Book Review: 'The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels in One Outrageous Volume'

 

©2002 Del Rey Books

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels in One Outrageous Volume 

By: Douglas Adams

Publisher: Del Rey

Publication Date (Reissue): April 30, 2002

Genre: Humor, Space Opera, Science Fiction

 

🪐 Do You Know Where Your Towel Is?
If you do, congratulations—you’re already ahead of 99.9% of Earth’s population when it comes to surviving spontaneous planetary demolition. According to the gloriously illogical logic of Douglas Adams’ five-volume “trilogy,” knowing the whereabouts of your towel is the first step toward interstellar competence. It means you’re ready to hitch a ride off Earth one fateful Thursday afternoon, just before the Vogons arrive to pulverize the planet in favor of a hyperspace bypass.

It helps—immensely—if your best mate turns out to be from Betelgeuse rather than an out-of-work actor from Guildford. It helps even more if his name is Ford Prefect and he moonlights as a field researcher for the most wildly unreliable yet wildly popular reference guide in the galaxy: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This cheeky little book outsells the Encyclopedia Galactica and even the scandalous memoirs of Eccentrica Gallumbits (yes, that Eccentrica Gallumbits, from Eroticon Six).

Once you’ve escaped Earth’s bureaucratic doom, you’ll find yourself—like poor Arthur Dent—hurtling across the cosmos in stolen ships, visiting bizarre planets (including a suspiciously familiar one), and encountering beings so strange they make your Aunt Mabel’s bridge club look tame. Among them:

• 🧠 Zaphod Beeblebrox: Two-headed, three-armed, and twice as charming. Galactic rogue, serial party crasher, and—somehow—President of the Galaxy.
• 💫 Trillian (née Tricia McMillan): The brilliant astrophysicist Arthur once tried to chat up at a party in Islington, only to watch her leave with a guy claiming to be from outer space. Spoiler: he was.
• 🏔️ Slartibartfast: Planetary designer with a soft spot for fjords. Norwegian ones, specifically. He won an award.
• 📑 Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz: Commander of the Vogon Constructor Fleet. A bureaucrat so fanatical he’d let his own grandmother be devoured by the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal rather than skip a form.

Douglas Adams first unleashed this absurdist sci-fi opera as a BBC radio series, which snowballed into five novels, a TV miniseries (yes, it aired on PBS), audio adaptations, and even interactive software. The omnibus edition from Del Rey Books includes all five increasingly inaccurately named “trilogy” entries:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe,
Life, the Universe and Everything,
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, and
Mostly Harmless—plus a bonus short story, Young Zaphod Plays It Safe, which is less funny but still worth the ride.

So if you’re planning to survive the apocalypse and tour the galaxy, do yourself a favor:
🛸 Don’t wear pajamas.
🐬 Start panicking when the dolphins vanish.
📕 Look for a device with “Don’t Panic” printed in large, friendly letters.
🧼 And above all—know where your towel is. Always.