In this third installment of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Douglas Adams delivers yet another interesting novel about familiar characters Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Slartibartfast, Trillian, and Zaphod Beeblebrox and their adventures in space. After having wrapped up many plot lines in the last novel, Adams introduces a new conflict as unhappy inhabitants of the planet Krikkit plan to destroy the entire universe and only a few people have the power to stop them. However, it felt as if the more unwilling certain characters were to save the universe the more unwilling I was to continue reading the book.

I will say that in parts this novel was certainly entertaining and clever, but altogether not much different from the past two Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books; I would even go so far as to say it was lacking a certain spark for adventure the other two books possessed. It is true that there is a new, more serious conflict for the characters to combat in this novel, but as a whole it did not further develop the series in any way, nor did the characters themselves seem to develop much throughout their adventure. I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the last two novels in the series because of this novel’s very close resemblance to them, though one should not expect very much.

Availability: SMCM Library, USMAI and COSMOS
Review Submitted by: Brianna Glase
Rating: Recommended with Reservations