Plot Summary
Arthur
is not having the best day. It turns out
his good friend, Ford Perfect, is actually from another planet. The Vogons, apparently, are coming to destroy
the Earth and Ford wants to take Arthur with him so that he won’t be
vaporized. Ford is a hitchhiker and he
and Arthur hitch a ride on the Vogon ship.
They soon discover them and push them out into space, ensuring their
impending demise. Meanwhile, Zaphod Beeblebrox,
the President of the Galaxy, has stolen an amazing ship called the Heart of
Gold. This ship is powered by the
infinite improbability drive, which causes outrageously coincidental situations
to occur. One of these happens to be
that the second before Arthur and Ford would have died, the Heart of Gold
scoops them up.
Ford
and Zaphod turn out to be cousins of some sort and he and Arthur are taken
along on an adventure to the lost planet of Magrathea. There they discover that the planet is not,
in fact, uninhabited. As the planet
slowly wakes up, Arthur learns that mice are really very intelligent beings and
that Earth was an experiment to find the question to the Answer (which is
42). The police arrive to arrest Zaphod
for his theft of the ship just as the mice are planning on dissecting Arthur’s
brain, as he is the only human left, and the group escapes on the Heart of
Gold. When we last see them, they are
off to get a bit to eat at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Critical Evaluation
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is
an amazing humorous, witty read that will confuse, delight and leave the reader
wondering if that was really the ending.
The subtle humor is everywhere, along with some blatant humor. It is done in such a smart way that perceptive
readers will get a kick out of this book.
The Galaxy is so strange, and Magrathea so unique, that readers can’t
help but be mesmerized by this story.
Arthur brings some good human skepticism and pragmatism to an otherwise
absurd cast of characters.
At
times, some of the entries that are given from the actual book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,
that Ford is writing, are confusing and don’t make a lot of sense. This may very well be intentional, but a lot
of times I skipped over some of the more scientific sounding passages because
they didn’t mean anything to me. Other
than that, I look forward to reading the next books in this series.
Reader’s Annotation
Ever wanted to find out what it would be like if the Earth
was destroyed and you got to travel the Galaxy?
Well, then this book is for you.
Author’s Information
Douglas Adams was from Cambridge, England. The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy started out as a BBC radio comedy and
turned into a “trilogy” of five novels.
He’s written many books in addition to Hitchhiker’s, information on all of which can be found here: http://www.douglasadams.com/.
Genre
Humor
Book Talking Ideas
I think for book talking ideas I would read some of the
funnier passages from the book. Perhaps
talk about if anyone has ever wondered if there are planets out there that are
inhabited by creatures we know nothing about.
And it’s not just science fiction.
This book is extremely witty and sarcastic. It is a must read for anyone who likes these
things.
Reading
Level/Interest
14/15
Challenge Issues
This is a fairly clean book.
Perhaps if someone has a problem with mice potentially being in charge
they may challenge this book. In all
seriousness, some might be uncomfortable with the idea that Earth is just
demolished very early on in the book. It’s
all in jest and humor, I would tell them, and hopefully they would read a
little bit and discover that themselves.
Why Include This Title?
This book is very iconic when it comes to sci-fi and
humor. It is a book that teens have been
enjoying for years and I don’t see why that would change. Plus, I’ve always wanted to read it so that
is partly why I chose to use it here.
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