The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is by Douglas Adams. It was published in 1979 by Simon & Schuster. It is hard to place a proper genre on this book it is both social satire and science fiction. This book is filled with sarcasm and hilarious ideas. The book also makes fun of just about everybody including the government, the military, and bureaucrats who work without knowing why on projects that can destroy people.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a story about Arthur Dent. Arthur is a pretty dull human being that is pushed into a crazy world in outer space once the Earth explodes. The first few chapters of the book are the most challenging because they introduce so many characters all at once that don’t exactly make sense yet. Readers will find if they stick with this book all becomes very clear by chapter six. Without giving too much away about the book I can tell you that one of the funniest sections is in the first few chapters. Arthur Dent figures out that the world’s about to end because they are building an intergalactic highway off-ramp where his house stands. The funny part about this section is that Arthur is more concerned about his house being knocked down than facing the fact that the world’s about to end. Author has a friend named Ford Prefect and later in the book you learn that he is actually a researcher from a planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. Before Arthur’s house can be destroyed his friend Ford zaps him on a spaceship called the Vogon space cruiser. This space cruiser has just destroyed the planet Earth.

 

The entire book is filled with one-liners and jokes. The overall theme of the book is about how improbable the world is and how everything is interconnected. The characters in the book are well defined and unforgettable. Arthur Dent is my favorite character because he has no idea what is going on and everything is new to him. The only other Earth character is named Trillian and she has some funny one-liners too.

I love the fantastical universe that Adams brings to life. Some of the smallest characters make the biggest impact like Marvin the eternally depressed robot. The smaller characters are the strongest points of the book. There are not many things I dislike about the book but if I had to pick one it would be that Adams steps away from the action every so often to present facts about the universe as recorded in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but. Some of these facts are very preachy and boring. Even if you don’t like science fiction you'll love this book because the humor is universal. Overall I think this is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Douglas Adams has other books in the series that I am definitely going to read. He even gives the reader the ultimate answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything in this book. What more can you ask for in a novel?