The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released...

[Deranged Nasat]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

I'm half way through. It's quite good, once you get yourself into the mindset that "this isn't going to be Adams, as much as I want it to be". Once I started accepting it on its own terms, it began to grow on me as a worthy sequal. It has made me laugh, so it's doing its job on the comedy front, and I have to say its great seeing all these characters again. It's certainly not equal to the four books we know and love, and the fifth we simply know , but it's worth picking up if you're a fan. Colfer isn't Adams, but at least he seems to know where his towel is...

That's all we can ask for, surely?

 

[Turtletrekker]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

Colfer isn't Adams, but at least he seems to know where his towel is...

Best review yet.

I picked it up today after all. I was looking for the Enterprise: Romulan War TP, but they didn't have that, so I picked up this instead.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

I'm half way through. It's quite good, once you get yourself into the mindset that "this isn't going to be Adams, as much as I want it to be". Once I started accepting it on its own terms, it began to grow on me as a worthy sequal. It has made me laugh, so it's doing its job on the comedy front, and I have to say its great seeing all these characters again. It's certainly not equal to the four books we know and love, and the fifth we simply know , but it's worth picking up if you're a fan. Colfer isn't Adams, but at least he seems to know where his towel is...

That's all we can ask for, surely?

I finished it last night and I would wholeheartedly agree with this.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

What sequel? Adams came back from the dead and no one told me???

Please God, let him have brought Graham Chapman back with him!

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

Awww I thought this was about a sequel to the movie.

That's what I thought when I first saw the thread title too. I thought the movie was a great adaptation; faithful when it needed to be but also fleshing out the story in ways wholly consistent with Adams' universe.

I am completely unfamiliar with the author, and it seems kinda weird to not have Douglas Adams writing it.

I think it would be weirder if Adams were writing it.

He would have beaten the ultimate deadline.

Which just wouldn't be like him at all.

Of course, I felt like Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys feels like a Douglas Adams book.

 

[JustKate]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

I'm hoping that someone can tell me that this book gets better. I'm, oh, about 1/4 of the way through it, and so far, I am not impressed. At all. I haven't laughed even once, and while I've smiled now and then, we are not talking about a laugh riot here. We aren't even talking about a chuckle riot. We aren't talking about a riot of any size, shape or description. We are talking - so far, but I'm still hoping it gets better - about a book with some mildly amusing moments.

I expect a lot more from something with "Hitchhiker" on the cover.

I'm going to finish it, of course, but aside from my being a near-compulsive book finisher, so far the only other reason for me to do so is to find out how it ends, not because I'm having such a wonderful time.

I didn't expect it to be Adams, exactly, but I'm a lover of words and language, and what made Adams' books so wonderful was his skill at finding fresh and funny ways to say things. Colfer just ain't got it. At least not so far.

So please tell me it gets better! Because right now, I'm wishing I'd just waited to buy it off the remaindered pile and saved myself some cash.

 

[Captain Pike]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

Yeah I picked it up on the weekend. Haven't had much of a chance to read it yet, but I've read the Introduction & Prologue.

Will let you know as I read more.

 

[biotech]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

171 pages in, no lols, one smile.

Its clever, just not funny, at least IMO.

 

[JustKate]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

^ Yep, I'm afraid I must agree. I finished it night before last. It was...OK. It wasn't dire, which I pretty much assumed it would be when I first heard about it, but I expect a lot more from a Hitchhiker book than "OK," much less "not dire."

I smiled some, I think I might have chuckled once or twice, but that's it.

The problem, I've decided, is dialogue. Colfer doesn't write like Adams, of course - no writer should try to write like another writer. It doesn't bother me too much in the regular narrative or even in descriptions. But he also doesn't write dialogue the way Adams does, which means that to me, it seems as though the characters just don't sound like themselves.

And that's a b-i-i-i-i-i-g problem, at least for me.

 

[I Grok Spock]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

Ugh. I didn't even make it three paragraphs past the summary. I read the original trilogy many, many times in high school. So Long was tolerable, and Mostly Harmless was forgettable, but at least it was Adams. This is just lifeless. There are far too many good books out there I haven't read to waste time with this.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

I'm half way in, and so far I like it better than SLATFATF and MH, but not nearly as much as the "original trilogy".

 

[The Nth Doctor]

And Another Thing...

I'm surprised there isn't a thread on this (at least, I tried looking for one and didn't find anything). I saw this book at Borders in Singapore today and flipped through it a bit. I have to say I'm not keen on this novel (as I said a year ago), and not just because it's a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel not by Douglas Adams, but also because it's written by Eoin Colfer. I tried reading the first Artemis Fowl novel and I got so disgusted with it, that I threw the book across the room. I can't imagine this guy capturing the magic of Adams' universe.

Has anyone read this yet, and if so, what did you think?

 

[Nardpuncher]

Re: And Another Thing...

Could you give me a name...I don't feel like googling.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Re: And Another Thing...

It's called And Another Thing...

 

[Forbin]

Re: And Another Thing...

D'oh!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Re: And Another Thing...

There's an thread here.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Re: And Another Thing...

I comment on it more in the thread Bob's provided, but in short, I loved it.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Re: And Another Thing...

I comment on it more in the thread Bob's provided, but in short, I loved it.

I still haven't read it myself. I need to catch up with my reading.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

I'm half way in, and so far I like it better than SLATFATF and MH, but not nearly as much as the "original trilogy".

I also like it more than So Long... Never liked that one very much. Other than the Rain God, the flying sex and God's final message to his creation, there was very little else I enjoyed in there. Fenchurch was a decent addition to the universe, but I actually prefer how she's used in AAT... than in So Long...

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Re: The long awaited sequel to A Hitchhiker's Guide is being released.

Oops, sorry for the duplicate thread. I searched "Eoin" and for whatever reason, this thread didn't pop up. Thanks for the merger.

I sometimes if I'm the only person in the world who actually loves Mostly Harmless.

You're not the only one. I love it, too, and I'm content with it being the conclusion to the trilogy.

What sequel? Adams came back from the dead and no one told me???

Please God, let him have brought Graham Chapman back with him!

As long as we're dreaming, I hope he brought back John Lennon and George Harrison back, too.

^ Yep, I'm afraid I must agree. I finished it night before last. It was...OK. It wasn't dire, which I pretty much assumed it would be when I first heard about it, but I expect a lot more from a Hitchhiker book than "OK," much less "not dire."

I smiled some, I think I might have chuckled once or twice, but that's it.

The problem, I've decided, is dialogue. Colfer doesn't write like Adams, of course - no writer should try to write like another writer. It doesn't bother me too much in the regular narrative or even in descriptions. But he also doesn't write dialogue the way Adams does, which means that to me, it seems as though the characters just don't sound like themselves.

And that's a b-i-i-i-i-i-g problem, at least for me.

That would be a big problem for me, as well. The dialogue (along with the Guide entries) are my two favorite parts of the trilogy.

Maybe I'm too biased against Eoin Coifer and too much of a purist, but I can't see myself checking this out unless the reviews are absolutely amazing. Which they don't seem to be at this point.