The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with a breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?

I think in the past, I've enjoyed The Restaurant at the End of the Universe more than this time, but I'm not sure why. Which is not to say that I didn't have a blast, I just usually have more fun. From the intricate – and death-defying – difficulty of making a good cup of tea; to the extreme lengths some people will go to for a dining experience; to perspective that a little cake can give; to considering what color a wheel should be or whether fire should be nasally-inserted – this book covers all the bases. While still episodic in nature, it seems less so than its predecessor – and far less so than its successor. It's a stronger novel, not quite as funny, but still better than most “funny” or “light” SF than you'll find.

[Gargravarr] had rather liked Zaphod Beeblebrox in a strange sort of way. He was clearly a man of many qualities, even if they were mostly bad ones.

“Poor Arthur, you're not really cut out for this life are you?” [Trillian asked]
“You call this life?”

It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85 percent of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N-N-T'Nix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian “chinanto/mnigs” which is ordinary water served at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan “tzjin-anthony-ks” which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

My favorite of the series. There are a lot of bizarre scenes of existential horror mixed with the humor that have left a mark on my brain.

I love the concept of Milliways and I love Arthur's reaction to it.

The plot of this one plays out in a way that's a bit more satisfying to me than the original Hitchhikers.

There's a lot more Zaphod here, and he's a character that you could certainly either hate or love with his massive ego put-on cluelessness.

Too much random dialogue and shoegazing – which is not to say that the rambling dialogue and shoegazing wasn't enjoyable, simply that there was too much of it.

The best part of this book was Terry Jones' foreword. It really gives the reader a different platform from which to view this book and its flights of absurdity between short speculative sci-fi diary entries, like the neurotic elevator or the time-oscillating restaurant. Now they were dead cool. And as Terry Jones says: no one reads Doug for his characters. Has Trillian ever done anything at all yet?

Adams books are interesting creatures. The characters don't ever seem to evolve that much over the course of the stories, and the plots are something like soap bubbles - if you spend too much time focusing on what's happening, the entire thing will pop.

That being said, it's a hilarious book. Adams has one of those great, classic British comedy voices that remains funny even after multiple reads.

Het eerste deel van deze reeks luisterde ik vorige maand met de vertelstem van Stephen Fry. Toen ik het tweede deel oplegde, verwachte ik dus ook terug meneer Fry te horen, waardoor ik toch wat schrok toen ik opeens Martin Freeman hoorde. En ook al ben ik wel fan van zijn stijl, het was toch wel even wennen aan zijn vertelstem, die ik initieel toch wat te monotoon vond om er voldoende mijn aandacht bij te houden. Maar eenmaal ik gewoon was aan zijn timbre, begon het beter en beter te worden en begon ik zelfs zijn stemmetjes leuker te vinden dan die van Stephen Fry.

Ook dit verhaal was extreem absurd en soms zo complex door die absurditeit, dat het moeilijk te volgen blijft. Maar dan stuit je weer op zo'n passage die zo grappig, doordacht of geniaal is, dat je wel verder moet lezen.
Opnieuw een aanrader voor al wie fan is van Britse, Monty Python-achtige humor en plots.

Population [of the Universe]: Zero
It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

Charlotte zwaait naar haar imaginaire lezers

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ???????????????The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ???????????????

Another solid book in one of my most anticipated series. I have always loved the movie of the first book, which remained a firm favourite in my social circle up. We referenced the film constantly. And now in adulthood, I'm reading the full series for the first time as audio books with my partner when we go on longer journeys.

The second book maintains the same whimsical style which the series is so well known for. Douglas Adams kept us both laughing throughout this witty book. I think the comedic style of this book is what keeps me coming back to the series; I think it is the best of British comedy.

As far as the plot? It was ridiculous and took multiple unexpected turns, much of what you'd expect this series to do. I absolutely loved Martin in this book and I think any part that focuses on him is hilarious.

I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Universe a long (very, very long!)
time ago, but I never got around to
reading the sequels. I'm so glad
that I did! I remember now why
I used to love science fiction so much.
This is a fantastic book. I'm not sure
if it actually means anything (!) but
it is a hoot to read and wallow in.
A wonderful ride.

I've been reading this series over the course of the past year and then some. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, but the more I read, the more it dissolved into a fever dream. I treaded on because of the comedic absurdity, but I could not have explained the plot to you (if there even was a plot). I also found it kind of sad that for a book dealing with literal aliens, somehow earthly stereotypes and sexist jokes continued to make an appearance. oh well.

If anything's disappointing me on revisiting this series it's Trillian. She had little to do last time and gets even less here.

I think I unlocked a memory halfway through of not jiving with this one so much as a teen either. Very plotty, meandering between set pieces that mostly lead to dead ends, and also seems to have forgotten that the last book ended with a promise to go to the titular Restaurant. But the plot functions well enough as a Wit Delivery System that it's hard to mind so much.

I like the captain in the bath. He's got life figured out.

Rating: 3.5 stars

For whatever reason, when I was a teenager, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books were always books that I had on my “to read” list but it's only now that I've actually gotten around to reading them. There must have been a lot of talk amongst my friends about them. 25+ years later, I'm finding these pretty enjoyable light reading.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe takes up immediately after the end of Hitchhiker's Guide and involves the same main characters. They're on a galactic road trip, essentially caught up in the whirlwind of Zaphod's drama wherein he is trying to figure out a personal mystery that lead to him stealing a spacecraft in the first book. Along the way, you get to know a very little more about the characters, see some pretty interesting planets, and almost get to watch the end of the universe.

Honestly, the most impactful thing about this book is all of the cultural references that I had seen previously, but never knew the origin. Much of those are found in other science fiction (movies, etc) but also randomly in other places. There is some always-fun British humor, of course. Dry wit and sarcasm galore.

Overall, the story didn't go much of anywhere. The character development is pretty glacially slow. Towards the end there was some ironic time travel (for some reason, I find that I loathe time travel stories and elements... not sure why). Thankfully, it was a pretty short book and a “quick” read. I have all 5 books in a Kindle collection, but this one made me wonder if I'll get through them. Maybe I'll save it for when I'm needing some sarcastic dry wit or British humor. I'm still glad I've read the book, though.