Life, the Universe, and Everything

Former earthling Arthur Dent and his companions Ford, Marvin, Zaphod and Trillian save the universe from the "charming, delightful, intelligent inhabitants of [the planet] Krickitt", who, despite their many positive qualities, are determined to annihilate everything.

This third book in the Hitchhiker "trilogy" has more of a plot than the previous two installments, but I found this one less entertaining and more confusing than its predecessors. There are additional books in the series, but I think I will get off here.

No doubt about it: Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its sequel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe were five-star novels. Anyone would want to read these laugh-out-loud funny books you'd again and again. But the third book in Adams' series, while amusing, doesn't prove to be as good.

Sure, there are some funny scenes, such as when Arthur Dent braves killer robots to return to Lord's Cricket Ground to deposit ashes. (Any more details on that would spoil the novel.) Life, the Universe, and Everything also shows Arthur Dent gaining confidence and coming into his own in his new life. But whereas the first two novels were uproariously funny and quite clever, Life, the Universe, and Everything feels tired and the show more plotting careens from chaotically comic to just chaotically confusing. It's worth reading, but don't get your expectations too high. show less

Brilliant as usual. Halfway through the book, I was kind of disappointed that the plot was not as engaging as it was in the first two Hitchhiker's Guide books - BUT! It got really engrossing in the last third part of it. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 stars because when compared to the first two books, it's LESS exciting, while compared to other books (not by Douglas Adams) it definitely deserves a 5.

Life, the Universe, and Everything - Another fantastic book in the series. I think the third is just as good as the first two. A highlight is the idea that Arthur has killed reincarnated creatures over and over again to the point that it can't possibly be a coincidence (ie: killing a rabbit to make a bag out of its skin, that rabbit being reincarnated as a fly and Arthur killing that fly with the rabbit bag). It's almost impossible to remember all of the amazing ideas that no one else would have in these books. Adams was one of a kind. It's interesting this book introduced almost no new characters, leaving it mainly to Arthur, Ford, Trillian, Zaphod, Slartibartfast and Marvin the Paranoid Android. As it should be.

Adams is always funny, but this one got a little unwieldy... the game of cricket as some sort of ancient evolutionary memory of an imprisoned militaristic planet named Krikkit? Fun as always, but a little much.

Yeah, it’s a long shaggy dog joke but my goodness it’s amazingly well told. The first two installments may be well better but that speaks more to just how good thise books are than it does about the (small) failings of this little treat! It’s still charming and very funny throughout.

Arthur Dent, sole survivor of Earth's destruction and time traveler in the Galaxy, has now spent 5 years living back on pre-historic Earth, alone, in a cave. He is visited and insulted by immortal alien Wowbagger who has made it his mission to insult everyone in the Galaxy. Two years later Ford Prefect shows up and they head off on another adventure to save the Universe from the Krikkits who want to destroy everything. This follows the same sort of loony story as previous books. I didn't find this as funny as the first. I did like Arthur's run in with the being who was killed by him in every form of reincarnation that he had, from fly to rabbit, cow to newt, frog to fish.