Life, the Universe and Everything (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3) by Douglas Adams

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Life, the Universe and Everything (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3) My rating:

Probably the only book in the universe that is both centred on cricket and really comical!

In this third volume of the Trilogy of Five, Arthur Dent has spent five harrowing years in his cave on prehistoric Earth. Ford pops out of nowhere, and they travel in time to Lord’s Cricket Ground, just as England win the Ashes. Arthur and Ford end up fleeing a chaotic scene on board Slartibartfast’s cleverly disguised spaceship. And the adventure begins!

In his usual laugh-out-loud style, Douglas Adams tells an astonishing story centred around cricket, its wickets, a Golden Bail buried deep within the Heart of Gold, and a Key that needs protecting.

We discover the Krikkit Wars, sentimental robots, the power of reincarnation, the paradoxes of time travel and restaurant bills, the knack of flying, a 4-generation cosmic party, Zem the floopily flobbering globbering mattress, not to mention Trillian’s level-headedness and Arthur Dent’s dismal bowling skills.

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The format is great, with short, funny chapters.

The plot is slightly more elaborate than in his previous books. Simon Brett, who produced the pilot episode of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, says in the preface ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ is the book in which Douglas gets closest to actually having a plot.

I enjoyed this book, even though it didn’t quite work as well for me as the previous two did (so it’s a 3.5 rounded up).

“Life the Universe and Everything” is both the logical and absurd sequel to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, bearing the distinctive hallmarks of Adams’ clever mix of nonsense, play on words and deeper thought.


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