Life, the Universe, and Everything

The book Life, The Universe, and Everything is by Douglas Adams, who is, sadly, dead as of May 11, 2011 from a heart attack. He is widely known for writing The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and the 4 other books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy (this is not a typo and is actually the name of the series made by Douglas Adams, named so as a joke). For more information on Douglas Adams, read the book Wish You Were Here by Nick Webb, the official biography on Douglas Adams.

               

The main character in this increasingly confusing book is Arthur Philip Dent, a space and time traveler who has no special abilities or powers except for his extremely lucky successes at flying, which is achieved by jumping, knowing you are going to hit the ground, and getting distracted by something in the split second before you hit the ground, causing you to actually miss the ground. A character that could be counted as a main character but is more of a supporting side character is Ford Prefect, Arthur’s best friend. As the two friends and their other friends try to save the universe by stopping the Krikkit robots from unlocking the Slo-Time envelope around Krikkit, the book gets more and more confusing.

               

Although it is very confusing, most questions are answered by the end of the book, and it keeps you reading and wanting to find out more. It is a very funny book and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a funny yet completely serious book.

               

I mean seriously Douglas, what kind of analogy is “Stones, then rocks, then boulders, pranced past him like clumsy puppies, only much bigger, much, much harder and heavier, and almost infinitely more likely to kill you if they fell on you”?

Book Review by Griffin H.