Mostly Harmless...

[jsbowden]

I reread The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it's followups over the last week (I finally gave up any hope of finding my first print leather bound omnibus and bought The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide in hardcover last time I hit B&N, which includes Mostly Harmless which my old one didn't as it hadn't been written yet when it was pubished).

Is it just me, or does Mostly Harmless totally not fit? I'd only read it once previously, and when I read it then, it had been a while since I read the books that preceeded it so I missed it in that context the first time around. Having read all five serially over the course of a week, Mostly Harmless is jarring.

The book reads like Adams had grown to hate his creation. I don't know, maybe I'm imagining it, but the tone of MH feels actively hostile towards the characters and the reader. Is it just me?

Comments

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Normally, I remember books I've read at least a little, and I know I read Mostly Harmless, but I can't recall a thing about it. I can remember "Young Zaphod plays it safe" some, but Mostly Harmless.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I must be the only person on the planet that not only enjoyed "Mostly Harmless" but also found the ending fitting.

[carpone.livejournal.com]

Mostly Harmless seems like his book publishers said, "You owe us a fifth book in the series so start writing."

[leighdb.livejournal.com]

ISTR something about Adams apologizing for how he treated his characters in MH. In any case, it was clear from various interviews and stuff that he really had, if not grown to hate the Hitchhiker books, had certainly gotten very sick of them.

So, no, it's not just you.

[kate_nepveu]

It's not just you. I remember reading it and thinking, "Well, he really went to a *lot* of trouble to make sure there would never ever *ever* be another Hitchhiker's book, huh?"

I wanted to throw it at the wall, but I was in a car when I finished it and my mother wouldn't have understood.