Clever and funny but does not stand alone successfully. ( )

The sequel to the famed _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, in some respects I loved _Restaurant at the End of the Universe_ even more than it's predecessor, although both make the list of my all-time favourite books. Adam's hilarious narration makes these books a pure delight to read, they are full of comparisons, non-sequiturs and dialogue that will make you laugh. The plot is fast-paced, full of zany action and completely unpredictable turns. There's no telling where anyone (or anything!) will end up, but you're sure to laugh a lot on the way.

_Restaurant_ opens with an interstellar chase as the Vogons attempt to destroy the last of planet Earth - namely the last two human beings, Arthur Dent and Trillian. Arthur escaped the destruction of Earth via his friend Ford Prefect, an alien hitchhiker conducting field research for the _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, and Trillian had left the planet six months before that with the charismatic Zaphod Beeblebrox, the then President of the Galaxy.

Arthur, your typical Englishman, manages to freeze up all their ship's computers by requesting it to make tea for him, just before the Vogons launch their attack. This is bad (for Arthur, not the Vogons) and leads to an impromptu seance. ("Possibly the horror that Zaphod experienced at the prospect of being reunited with his deceased relatives led on to the thought that they might just feel the same way about him and, what's more, be able to do something about helping to postpone this reunion." - p.13)

The first half of the book focuses on Zaphod, and as he is an entertainingly charismatic, ego-filled hipster this is by no means a bad thing. Zaphod finally learns why he mutilated parts of his own brains (as was revealed in the previous book) and ends up on a quest, of sorts, though not because he wants to be. Marvin the Paranoid Android tags along with him and his hilariously depressing (yes, you read that correctly.)

In the second half of the book Arthur and Ford find themselves on a starship that appears to have a lot of dead hairdressers and telephone sanitizers stuffed in the cargo holds. When they get captured by the starship's security personnel it leads to some of the most hilarious dialogue between an overzealous guard, a very laid back captain (who in fact never even gets out of the bath) and a very confused Arthur Dent.

There's so much more I could say about this book, there are so many funny bits I would love to describe - from the restaurant of the title, to the ruler of the universe - but I don't want to give it all away, so I will wrap this up now by simply telling you to read this book. If you have any sense of humour at all you will love it. 5/5 ( )

As great as everything else Douglas has written. But still..: This is a review of the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
(AUDIO CD rendition).The Book is fantastic! Totally hilarious. A welcome sequel to
any first-time reader of HGTG. The CD set consists of five (5)
CDs, and the story is read by Douglas Adams (the author) himself.
For anyone not familiar with the voice of DA, his reading,
inflections, and ease in switching voices during dialog passages
adds greatly to the presentation. The CD does have some
'electronically-modified' voices (Marvin & the ship's computer,
for instance), but they're all Douglas Adams, and he makes
it quite difficult not to laugh out loud while listening.
It's also pretty hard not to consume the whole book at one
sitting. My two complaints on this media presentation are that it is
simply a straight transfer to CD of Douglas Adams'
CASSETTE-TAPE recordings. They didnt even remove all of the
'End of Side' notations from the original. Imagine that
you're listening to the story, and in the *middle* of a
disc, you hear Douglas say "End of side TWO". Then the story
continues. I also have to mention my biggest
beef with this presentation (as with ALL of the CD renditions)
which is that each disc is comprised of only ONE track!
You cannot jump forward or backward by chapters. If you
cannot listen to an entire disc at one sitting (about an hour),
then you cannot resume midway if you happen to stop the disc.
In this regard, the cassette-tapes excel over the CD renditions.Considering that Douglas was pretty-much a techno-hound, I think
he'd be pretty disgusted that his works were being stamped-out
in such a shoddy fashion.All-in-all, the book is as good as, if not better than,
the HITCHHIKERS GUIDE. Adams fanatics will love it. It's a
book that demonstrates that DA was an accomplished wordsmith,
and that he spent considerable time and effort to add hundreds
of subtle cross-references between passages that cannot be
caught at first reading (listening). In this regard, you'll
find something new each time you consume this book.

The first sequel to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy feels tired and mediocre, and the characters are quite dull. ( )

I took my time to start the second book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series but I enjoy these books so much that I want to space them out so that I know I have the next one to look forward to! Makes sense?

I found that in this book things start to make a bit more sense and you discover that there was actually a reason why Zaphod Beeblebrox stole the Heart of Gold, although you don't find that out from him. The Frogstar Fighters are out to get him and this leads to a series of adventures for Zaphod, Ford, Arthur and Trillian. Oh yeah and Marvin too, who is as depressing as ever but is still there to save the day.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is just as amusing and fun as the first one in the series, some of the comparisons that Adams makes are just hilarious. The description of the Vogons in the beginning is too funny and really had me laughing out loud, I had to go back to it a few times just to read it over again. What I like most about these books however is that I never know what is going to happen next, you just don't know what to expect!

The ending left me curious as to what happened to some of the characters and now I can't wait to get to the next book! ( )