The New Hitchhicker Novel - Anone else reading it?

[Farin]

So i picked up the new "Hitchhicker´s Guide to the Galaxy" Novel the other day, and i gottta say , so far i like it ( im more than half way through it ) - yes, Eoin Colfer is not Adams, yes there might never be another author exactly like him, but in my eyes , he did a very fine job.

was wondering if anyone else here picked it up after all that outrage from the die hard fans



oh and in case you´re not reading it: It has unemployed gods trying their best during job interviews ( including one of the great old ones ), Norse gods , Vorlons and most important a drink that a has an even bigger punch than a gargle blaster:beerwave: - need i say more ?
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu-Mythos

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu-Mythos

 

[Wyrmypops]

Is it out in paperback now? I'd only heard about it when it was hardback only.

 

[Farin]

yep, it´s out in paperback from penguin books, it´s this version:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Another-Thing-Douglas-Hitchhikers/dp/0718155149

the reviews on amazone are a bit too negative in my humble opinion, it´s really a nice book , i guess some of the die hard fans are still mad about the whole thing

 

[IdofEntity]

Does it do something that negates or explains the end of Adams' last novel? That was a depressing bit, and I'm intrigued as to how that worked out. Or is this in a completely different segment of the timeline? Presumably since Marvin has lived longer than the universe itself we do see him?

 

[Farin]

@IdofEntity: Sorry, but Marvin is dead, as it seems, and yes Colfer´s using a "legal" way to continue the story.

without spoiling to much : remember the part where they explain that Earth is in a plural zone ? It means that there are many alternative earths along a dimensional axis , and the Vorlons only destroyed one, so they come back ( with the proper paperwork of cause ) and try to destroy ther rest so they can close the file. unfortunatley for them , thats just enough time for a certain spaceship to appear exactly where the gang is - remeber it´s pretty improbable that they survive Armagedon twice, but that´s what you have an Improbalitiy drive for

so it is the same timeline, same characters ( Arthurs Daughter and a few others play a bigger part ), as a i said , Colfen doesnt change anything about the universe, he just choses another maintoppic : gods

 

[Lyuun]

Hmmm. i've considered picking it up a number of times. but i never have. last time the thought struck my mind i ended up rereading the trilogy in stead. how's the writingstyle in comparison? i guess it's quite incomparable, but does colfer try to mimic the style of adams? because if he does, i'm not sure i will pick it up.

(love your signature aswell, btw. Pratchett kicks bottom!)

 

[Farin]

i guess it's quite incomparable, but does colfer try to mimic the style of adams

well i actually just took a look in my Hitchhicker ( i was lucky enough to get the leatherbound edtition that got all the stories ) and the style is quite close. I guess the best word i know ( i´m not a native speaker, mind you ) is re-enacting. Colfer renenacts Adams style by using the same elements: weird charackter, strange places and of cause the Hitchhicker ( Mark 2 ) who gives the reader information from time to time.

i say give the book a try, read a few pages before you spend your money on it, but since we seem to have a very similar taste when it comes to books, i don thingk you will hate it

btw:

yes SIR Pratchet is awesome, the reason why i love that quote, is that it is the best summary for one of teh elemental problems of linguistic philosophy i have ever seen

( the problem, or more precise question is, if all our questions about us, life, the universe and the meaning of life simply come from the composotion of our language and it´s syntax and the way we use it )

 

[farseerlum]

i think you mean vogons... vorlons are the guys in Babylon 5.

i didn't even know the book was out yet. so thanks for the heads up, will check it out for sure.

 

[Gearhead]

Personally, I wish the series had stopped with Life, The Universe, And Everything. The only thing the So Long And Thanks For All The Fish had going for it was Marvin's sendoff (and the paragraph introducing Wonko the Sane, likening him to a bunch of David Bowies wrapped up in a dirty beach robe,) and Mostly Harmless was pure meh.

 

[pate]

I was so close to buying it a couple of days ago. I ended up with three parts of the horus heresy though Well not really sadface, I've just begun on the series and I like it. Back on topic. I think I need to get it. I've read the original books so many times I lost count. I used to read them a couple of times a year, it's been a year or so since I last read them though. I'm a bit scared that this new chapter wont live up to what I expect and that it'll sort of ruin it all for me and I wont be able to undo reading it.