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A review by celia_thebookishhufflepuff
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
4.0
I did it! I finished an actual series of more than four books in slightly over a year. I call that a win.
I do know that "finished" is debatable because of [b:And Another Thing...|6359434|And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)|Eoin Colfer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327908458l/6359434._SY75_.jpg|4857805], the official sixth book by [a:Eoin Colfer|10896|Eoin Colfer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254336426p2/10896.jpg] and published 8 years after [a:Douglas Adams|4|Douglas Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616277702p2/4.jpg]'s death, but I'm not sure how to approach that one right now. I feel like I just want to sit with this one for a bit. And there's definitely a lot to sit with.
For starters, there's the whole Trillian/Tricia thing. That wasn't at all what I expected, especially with Random. The alternating parallel universe genre is interesting to me, and I hadn't really realized it even was a (subgenre of a sub-) genre until recently. I'm very interested in seeing how far different authors can take the "what if" but keep the character. I don't know how I feel about the way Adams does this, exactly. If there's a parallel Tricia, shouldn't there be a parallel Arthur as well? Is that important?
I'm not sure if I'm a fan of how much the later two books derailed from the plot of the first three, especially in trying to find the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. However, I did appreciate the return to space travel and full-on randomness that we returned to in this one. I also liked how much of the story was from Ford's perspective. Learning about the inner workings of the Guide was interesting, and having his narration was a lot of fun. I also appreciated that we had Tricia and Ford's narration for about a quarter of the book before meeting Arthur again. The almost full omniscience of the narration one thing I've enjoyed a lot with this series. And Ford definitely stepped up in this one. Actually, I don't remember if there's been a lot of Ford POV in previous books. But honestly, I feel like this is kind of similar to why I liked [b:The Restaurant at the End of the Universe|8695|The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521213881l/8695._SY75_.jpg|1877624], because there was a lot of Zaphod POV on a similar discovery.
I do think that [b:Mostly Harmless|569429|Mostly Harmless (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #5)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397933521l/569429._SY75_.jpg|2842984] is my second favorite in the series after [b:The Restaurant at the End of the Universe|8695|The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521213881l/8695._SY75_.jpg|1877624]. It was a lot of fun to just roll with. I am unsure about continuing with [b:And Another Thing...|6359434|And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)|Eoin Colfer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327908458l/6359434._SY75_.jpg|4857805] for a few different reasons. The biggest one is that, even though it is considered the official sixth book, it was not written by the original author, and I don't know how to feel about that. It seems like a sort of fanfiction gimmick, especially in light of things like Cursed Child. At the same time, [a:Douglas Adams|4|Douglas Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616277702p2/4.jpg] also may not have meant to end the series where he did (I looked up some stuff about Colfer's addition to the series). And I'm not sure how I feel about that ending. In some ways, I kind of like the ambiguity of it, and it feels like continuing the series at this point is kind of forced, as in a video game where you can just keep regenerating without consequences. On the other hand, I still feel as if there are a few things that do need to be wrapped up, especially in terms of Ford and the Vogons. I would hope that Colfer does address these things in a way that does finalize the story, but again I'm honestly not sure whether I want to know.
I do know that "finished" is debatable because of [b:And Another Thing...|6359434|And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)|Eoin Colfer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327908458l/6359434._SY75_.jpg|4857805], the official sixth book by [a:Eoin Colfer|10896|Eoin Colfer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254336426p2/10896.jpg] and published 8 years after [a:Douglas Adams|4|Douglas Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616277702p2/4.jpg]'s death, but I'm not sure how to approach that one right now. I feel like I just want to sit with this one for a bit. And there's definitely a lot to sit with.
For starters, there's the whole Trillian/Tricia thing. That wasn't at all what I expected, especially with Random. The alternating parallel universe genre is interesting to me, and I hadn't really realized it even was a (subgenre of a sub-) genre until recently. I'm very interested in seeing how far different authors can take the "what if" but keep the character. I don't know how I feel about the way Adams does this, exactly. If there's a parallel Tricia, shouldn't there be a parallel Arthur as well? Is that important?
I'm not sure if I'm a fan of how much the later two books derailed from the plot of the first three, especially in trying to find the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. However, I did appreciate the return to space travel and full-on randomness that we returned to in this one. I also liked how much of the story was from Ford's perspective. Learning about the inner workings of the Guide was interesting, and having his narration was a lot of fun. I also appreciated that we had Tricia and Ford's narration for about a quarter of the book before meeting Arthur again. The almost full omniscience of the narration one thing I've enjoyed a lot with this series. And Ford definitely stepped up in this one. Actually, I don't remember if there's been a lot of Ford POV in previous books. But honestly, I feel like this is kind of similar to why I liked [b:The Restaurant at the End of the Universe|8695|The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521213881l/8695._SY75_.jpg|1877624], because there was a lot of Zaphod POV on a similar discovery.
I do think that [b:Mostly Harmless|569429|Mostly Harmless (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #5)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397933521l/569429._SY75_.jpg|2842984] is my second favorite in the series after [b:The Restaurant at the End of the Universe|8695|The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521213881l/8695._SY75_.jpg|1877624]. It was a lot of fun to just roll with. I am unsure about continuing with [b:And Another Thing...|6359434|And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)|Eoin Colfer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327908458l/6359434._SY75_.jpg|4857805] for a few different reasons. The biggest one is that, even though it is considered the official sixth book, it was not written by the original author, and I don't know how to feel about that. It seems like a sort of fanfiction gimmick, especially in light of things like Cursed Child. At the same time, [a:Douglas Adams|4|Douglas Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616277702p2/4.jpg] also may not have meant to end the series where he did (I looked up some stuff about Colfer's addition to the series). And I'm not sure how I feel about that ending. In some ways, I kind of like the ambiguity of it, and it feels like continuing the series at this point is kind of forced, as in a video game where you can just keep regenerating without consequences. On the other hand, I still feel as if there are a few things that do need to be wrapped up, especially in terms of Ford and the Vogons. I would hope that Colfer does address these things in a way that does finalize the story, but again I'm honestly not sure whether I want to know.