Mostly Harmless (Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) [Paperback]

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.

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).

To me, books 3 & 4 were the ones that suffered from lack of plot/satisfying ending. Especially So Long and Thanks... was, though quite funny at times, rather a disappointment in the end, though it started off very well, a bit in the style of the Dirk Gently novels. He might have apologised for the inconvenience indeed.

As it is, it seems to me that, steering further away from the absurd humor that inhabited the beginning of the series, Adams tried to write out a good plot (a bit like with the Dirk Gently novels) that would satisfyingly wrap up the whole series - tricky, but could he do it? Yes, definitely yes. I can readily say that the "trilogy" wouldn't have been complete without it! It is a pity that he didn't hold onto the meandering nutter-style. Note that the book chapters switch very orderly between Trillian/Arthur/Ford, as do most of the more conventional novels. That's because here, he's more interested in creating a mystery with suspense and tension, rather than following in the footsteps of Monty Python. That is, the general plot here still makes absolutely no real sense (though everything fits in the end), but there are not much absurdities in the story itself, and the dialogues are less important and contain less unforgettable oneliners - DA concentrates on telling the story and finishing it.

Maybe Adams was better (and probably unique) at being an heir to Python rather than being a detective/mystery novelist. Still, in picking a totally absurd idea and working it out in such a way that it wraps it all up in a satisfactory manner is some stunt. Where the original two books get 1 star for plot and 4 for humor, this one gets 2 for humor and 3 for plot - still adding up to 5!