So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

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Mostly Harmless... - Rated
The fourth book in the increasingly misnamed Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy is really a romantic comedy in which the male lead just happens to have returned from an eight year trip around the Horsehead Nebula. And so we enjoy the love story of Arthur Dent and Fenny playing out above the streets of Islington.

A parallel universe has furnished us with a new Earth and the Vogons destroying the original has been explained away as just another conspiracy theory. Arthur was hoping to return to his old life without ever being troubled by excitement, adventure and really wild things however Fenny is keen to visit God's last message to his creation and with Ford Prefect dropping in to visit it looks like Arthur will have to battle his demons and possibly an Intergalactic War.

Quite a slow Hitch Hikers story but still a creditable entry in the series, highlights being Arthur's biscuit anecdote and a brief cameo by Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Okay - Rated
I thought the fourth in the series of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy was okay, a lot better than book three.
It's interesting how it's all back on earth and the earth hasn't really blown up
Whatever happened to Trillian?, except having children with Zaphod
but I like Fenchurch, she's an okay character
read this one because it is okay

The forgotten volume - Rated
This is in some ways the slightest instalment in the series, and has to some extent dropped out of public view, as if it were a false start and "Mostly Harmless" were the true continuation of the story. It is true that if it stood alone it would not reach the pinnacle of genius found in the earlier books, but in a quiet way I think it is underrated.

It is light and pleasant, and contains some nice touches, such as the pub sandwiches and the portrayal of the dreadful Russell. More importantly, it achieves one of the most difficult feats in literature, an emotionally (if not physically!) believable love story which is light-hearted and romantic without being embarrassing. (The only other example I can think of in modern fiction is P G Wodehouse's "Leave it to Psmith".) The comic tone and the impossible science fiction accoutrements give a totally unexpected view of the characters, allowing the reader to share the lovers' feelings with no fear of getting stuck in a bog of cliched sentimentality.

As one sees in the next volume, it's too good to last ...

Running on empty - Rated
Following a highly productive breakthrough period when he was simultaneously knocking out scripts for both Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who, Douglas Adams famously struggled with writer's block during the later half of his career as a novelist. Previous Hitchhiker novel Life, the Universe and Everything was itself a re-worked Doctor Who story, and by the time of 4th Hitchhiker novel So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish you can feel the author struggling to find a story to tell.

If there is a problem with this novel, it's that there simply isn't enough story here. Previous instalments in the Hitchhiker's series may have been short, but they were packed with fantastic mind bending SF concepts, which are almost entirely absent here. The main storyline consists of Arthur Dent returning to a mysteriously no-longer-destroyed Earth, and having a romance with Fenchurch, the girl who in a throwaway line in the original Hitchhiker's novel had a divine revelation on how to achieve world peace just before the Earth was destroyed by the Vogons. Arthur and Fenchurch's romance is touching, especially a chapter where they both fly through the clouds together, but storywise it doesn't really go anywhere - the identity of Earth's saviours is fairly evident from the books title (though incidentally, why is there a picture of a sea lion on the cover - misdirection?), and Fenchurch never remembers her divine plan for world peace.

At the end Adams tags on a coda where Arthur and Fenchurch meet up with Ford Prefect and Marvin (who dies, again) to read God's Last Message To His Creation, following up on the finale of Life, the Universe and Everything, but if anything this feels almost tagged on simply to please the fans of the previous novels. The only ideas that are original to this book, such as the unwilling Rain God, or Wonko's inside-out asylum, are mildly amusing but nothing more.

So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish is by no means a bad novel, and thanks to Adams prose it is engagingly readable, but it is a novel all about character - specifically having a few nice things happen to Arthur Dent for a while- and sorely lacking in plot, so don't expect anything much to actually happen beyond Arthur's romance. A pleasant read for fans of the previous 3 novels in the series, but by this stage Douglas Adams just seems to have run out of ideas, and was grinding a novel out for the sake of it.

Where have all the dolphins gone? - Rated
This fourth novel in the inexplicably inaccurately named "Hitchhiker's Trilogy" is the easiest to read so far, the funniest, and the most down to earth.

Down to earth, that is, once you discount the flying romance into which our hero Arthur Dent willingly throws himself, completely forgetting to come down. Yes, this is a romance novel - Arthur and Fenchurch flying to the sea, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

A Zaphod-free zone, Adams introduces hilarious new characters, such as the Rain God and the raffle ticket lady, with guest appearances by Ford Prefect and my favorite Marvin.

Mysterious fish bowls with cryptic inscriptions, disappearing dolphins, an inside-out house (not an inside out-house) and of course, a final message from God himself, round out this hilarious book.

Unfortunately, you won't appreciate it fully without reading the preceding three novels, so get busy - it's well worth your time.

Amanda Richards