Book Review: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Book Review: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

About/Who would I recommend this to?

Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a satire of religion, philosophy, and politics all neatly bundled up in what appears to be a science fiction novel.

I can recommend it to anyone who has an interest in religion, philosophy, or politics because they will probably enjoy some of the humor.

I can also recommend it to writers who want a few more ideas on how to write a story with extremely random elements without having to explain every event with tired exposition, which is something this novel is very good at.

I sadly cannot however recommend this to someone who is looking for an action-packed sci-fi adventure because this is certainly not the right place to look.

In this review I will focus on my favorite and least favorite characters and the writing style as they truly drive my opinion of this novel.

Characters

I am not going to go over every character in the book or even every main character in the book, only my least favorite character and favorite character will be analyzed in this review.

This should reflect what types of characters I dislike and the types of characters I like as well as several elements I enjoyed and disliked about the book as a whole.

Least Favorite Character: Arthur Dent

Our main character is Arthur, and like all books that take place in a world different from our own the main character has no idea what is going on and because of this is constantly learning new things along with the audience. 

I didn't like Arthur, mainly because I felt his character was kind of useless. 

I understand that the audience needs someone to connect with but Arthur was a very underwhelming character who didn't bring anything to the story. 

The book is a satire of philosophy, religion, and politics. 

So couldn't the main character have at least been a politician, religious figure, or philosopher? 

The book takes place more or less in space, wouldn't it have also been more interesting if Arthur was an astrologist or an astrobiologist? 

Then the character could at the least be the butt of a few jokes. 

Arthur's main importance in the story is *spoiler alert*, he is one of the last humans in existence and is the only character in the whole book that is directly connected with Ford Prefect, Trillian, and Zaphod. 

Arthur is at the butt of a few jokes, the main theme of these jokes being just that he is a human and because he is a human he doesn't know anything. 

I just would have found it more interesting if he had a more lasting effect on the story. 

He doesn't help drive the plot forward, he doesn't have any romantic interests, and the only two scenes of the book I liked with his character were: when he lied about how much he loved awful poetry, when he temporarily lost the ability to wear digital watches, and when mice tried to steal his brain. 

In these situations Arthur was either the butt of a joke, surprisingly clever, or legitimately funny.

In most situations he just seems so disconnected, he is traveling in space for the first time, and only occasionally does he seem to realize this and give anything that can resemble a realistic reaction to encountering alien lifeforms for the first time and traveling to other worlds.

Arthur's character has his redeemable moments of wonder and humor, but overall was a rather bland and generic character who's main purpose was to be someone the audience can identify with which at the least he succeeds at being.

Favorite Character: Ford Prefect

Ford Prefect is probably my favorite character in the entire book. 

He knows all about space and his job is to update entries in the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. 

He spends most of his time drinking in the pub and enjoys alcoholic beverages of all kinds throughout the galaxy. 

The reason I liked Ford so much is that his character had an excuse not to be impressed by anything and whenever Arthur showed legitimate astonishment at anything happening Ford would just shrug it off and keep going about his business. 

Ford could very easily be described as Arthur's helper, he is the character that is actually important because he understands what is going on and can help move the plot along whenever it seems like it is dragging. 

There are quite a few characters like this throughout the novel to keep the pace going but Ford is my favorite because like Arthur he is the only other character who doesn't have anything to do with the plot, he is just sort of there due to circumstance, but unlike Arthur he is actually helpful and enjoyable as a character.

Writing Style

This is the biggest highlight of the book, the way it is written is spot on spectacular. 

Satire

The Vogons and Zaphod were great uses of political satire, I enjoyed the scenes where the Vogons are talking with Earth about galactic construction permits, and the scene where it was revealed that Zaphod being president of the galaxy really didn't mean anything more than Zaphod is a celebrity with no responsibilities other than to distract everyone from what problems actually do exist in the galaxy. 

The Vogons were a satire of how the government can essentially do whatever it wants to do as long as its filled out the proper paper work regardless of whether or not all parties involved understand what is going on. 

Zaphod is a humorous reflection of how politicians are portrayed more as media celebrities with scandals and ceremonies to distract the people rather than actually being portrayed doing their doing their job.

Religious and Philosophical are provided by a whale falling through space, the Hitchhiker's Guide itself, Marvin the depressed robot, Eddie the computer, dolphins, mice, the improbability engine, a city sized computer known as Deep Thought and a number of other characters and inanimate objects throughout the novel.

The Dolphins and Mice provide an interesting philosophical quandary about whether or not humans are the smartest beings on Earth which is not explored as deeply in the novel as it is in the film and supplies wit if anything else to the story with clever yet simple lines like "So long, and thanks for all the fish".

Marvin the depressed robot and Eddie the computer explore the philosophical implications of a machine with emotions which is used for humor as well as a plot device.

The contrast between Eddie the Computer's annoyingly optimistic attitude and Marvin the robot's depressed outlook on life created what would become my favorite set of character interactions in the entire novel.

I would have probably enjoyed the book better if Eddie and Marvin were the two main characters, sure I would miss Ford, but Ford and Arthur just don't have the same comedic chemistry.

There are sadly only a few scenes that showcase the two emotional machines interacting with each other but at least they both get rather long scenes dedicated to their interactions with other characters like Marvin provoking the policecraft commit suicide and Eddie constantly annoying Zaphod.

The Hitchhiker's Guide and Deep Thought are responsible for most of the religious and philosophical comedy. Deep Thought and the philosophers obsessed with the answer to life are a reflection of the possibility of some sort of absolute being that can know the secrets of the universe and the many who try to claim to know or contemplate these secrets. Surprisingly enough when you read the novel you *spoiler alert* find out that if anything seems to know the answer to everything it isn't a computer that yells the number forty-two or a bunch of celebrity philosophers, its the Hitchhiker's Guide itself.

Exposition

Unlike most books with tons of needless dialogue and narration exposition is provided through the Hitchhiker's Guide itself or the improbability engine.

If you have any question whatsoever of what is happening in the story, five times out of ten, the author will either have the Hitchhiker's Guide start explaining what is going on or just write it off as saying it happened because the improbability engine made it happen.

There are a few other forms of creative exposition like the flashback to when Deep Thought was first created where Arthur essentially entered a holographic recreation of the past.

This is where I rate the novel at its highest, as it is the most well done.

Final Verdict

Characters

The characters weren't very interesting and the one's I actually liked didn't get very much time in the story. 

The character who gets the most development in the story for some reason is Zaphod. We get to know Zaphod's goals, personality and even some of his back-story. Zaphod is the character that everyone knows and is the character who helps put most of the plot points in motion.

How much do we know about Arthur, who is supposedly the main character?

We know his last name is Dent, he is from Earth, that he knows other characters in the story, that he knows nothing about the galaxy, and that he owns a digital watch.

I give the characters a 2 out of 5, because Eddie the Computer and Marvin the robot deserve some credit.

Satire 

The story is funny but the humor doesn't carry.

One thing I have to keep reminding myself is that this book is a comedy, it is supposed to be funny, and it is funny sometimes but isn't funny all the way through.

At certain parts the book is even boring, so at that I can only give it a 3 out of 5 for satire.

Exposition

This is where this book does best, I have even started adapting some of his forms of exposition into my own writing style.

It is well done and highly enjoyable, I give exposition a 4 out of 5.

Total Score

3 out of 5

Not terribly good, not terribly bad, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is simply okay.

I prefer the film adaptation over the novel because it explores more of Arthur's character. 

I also prefer the anime Space Dandy over this novel because it is a science fiction satire as well and has better characters and satire.

If I were to Re-Write this Novel

I would write out Ford and Arthur and make the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy a sentient being that followed Zaphod and psychically manipulated his brain.

Trillian would be the helper character who knew what was going on, Zaphod would be the main character, the Hitchhiker's Guide would be there guide (duh), and Eddie and Marvin would be the comedic relief.

I'd just re-write any scenes that needed someone to be a human sympathetic to Earth to star Trillian, any scenes that needed someone to be clueless to star Zaphod, any scenes needing someone to be astonished by space to star Eddie and Trillian and any moments where someone was completely indifferent about space to also star Zaphod and Marvin.

I wouldn't change anything about the exposition, and the comedy should spread evenly throughout the novel because many of the filler scenes with Arthur and Ford would be edited out.