Book info

• Title Mostly Harmless
• Author Douglas Adams
• Year 1992
• Genre Science Fiction

Arthur Dent hadn't had a day as bad as this since the Earth had been blown up. After years of galactic wanderings, Arthur finally settles on the small planet Lamuella and becomes a sandwich maker. Looking forward to a quiet life, his plans are thrown awry by the unexpected arrival of his daughter. There's nothing worse than a frustrated teenager with a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in their hands. When she runs away, Arthur goes after her determined to save her from the horrors of the universe. After all – he's encountered most of them before...

Thoughts

I read this more for completeness than anything else. The first two books in the Hitchhiker’s series were great, the next two lost their way for me, but I wanted to read the fifth part just so I could say I have done so.

I realised part way through that the problem with the later books is the lack of camaraderie between the main characters. When Ford and Arthur finally meet up in this final one, it makes things an awful lot better/more interesting. There’s just not enough of that to keep it going.

I enjoyed the ending, the way things were all tied up together in a fashion you wouldn’t expect, and I did enjoy the general crazy mad scientist wisdom of it all, but really, I wish I’d stuck to the advice I was given of only reading 1 & 2.

Rating: 2 / 5