McMillan, a woman Arthur once met at a party who he soon realises is the only other human survivor of Earth's destruction. After this, the characters embark on a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea and the Question to the Ultimate Answer (Which is, the answer I mean, 42, according to the supercomputer, Deep Thought, which took 7½ million years to compute it, but The Ultimate Question itself is unknown.)"
If you're a fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series you might have worried how Colfer, the appointed sequel scribe, would mangle it. He didn't. He's pitch perfect with the legacy of the novel that broke all the rules of novels, the must-read for science fiction fans -- those with at least one funny bone in their bodies, anyway. He says he found the experience similar to writing for young adults "apart from less usage of the phrases it wasn't my fault and none of you people get me."
But apart from the fact adults of all ages will grok this book, teens and young adults will, too, so maybe it was a natural for him. That and the fact he was a big, big fan of the original. He's managed to match Adams' everything-a-contradition style and his wit, Monty Python in space. The title is derived from a paragraph of astonishing imagery: "The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills, like a man saying 'And another thing' twenty minutes after admitting he lost the argument."
If your teens have read Hitchhikers...get them And Another Thing. I don't know about reading it first, on its own. It would still be very funny, but the richness of the depths of the depravity would be lost.
Was Columbus Day picked as the release date for some reason? Columbus who ostensibly discovered the world was round -- although most people already knew that, by then -- and could probably be circumnavigated, although he didn't have the talent for it. Colfer discovers the world can be blown up repeatedly ... and the galaxy circumnavigated..
Here's an excerpt from the new book, p 138:
'"I am the unluckiest man in the universe," Arthur Dent explained to the Tanngrisnir's computer. "Bad things happen to me. I don't know why, but it's always been that way...
The sparkling hologram, which sat cross-legged at the foot of the bunk, squirmed while she rifled Arthur's memory. .... "You don't get blown up or blasted. You've already had one long and healthy life, and now you're having another."
Arthur frowned. "Yes...but there was that whole bathrobe and pajamas period. How unlucky can you get? Not to mention being stranded on..."
"Most of your speciies are dead," interjected the computer...."It was a billion to one against you surviving, but you did. Twice. That seems pretty lucky. That's fictional hero lucky."
"I see your point but still..."
"And you have a beautiful daughter."
"True, but she's moody."
"Really? That's odd for an adolescent. You are truly cursed."
Arthur was stumped. How was he supposed to feel....Then (the holograph) ... unsettled him further with a non sequitur. Nothing as bizarre as 'Look! A Monkey,' but pretty surprising nonetheless.
"Love can be a noun or verb," she said.
"I see," said Arthur, then: "What happened to luck?"
"Oh, that conversation was just superficial, this is what you really want to know."
"What love is?"
"Yes. And why you can't seem to get over losing it."
Arthur felt his heart beat faster on hearing the truth. "Do you know? Can you tell me? And no numbers please>"
(The hologram) ... scratched her earlobe and sparks crackled at the contact. "I can tell you what love means, dictionary wise, all the synonyms and so forth. I can tell you all about endorphins and synapses and muscle memory. But ardor's resonance in the heart is a mystery to me. I'm a computer, Arthur."
Arthur hid his disappointment with the traditional brisk rubbing of hands and stiffening of upper lip.
"Of course., No problem."
"I am made to live forever, but you are made to live."
"...Ah, no answers then."
"Only questions."
"I thought we didn't know the big question."
..."The big question is different for everyone. For me it's the half life of this ship's reactor. I'm not actually made to live forever, that's just a slogan....Shall I select a random question from the lexicon of your memory?"
"Good idea."
The computer flicked through the files for a moment then asked: "Do you fancy a cup of tea?"
Arthur smiled. "Now there's a question I can answer."
And this just in from my 19-year-old son:
