“My least favorite of the series, but still a decent book.
What did I like about it? Well, it confirmed what I thought about these books, which is that there’s a mean streak in there. And I think I also liked that so many people DIDN’T like that element.
Douglas Adams did a pretty good job of presenting the universe as a mostly uncaring, mostly random, funny enough, not entirely harmless place over the course of the series. And also, I think he presented this worldview with the understanding that the universe is pretty much guaranteed to end up being cruel to most of us, and all you can really do is laugh about it.
Now, if you’re halfway through this series and reading this review, stop.
Before now, the most thorough death I’ve seen of a sci-fi character probably goes to Han Solo. That dude got stabbed, pushed into a bottomless pit, and then the entire planet the pit was on got blowed up. He died a minimum of 3 ways, all of which escalated in terms of spectacle. They killed him, tossed his body in a hole, then blew up the entire hole. Even the tiniest, lingering voice of childhood that was in my head saying, “Maybe…” was pretty much over any hopes by the time they blew everything up.
But now, I’ve read Mostly Harmless. Where characters are not only blowed up with a planet, but all versions of them and their planet seem to be obliterated as well. I have to wonder if Douglas Adams was sick of writing these books, and he was like, “Fuck it. I’m ending this once and for all!”
I can respect it.
While the book is quite a bit darker, I think it fits the series. The series is pretty damn dark at times, and this one just takes things a bit further.
The highlight was probably Arthur enjoying his life making sandwiches.
The lowlight was the absence of Marvin. “