And Another Thing: Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Part Six of Three. by Eoin Colfer [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Hardcover]

Eoin Colfer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2009

"And Another Thing ..." will be the sixth novel in the now improbably named "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy. Eight years after the death of its creator, Douglas Adams, the author's widow, Jane Belson, has given her approval for the project to be continued by the international number one bestselling children's writer, Eoin Colfer, author of the "Artemis Fowl" novels. Douglas Adams himself once said, 'I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.' Belson said of Eoin Colfer, 'I love his books and could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new.' Colfer, a fan of Hitchhiker since his schooldays, said, 'Being given the chance to write this book is like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice. For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world.' Prepare to be amazed...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At long last, the motley band from Douglas Adams's renowned five-book Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy have returned, thanks to Artemis Fowl author Colfer. When the Vogons return to finish obliterating Earth in our universe and all alternatives, Arthur Dent and his companions find themselves hitchhiking on the spacefaring Viking longship of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, an immortal with a death wish who is an expert at mass insults. Readers may find this volume paradoxical. On its own it is a funny novel, but Adams set a legendary, nearly impossible standard. Wacky humor reminiscent of the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy rings true, as do most of the characters, but newer elements, such as the brief appearance of Cthulhu, feel out of place. Most notably absent is the supreme inventiveness that hit us with the Infinite Improbability Drive, and the comic-sublime moments like Arthur flying with Fenchurch. You can't go home again, but Adams fans will still appreciate the reunion with old friends.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

A wide variety of people love Douglas Adams's books, so perhaps it is appropriate that each critic brought his or her own expectations to And Another Thing . ... Several who revered Adams's deadpan prose and verbal inventiveness found that the new book falls short. Others felt that Colfer's imitation often lacks subtlety and relies too heavily on reviving old Adams gags and characters. The Los Angeles Times even went so far as to argue that this novel should have been reinvented in some more original form, such as an e-book. But some took the appearance of And Another Thing ... to critically review the Adams oeuvre and found that Colfer made up for some qualities the original author lacked. In any case, even the harshest critics of the book were happy to see Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Random saved from their doom. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Unabridged edition (October 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141044128
• ISBN-13: 978-0141044125
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 5.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (115 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,314,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eoin Colfer (pronounced Owen) is the New York Times best-selling author
of the blockbuster Artemis Fowl series as well as Airman; Half Moon
Investigations; The Supernaturalist; Eoin Colfer's Legend of... books;
The Wish List; Benny and Omar; and Benny and Babe. He was born in
Wexford on the southeast coast of Ireland in 1965, where he and his four
brothers were brought up by his father (an elementary school teacher,
historian and artist of note) and mother (a drama teacher). He first
developed an interest in writing in primary (elementary) school with
gripping Viking stories inspired by history that he was learning in
school at the time.

Eoin got his degree from Dublin University and qualified as a primary
school teacher, returning to work in Wexford. He married in 1991 and he
and his wife spent about 4 years between 1992 and 1996 working in Saudi
Arabia, Tunisia and Italy. His first book, Benny and Omar, was published
in 1998, based on his experiences in Tunisia; it has since been
translated into many languages; a sequel followed in 1999. In 2001, the
first Artemis Fowl book was published worldwide to much success -
shortly thereafter he left teaching to concentrate fully on his writing.
To this day, Eoin has written 6 Artemis Fowl books which have sold over
12 million copies worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

195 of 214 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And Yet Another Thing, October 13, 2009

By 

Review Shop (Hampshire, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: And Another Thing... (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) (Hardcover)

I've been reading Eoin Colfer's book 'And Another Thing' and I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that I happen to like it. That's a biggie, really unexpected, as I'm one of those people who can't accept the possibility that anyone could measure up to Douglas Adams in his own (reflection of this) universe.

Let's state the obvious, shall we? Eoin Colfer isn't Douglas Adams. If he'd tried to clone Douglas's work, this book wouldn't have floated. Eoin (I think I can call him that, having shaken his hand) hasn't tried to be Douglas Adams, but he has tried to satisfy Douglas's supporters by writing in a very similar style. It reads well without sounding like a cheesy attempt to mimick the original.

I don't want to be hyper-critical (oh, gwaaan, gwaaan), but these are notes on Douglas's style and what's remained the same or changed:

1. Douglas might have been writing about aliens, but he was really talking about us. The Vogons are human bureaucrats, planning officers, for example. Douglas criticised, but never attacked his targets too hard, never losing hearts and minds. Eoin has understood this and does it very well. From an Irish writer, just following the EU's capture of Ireland, this line is Douglas at his cutting best: 'If we win, then you will join our happy group; if you win, then we keep coming back until we win.'

2. Douglas was a script writer and he specialised in dialogue. In the first two books, the proportion of quotes is very high, compared to description. In a novel, the use of witty script makes it read like a fast television show. Eoin does use speech, clearly, but the proportion has moved, i.e. more toward description.

3. The first HHG book used footnotes from 'The Book' at regular intervals and readers loved them. As with Shakespeare, the prologue became a character in its own right. The second book used fewer notes from The Guide and then the rest of the series dropped them. If you ask the fans which books they prefer, you will generally find that they like the books in direct proportion to the number of Guide footnotes they include. Eoin has probably spotted this (or at least enjoys the footnotes) as he's dropped in lots of them. The difference is...

Douglas would write a footnote which was imaginative, surreal and then made a huge arching observation about the nature of the Universe, our perception of life itself or a cutting critique of human nature. He'd ask us to look at the thing from a new perspective, to open our eyes and shine a light in our minds, then he'd follow that with a silly twist at the end (the comedy pay-off). Eoin's footnotes are surreal, imaginative, they even use planet names, species and locations from the original books, but... the guru-like thinking, the great idea, the divine revelation isn't there. the footnote is funny, it's true, but Douglas had more insight into the human condition.

4. Imagination and escapism: Douglas wrote 'alternative world fiction', also called 'alternative reality' or 'what if?' fiction. He based his universe in science, never magic, and tried to find an engineering solution for each piece of alien strangeness. The only exception to the rule, as far as I can remember, was when his characters started flying (mind over physical laws). Eoin Colfer came to HHG as a magic writer (leprechauns etc). He has successfully made the transition to Douglas's way of thinking.

5. Douglas was a cynic and sometimes even depressive. His worst book was Mostly Harmless, in which he blows up the Earth, observes Marvin's death, kills all his characters, turns his back, shakes the blood off his hands and walks away feeling relieved. HHG followers generally didn't like Douglas's final HHG book. Eoin's advantage was that he's an upbeat writer and, as an ex-fan, his book couldn't possibly be as sickening to the loyal readers as Mostly Harmless. We didn't expect him to write something as good as the Hitch-Hiker's Guide, that's too much to ask, but there was hope he couldn't cock it all up (as they did in the film version by dropping all of the best lines). I'm delighted to report that Eoin has produced a book that is much closer to Douglas's best titles than Douglas's worst ones.

I expected 'And Another Thing' to be soul-less, mid range and uninspired, just another commercial fan-fiction vehicle for the characters. I expected it to stray from Douglas's rules of writing. I anticipated that Eoin might not know Adams' universe in any great detail or 'hear the music' in his lilting prose.

Those expectations have been confounded. The book rocks.

Adam Corres

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars okay, but why?, October 19, 2009

By 

N. Brett (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: And Another Thing... (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) (Hardcover)

The never ending trilogy.

A surprising choice to add to the famous Douglas Adams five part trilogy, the author being a children's/YA writer.

But in order to review this we need to go back in time to when Douglas Adams was to SF what Terry Pratchett was to become to Fantasy. Clever and inventive and a very nice guy. Somewhere at home I have the first three HitchHiker books all signed and I remember how down to earth and friendly Douglas Adams was, despite half the queue being in dressing gowns and holding towels. But those fans will all be about 50 today, so Eoin Colfer had to write to appeal to the nostalgia of that generation but also those younger fans who have discovered the HitchHikers Guide over the years. There is also the point that how will the humour of the late 70's translate 30 years later when having a hand held information provider is no longer science fiction?

Well, in my view, it was okay. It raised a smile now and then as Colfer does manage to replicate some of Adams' style. It was a nice reminder of how fresh and exciting the first few HHGTTG books were but I was not overly grabbed by the story and I did wonder what the point of this actually was. This doesn't really add anything to the five book trilogy (and accepting that the last original book was by far the weakest). I was surprised to find that Colfer was a reasonably safe pair of hands in this endeavour, even if one might question the endeavour itself. I was slightly worried that it might be me, what was so fresh 30 years ago has not dated specifically, but is was 'of a time' and this new addition seems strangely out of place.

So there are some nice touches, but I am not sure it was worth the effort or fuss.

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give It A Chance, October 24, 2009

By 

SORE EYES - See all my reviews

This review is from: And Another Thing... (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) (Hardcover)

I'm just going to get this all out on the table. Give this book a chance. It's good. Colfer was asked to do this book by Adam's widow because she wanted to introduce Adam's writing to a whole new generation of readers. Colfer is a successful authour. He could make a lot more money writing and publishing a children's book in his Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl, Book 1) series. He wrote And Another Thing out of respect for Adams and as a favour to Adam's widow. Give the guy a break. Put aside the punter politics. And Another Thing is a great read. I'm thrilled that someone as funny and imaginative as Colfer took up the challenge. I hope that his audience will use this excuse to pick up Hitchikers and the tale will stay alive for another generation.

Adams did not want to write the last two books in the The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series but had to because of contractual obligations. But his true feelings of boredom with the series show in the last two novels. They are dark and forced. Characters die somewhat suddenly and with little explanation. Before Adams could get back into his characters and end the series in a way fans would enjoy, he died, suddenly, on a treadmill in California at the age of 49.

And Another Thing is well written and entertaining and leaves readers left high and dry by Adams sudden death somewhat satiated. Eoin Colfer is touring with this book. He recently visited the Denver Tattered Cover and his explanations and manner quelled even the staunchest of critics. If you remain a doubter, I recommend listening to him speak and then reading And Another Thing with an open mind and heart.