Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
reviewed on + 813 more book reviews


I gave this book five stars. Just kidding! Check this out! If you take Spaceballs, Monsters versus Aliens, Player Piano, and Catch 22, throw them into a blender and purée, you might just end up with this book. This wacky look at intergalactic space travel, zany situations, and preposterous characters permeates the ephemeral, volatile fabric of this convoluted, sometimes witty, often disjointed fabrication. Still its mostly harmless. Like the guy who fell asleep in class and was prodded by his neighbor with the answer to the teachers question about transendentalism; who jumped up and yelled 42; youll discover the answer to life, the universe and everything.

The improbability that someone would write this book is two to the power twenty-five thousand to one against and falling.
The improbability that someone would publish it is two to the power fifty thousand to one against and falling.
The improbability that someone would buy it is two to the power seventy-five thousand to one against and falling.
The improbability that someone would actually read it is two to the power one hundred thousand to one against and falling.
The improbability that a reviewer would place it on a must read list is two to the power of infinity minus one to one against and falling.

Dont Panic! This book finally arrived safely but not without some tribulation en route. It seems that after Hitchhiking the postal service it made a stop at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe where someone spilled their pulled pork sandwich (Thank goodness it wasnt Fish.) on the wrapper and label. An ever alert postal employee naturally shipped it immediately to the detox center for analysis of the spill. The Ultimate culprit was identified as barbeque sauce. (Looks like Bulls Eye to me.) There lab technician no. 42 declared it to be Mostly Harmless, wrapped it in clear plastic tape, and plastered it with safe conduct stickers. So ends another saga in the Hitchhiker series. At least it wasnt a Salmon Rushdie book.