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Loading... Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic (original 1997; edition 1998)by Terry Jones
Work InformationDouglas Adams's Starship Titanic by Terry Jones (1997)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A silly little "fluff" book as a brief interlude between more heavy fare. [return][return]Written by Terry "I write in the nude" Jones, based on a Computer Game idea of Douglas Adams, this is a story of spaceships, aliens, humans, sentient bombs, failed economies, insurance fraud, and pacifist armies. And lots and lots of silly, rampant sex. Like "And Another Thing..." this is based on the work of Douglas Adams and was created by someone else after his death. It has fewer references to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy than that book did, but I would still only recommend it to fans of the series. For a humorous book, the thing that really matters is whether it is funny. It is. I laughed out loud once reading this book, and enjoyed at least half of the humor. The story is mildly entertaining, the aliens quirky, and the silly tech inventive. Some elements of the book reveal that the bulk of the material was written a few decades ago, specifically the gender-related stereotypes of the main human cast. For me, the humorous tone mocking those stereotypes and the transformations that each character experiences over the course of the story are strong enough that I don't mind the use of the stereotypes, but I could understand if a reader put the book down long before it got around to justifying itself. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesGoldmann (44886) Was inspired by
In this thoroughly satisfying and completely disorienting novel based on a story line by Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Jones recounts an unforgettable tale of intergalactic travel and mishap. The saga of "the ship that cannot possibly go wrong" sparkles with wit, danger, and confusion that will keep readers guessing which reality they are in and how, on earth, to find their way out again. At the center of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launching of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced Starship ever built-the Starship Titanic. An earthling would see it as a mixture of the Chrysler Building, the tomb of Tutankhamen, and Venice. But less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy's most renowned architect. He is an old man now, and the creation of the Starship Titanic is the pinnacle achievement of his twenty-year career. The night before the launch, Leovinus is prowling around the ship having a last little look. With mounting alarm he begins to find things are not right: unfinished workmanship, cybersystems not working correctly, robots colliding with doors. How could this have happened? And how could this have happened without his knowing? Something somewhere is terribly wrong. On the following day, in an artificial event staged for the media, the Starship Titanic will leave its construction dock under autopilot and, a few days later, make its way to the terminal to pick up passengers for its maiden voyage. Although the ship will be deserted during its very first flight, it is nevertheless a major event, watched by all the galaxy's media. Hugely, magnificently, the fabulous ship eases its way forward from the construction dock, picks up speed, sways a bit, wobbles a bit, veers wildly, and just before it can do massive damage to everything around it, appears to undergo SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure). In just ten seconds, the whole, stupendous enterprise is over. And our story has just begun. Somehow three earthlings, one Blerontin journalist, a semideranged parrot, and a shipful of disoriented robots must overcome their differences. It's the only way to save the Starship Titanic ("The Ship That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong") from certain destruction and rescue the economy of an entire planet-not to mention to survive the latest threat, an attack by a swarm of hostile shipbuilders. . . . No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Douglas Adams' introduction was in fact as funny as anything in the rest of the book.