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Mostly Harmless Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Douglas Adams (Author), Martin Freeman (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)

4.4 2,177 ratings

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It’s easy to get disheartened when your planet has been blown up, the woman you love has vanished due to a misunderstanding about space/time, the spaceship you are on crashes on a remote and Bob-fearing planet, and all you have to fall back on are a few simple sandwich-making skills. However, instead of being disheartened, Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life a bit–and immediately all hell breaks loose.

Hell takes a number of forms: there’s the standard Ford Prefect version, in the shape of an all-new edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a totally unexpected manifestation in the form of a teenage girl who startles Arthur Dent by being his daughter when he didn’t even know he had one.

Can Arthur save the Earth from total multidimensional obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter, Random, from herself? Of course not. He never works out exactly what is going on. Will you?

Listening Length

6 hours and 33 minutes
Author

Douglas Adams
Narrator

Martin Freeman
Audible release date

September 21, 2006
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audio
ASIN

B000JCE3A2
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 33 minutes
Author	Douglas Adams
Narrator	Martin Freeman
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	September 21, 2006
Publisher	Random House Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B000JCE3A2
Best Sellers Rank	#4,433 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #15 in Humorous Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #45 in Humorous Science Fiction (Books)

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

2,177 global ratings

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Quelthor

Earth

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2018

Verified Purchase

---spoiler alert---
Although the ending was not what Douglas really wanted to have, in overall, the story winds up to a conclusive solution.
---spoiler ended---
I loved this trilogy (!) and I have to admit that I decided to read them after hearing a lot of praise about the movie. Even though I had seen it almost a decade ago it did not impressed me a lot. But the book is different. I could not stop reading the books. The humour in it exceeds the movie about 67x fold. This trilogy is a must read for everybody.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A good book 📖

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2023

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I like it a lot. It's such a good book!
It is a bit weird though. And, what did the Griblon do that wasn't a good idea?
Back to positive feedback now. I liked Marvin. He was really funny. And I like the Guide. It's funny too. Now I want it!

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Big Joe

Mostly harmless rocks

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2021

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Adams has done it again with his titillating tale of flush. The series gets weirder as it Drones on. Highly recommend. The end of the series is coming And it looks to be a doozy.

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SciFi Fan of fans

Am I just stupid?

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

Yes I read this entire series, I mean if you call yourself sci-fi fan of fans you have to read hitchhiker's. I've read the first book a few times and while it is an ok read is mostly just silly. And I can get on board with silly. But stretching silly for six books is rather much. So I don't really "get" these books and the fanatical following it has produced. I don't care for Arthur much, seems like a wild over the top English gent, but personally I don't get the joke of a person this dim. The rest of it is just tripe to me. Well written tripe, but nevertheless. Anyway enjoy it or not.

4 people found this helpful

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C. Thomas

No surprise, this is a win.

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Every time I play this my husband says "HAMISH!" with excitement. There is something really splendid about hearing martin freeman read this sci fi classic (and not just because of his movie role as Arthur). He does great accents and voices. He's just a pleasure to listen to. The book itself embodies exactly what I love about Douglas Adams: intelligent, irreverent sci-fi humor which is often ridiculous and almost always poignant.

One person found this helpful

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Stephen Tomporowski

Better at the second read

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2014

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When I first read this, I was over obsessed with the seemingly depressing ending. However, the jokes along the way are great and Don't take Random too seriously. If you haven't figured it out by now, Dent is Adams as he perceives himself while Ford is how Adams believes he should be. You'll notice how both characters make fun of Adam's own beliefs, especially conservation.

One person found this helpful

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Larry Chan

Mostly Hilarious

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2021

Verified Purchase

Mostly Harmless is a brilliant addition to the Hitchhiker's series (before that Eoin Colfer guy completely f'ed it up). It starts with Arthur Dent losing Fenchurch and then finding out that he has a teenage daughter Random Frequent Flyer Dent.

The best section of the book is the criticism on astrology. The Grebulons from planet Rupert have lost their minds and become obsessed with astrology. Trillian almost loses her mind dealing with these idiots.

I like how Arthur is finally given dimension in having to care for a daughter he's never met. This is something that hasn't been seen in the trilogy until this book. I also enjoyed Freeman's voice of the delivery man who fights the Boghog. Classic British acting.

The only criticism I have is the section where Arthur becomes a sandwich maker. The jokes were flat and the scene dragged on for almost 2 hours. It was the equivalent of the raffle ticket scene in the fourth book. Also, I never did like the whole arc with Aggrajag. It was never funny to begin with, so there was no reason to end the book on an Aggrajag joke.

This book might not have been the author's best literature, but it was a fine continuation of the saga.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

A fine mixture of the plot, philosophy and psychology

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

I loved the unexpected angle of view on the story. Pieces of pure philosophy here and there are concise and really up to the point. I found a couple of valuable psychological advices in the book.

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Patricia Ward

Bringing it all Together

Reviewed in Canada on July 18, 2022

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Wraps up the entire series.

Martin Jones

A great book in my universe

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

Before reading Mostly Harmless, the fifth, and last, book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “trilogy”, I looked at some reviews written by other readers. Many of them were negative. Douglas Adams was depressed when he wrote it. The ending was terrible. And so on.

Personally, I thought this was a great book. In saying that I refer you to the following paragraph from Mostly Harmless:

“We live in strange times. We also live in strange places: each in a universe of our own. The people with whom we populate our universes are the shadows of whole other universes intersecting with our own.”

We see the truth of this statement every day on the review pages of Amazon and Goodreads. People seem to look out on the same universe. However, there's a clue to the reality of multiple dimensions in the fact that good books in one universe are bad in another. Mostly Harmless takes - for me at least - a thrilling trip through alternative universes.

Mostly Harmless begins and ends with the story of some interstellar explorers called the Grebulons. A meteorite damages their ship, resulting in the loss of all stored memories. The crew know they set out to monitor something, but have no idea what. By chance, they end up on a planet in the outer reaches of Earth’s solar system monitoring the only material they can find to monitor - TV shows beaming out from Earth. Cagney and Lacey and M*A*S*H seem to be particular favourites. The Grebulons’ situation contrasts with that of the Vogons who hove into view as the book comes to its conclusion. The Vogons know exactly what their purpose in life is. If you compare the clear, small-minded and unpleasant purpose of the Vogons, with the benign TV watching aimlessness of memory-deprived Grebulons, things look different vis-a-vis the aimless TV viewing. The best lack all conviction; the worst are full of passionate intensity, as Yeats would have said. It’s like there’s an alternative universe where casual TV watching is a deeply meaningful activity, as is reading books that some people think are not very good.

I send this message from my universe to yours - Mostly Harmless is a great book.

17 people found this helpful

barbara gorman

Kind of plot less...

Reviewed in Australia on December 5, 2021

Verified Purchase

If you don't mind a story made almost entirely of nonsequiters you might like it. I found its lack of plot caused my eyes to slip off the page

Cakeplant

Das fünfte Stück in der Meister-Reihe

Reviewed in Germany on October 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

Wieder einmal benutzt Douglas Adam's seine herllich verdrehte Logik und erklärt die Welt, das Lebenn und das Universum in einem Sinfonieorchester der absurdesten aller Sci-Fi Welten.
Noch nicht gelesen? Na dann nichts wie ran!

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nicola coleman

Douglas Adams

Reviewed in France on May 15, 2013

Verified Purchase

Best of the Best, books that make you want to read the next one that comes out, an imagination that has no compare

One person found this helpful

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