Mostly Harmless: Amazon.co.uk: Douglas Adams: Books

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"Douglas Adams is a terrific satirist.... He is anything but harmless".

-- The Washington Post Book World --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

The fifth part of the "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series. 20 years on, the Guide falls into the hands of Arthur Dent's daughter, Random, whose mother, unexpectedly to all concerned, is Trillian. Random journeys to an insignificant planet, whose entry in the Guide reads "mostly harmless".

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly funny, but rather grim in the end, 24 Dec 2002

By

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mostly Harmless (The hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy) (Paperback)

It is impossible not to have some mixed feelings about this novel. It does stand as a return to the wild frivolity and cuttingly biting humor of the first three books, yet it is certainly less than upbeat, all things considered. Despite all kinds of evidence to the contrary, I always had the feeling that things would work out, even for poor Arthur Dent—the universe might not make a bit of sense, of course, but these characters I love so much would ultimately at least find a sense of peace if not happiness in some forgotten corner of the cosmos. It’s something of a downer to find out this is not really the case. Two characters who very much made up the heart of the series for me, Marvin and Zaphod, are not even present in these pages. Then you have Fenchurch from the fourth book, a character I really came to love, thrown out of the saga like so much spoiled Perfectly Normal Beast meat. It’s nice to have Trillian back, albeit in a couple of transdimensional forms, as well as Ford and Arthur, but it’s hard to say who the story is really about. Arthur’s new life as a Sandwich Maker on a remote planet his ship crashed on is rather pitiful but totally Dent-like. Ford’s attempts to undo the tragic consequences of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy company having been taken over by unscrupulous business men is interesting. The introduction of a Tricia McMillan who did not leave the party with Zaphod because she decided to go back for her handbag ends up just muddying the waters of the fictional time stream. Then there is Random, the biological daughter of Arthur Dent by Trillian; she is even more mixed up and generally confused about life than the father she only meets as a teenager dumped by her too-busy mother. It might be said that this is Random’s story, but all she really does is provide the means by which the principal actors Ford, Arthur, and Trillian are eventually brought together for the final conclusion.

Adams did do an impressive job of bringing things together in the end—characters and situations not only from this novel itself but from the start of the whole Hitchhiker’s saga (think Vogons). Why a pesky number of loose threads were allowed to hang out, though, while so much work went into resolving other looming storylines, is beyond me and did much to mar the satisfaction I got from the rather abrupt, unfortunate conclusion. I am particularly bothered by the fact that Fenchurch, a character important enough for Adams to have written the entire fourth novel about, is summarily dismissed with little thought and even little grief from Arthur Dent himself. I should not complain about the way Adams chose to end this delightful series of novels of his own imaginative creation, yet I cannot help feeling disappointed if not a little cheated by the way in which everything ended. All in all, while I did enjoy parts of this book immensely, I would rather have ended things with the happy note of So Long, and Thanks For all the Fish, and be left free to imagine what kinds of messes Ford and Arthur might be getting themselves into somewhere in the universe and wondering what really ever happened to Trillian and Zaphod.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Good., 29 Sep 2004

By

Ian Tapley "thefragrantwookiee" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mostly Harmless (Hitch Hiker's guide to the galaxy) (Paperback)

THE STORY:
Arthur Dent has been confused about a lot of things, particularly matters of Time and Space, but now he has to deal with the concept of Parallel Universes, not to mention fatherhood. Meanwhile, Ford Prefect discovers a sinister new edition of the Guide.

WHAT'S GOOD:
Adams' writing is as sharp and conceptually funny as ever, particularly in the opening few paragraphs of Tricia's story (the bit about New York with the creatures in the lower intestines of rats). The author expertly establishes several storylines and slowly begins to weave them towards a conclusion that takes the series back to where it started; which I thought was very apt. Arthur's attempts at fatherhood make for excellent reading, as trying to deal with teenage mood swings baffles him far more than intergalactic travel ever did. All in all, this book is a good, funny, read and is better than the last two volumes in the series by far.

WHAT'S BAD:
The rather abrupt way in which Adams does away with Fenchurch really annoyed me, as I felt her relationship with Arthur could have added a great deal to this book (plus, I wanted something to go Arthur's way - he's always getting screwed over). And on the same sort of note, the ending of the book is actually quite depressing as I'd been hoping that Arthur and Random could have been a family and lived happily ever after (I should know better really).

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful, 5 Feb 2006

By

Soze (Plymouth, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mostly Harmless (Hitch Hiker's guide to the galaxy) (Paperback)

Bringing the fabulous Hitch Hikers books to a fitting close, this final book of the "trilogy" is a fantastic return to form after the slightly wishy washy So Long and Thanks for all the Fish. Full of the usual wit, vivid imagination and memorable characters that typified the previous books, Mostly Harmless brings back and resolves the stories of Arthur, Ford and Trillian, although sadly leaves us to forever ponder the fate of Zaphod. To say too much of the plot would give too much away, suffice to say if you`ve read the first 4 you really need to finish off with this one! RIP Douglas Adams, sadly missed.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Harmless but Mostly Toothless
I debated for a while whether to make this a two or three star review. In the end I went for three because it ties together (most) of the loose threads and it was good to see Dent... Read more

Published 7 days ago by andy1701