Mostly Brilliant [Paperback]

Douglas Adams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2002

Summer 2005 finally sees the release of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie from Touchstone Pictures. Stars include Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, supercool hip-hop artist Mos Def as Ford Prefect and the gorgeous Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. Completely new characters were developed specially for the film by Douglas Adams before his death and will be played by John Malkovich and Anna Chancellor. Pans tie-in edition of this cult classic will include substantial extras from Executive Producer, Robbie Stamp: exclusive cast interviews, stories and photographs from the set.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. Required reading for science fiction fans, this book (and its follow-ups) is also sure to please fans of Monty Python, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and British sitcoms. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review

Don't panic! Here are words of praise for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

"It's science fiction and it's extremely funny...inspired lunacy that leaves hardly a science fiction cliche alive."

Washington Post

"The feckless protagonist, Arthur Dent, is reminiscent of Vonnegut heroes, and his travels afford a wild satire of present institutions."

Chicago Tribune

"Very simply, the book is one of the funniest SF spoofs ever written, with hyperbolic ideas folding in on themselves."

School Library Journal

"As parody, it's marvelous: It contains just about every science fiction cliche you can think of. As humor, it's, well, hysterical."


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Tor (April 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330410210
• ISBN-13: 978-0330410212
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 2.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,530,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How could such a small box house such a great series?!, January 17, 2004

By 

Frikle - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mostly Brilliant (Paperback)

For those who haven't heard of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, wake up to yourselves. It's by Douglas Adams and is extremely, clever, funny and ludicrous. It's a "science-fiction" series although there is nothing pertaining to science about it.

The series is largely about Arthur Dent - an ordinary man whisked off the earth just before it's destroyed to build and Intergalactic Superhighway. He discovers there's more alien species and happenings in the big wide galaxy than he could have ever imagines. The series is about the adventures of him and some aliens he crosses paths with.

For the uninitiated, the actual Guide to the Galaxy is a travel book, in the tradition of the Lonely Planet series. On the galactic scale, the earth is rather dull so at one point the entry only states "harmless".

The books are very funny and easy to read. Written by a genuine smartass, a kind of blend of Monty Python and Star Trek, if you can characterise it.

The box set has all the books in the Trilogy of Five. Therefore, it's good - don't make the mistake of buying just the first book or even the first three as you'll almost certainly want them all. A great read from an amazing Adams.

5.0 out of 5 stars Douglas Adams - Hitchikers Guide Works, July 9, 2010

By 

Me - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hitchhiker Trilogy (5 Books) (Paperback)

I have absolute conviction when I say that this is possibly one of the most important texts you will ever read.
The first time I read the series It didn't quite click with me but after a while something quite remarkable happened, and I understood that while the humor is good and strange, they really have an important message contained within them that can only be explained by reading.
Took me a while to see it but once I did - I never thought the same way again. Ever.
This is actually something that could help a whole lot of people :) - I think it's a little under-rated, as many people simply fail to understand it, get bored, and stop reading.
Good example of this is the recent film adaptation which quite frankly was absolute rubbish, and completely failed to capture the essence of the books.
Really go and read it :)
Love to hear from anyone who's had similar thoughts on this, or any thoughts at all really ^_^