"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams

Just as promised, here's the second volume in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I really hope that there are people who are enjoying this. If you are, please follow me and comment to let me know that you're there and not just a figment of my imagination. Thank you all!

~~WARNING: SPOILERS~~

We left off our four (six if you include the ship and the melancholy robot) protagonists leaving to go towards Milliways, the namesake of the book. In several mixed up situations, they're at the mercy of an unhappy Vogon aiming to destroy their ship with them on board and their ship is incapable of defending them or even running away because of Arthur's impatient whimsy. As a result, Zaphod conjures the spirit of his Great Grandfather. After ensuing shenanigans, Zaphod and Marvin arrive at the headquarters of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy whilst the others are still on the ship but in a dark, dark place unknown to all of them. After more hilarious hijinks, the four actually do end up at the fabled restaurant that has been their goal since, well I don't know since time isn't quite a big factor in the story. Anyway, they get introduced to their meal (and yes, I said introduced) and Ford sees an old friend of his, Hotback Desiato. They end up back with Marvin and a new limo-ship. Unfortunately, this is where they leave the ship and also one of this bloggers' favorite characters for good. Ford and Arthur end up separated from Trillian and Zaphod on another spaceship. This ship is filled with "frozen" people, to be revived when the time was right. As is such, their ship crash lands onto a lovely little blue-green planet. Ford and Arthur get to know the land and its inhabitants and stumble across the image of your favorite fictional fjord former (and mine!) carved in a glacier which gives them the approximate place and time they arrived at. Eventually the ULTIMATE QUESTION is realized and is just as profound as they originally thought it was going to be in the first book. Meanwhile, Zaphod and Trillian are transported back to "Heart of Gold" by Zarniwoop, president of the company that owns Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so that they all may journey and meet the man who rules the universe. I rather liked this scene with this man who rules the universe and what happens to Zarniwoop.

I personally enjoyed this book a lot more than I did Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Perhaps it was because I had already had awhile of getting used to the particular happenings and people so it wasn't as off-putting/surprising to me anymore. I have decided that the man who rules the universe (who doesn't have a name by the way so I'll just shorten it to MWRtU) is perhaps my favorite character introduces so far and I really hope he appears in the rest of the series. Also I am jealous that he has a cat. While this book was longer than the first, it was a lot easier to read through and I felt like I connected to the characters and their situations better. It is rare that a sequel surpasses the level at which the first was, let alone pass it, but in my humble opinion, I feel that The Restaurant at the End of the Universe did just that. I wish I could say more but I really don't want to ruin any details for anyone and I cannot find a way around that as of yet.

Wyrm's Recommendation: 8/10

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

I know that most people have read, or at least seen the movie, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I am not one of those people, or at least I wasn't until this past week. I had heard about several particulars from the book such as "42" or the usefulness of a towel, but even all the inside jokes about it passed right over my head. My suitemate at college received the entire series for her birthday, and immediately gave me the first book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I had thought that it was just one book, but there is a series of six novels that are based off of the original BBC radio broadcast. As such, I'll review all available to me week by week.

~~WARNING: SPOILERS~~

The book itself is somewhat more abbreviated than I had originally anticipated, but that may be because I had possibly only seen it as one volume of all the books. The focus of the book mainly rests on one Arthur Dent, a human that becomes an unwilling "hitchhiker" of the galaxy through of the untimely destruction of Earth. It was apparently destroyed to make a "hyperspatial express route" that ironically becomes unnecessary within moments of the demolition of Earth. Moments before Earth becomes dust, Arthur escapes thanks to his old friend, Ford Prefect, who was in fact an alien himself who had been stranded on Earth for fifteen years. Eventually those two find their way to the ship that put the express route out of business, the Heart of Gold that contained the Infinite Improbability Drive. On this ship is Ford's cousin Zaphod- who happens to be the President of the Galaxy- and Trillian (or Tricia McMillan if you prefer) who left earth with Zaphod a few months prior and, coincidentally, knew Arthur. The four of them set off and find a desolate planet, Magrathea, the creator of planets. They find out that mice had actually commissioned the production of Earth because they had built a super-computer to find out that 42 is actually THE ULTIMATE ANSWER but being confused, they had to make another, better super-computer to find out THE ULTIMATE QUESTION and that was Earth. As I mentioned, the destruction of Earth was untimely. That was because Earth, which was designed solely to find out THE ULTIMATE QUESTION, had a mere five minutes left before it had calculated the question. As such, they tried to hold Arthur and Trillian captive because they were part of the computer and had THE ULTIMATE QUESTION buried in their brains. All four escape before anything gruesome can happen to them and the book trails off to the next part, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe".

I really liked this book, although there were a few things that I didn't enjoy as much. Of course, part of this has to be attributed to the fact that the first books were published in 1979, over thirty years ago. Obviously, the generation gap is going to cause some dissonance from my preferences and what was popular over thirty years ago. I wasn't particularly fond of the random, totally-off-the-storyline chapters. It made confused me in what was relevant and what was just fluff. Also, some of the things that Arthur and Trillian said didn't seem "normal". By that, I mean that it seemed that their reactions to situations seemed unnatural and not realistic. The other characters I understand are aliens and are open to interpretation, and perhaps that it's the space travel that caused them to think and react irrationally. However, I really loved the characters. Even though I feel there wasn't a lot of development, they were interesting, active, and humorous. Some of the humor I can attach to several references to tea in the book, sometimes at the most interesting or inopportune times and the knowledge of what a Babel fish is. Like most people, I know about the translating website, babelfish.com, but I had no idea that it was something that is in this book. The Babel fish is a tiny, yellow fish that you stick in your ear and it essentially translates all language straight to your brain in your language. The things you learn by reading.

Wyrm's Recommendation: 7/10

"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere was a find that I cherish. In my hometown, I was in the basement of the library where they have books, movies, and magazines for sale when a dusty, torn book with its cover missing caught my eye. What captured me even more than the name or summary on the back was the blurb from the Minneapolis Star Tribune that said "A dark contemporary 'Alice in Wonderland'... Imaginative, well crafted [and] highly visual." As you can imagine, dark "Alice in Wonderland" would sound interesting to anyone. By the way, if you haven't already figured it out, the author, Gaiman, is also the author of Stardust and Coraline, among other works.

~~WARNING: SPOILERS~~

The book’s genre is fantasy/adventure and the story focuses on two main characters, Richard Mayhew and Door. It begins with the prologue, which tells of Richard as he is getting ready to leave for London on a business trip when he meets a mysterious woman who warns him of his future; then in the first chapter, it is three years later and he is unhappy with his job and tricks himself into believing he is in love with a woman when he knows for a fact he is really not. While out with this woman, he finds a girl, Door, bleeding on the street and stops to help her. Strangely enough, his fiancée had not seen her at all until Richard specifically pointed her out. He takes her home to care for her, and finds that she is not at all like any other person he knows. After he helps her, he finds that people cease to recognize him or even the fact that he existed: while he is still in the room, his apartment is shown to hopefuls looking for a place to rent; his coworkers do not recognize or even know him; even his bank card is rejected at the ATM. Figuring that it is somehow Door's fault, he resolves to find her and demand she fix it. While searching, he finds that there is an entire world underneath the London everyone knows, called "London Below", where they all see him; unlike his old friends in London Above. There are people there who are homeless, people from another time, and characters you would find only in fantasy novels. It just so happens that he gets sucked into Door's adventure of trying to help find out who had killed her family and is still trying to kill her while attempting to get his old, albeit boring, life back.

I really enjoyed Neverwhere. Gaiman finds a way of bringing humor into his style of writing and yet not crossing the line into using it at inappropriate times in the plot. For example, early on he is comparing two characters and mentions four ways to tell them apart, which are not subtle differences, and then adds the line "Also, they look nothing alike". The book is a rarity because it was written based on the BBC mini-series of the same plot and name. I normally find books written after their screened counterparts to be sort of dry because it is so restricted; however, the ideas portrayed are quite fantastical. After realizing the identity of the author and recognizing other works under his name, I was no longer surprised that Neverwhere is such a great read. Gaiman seems to carry on his theme from Coraline and Stardust of bringing fantasy to reality and showing people all of his sides. After all, Coraline was more of an adolescent's fantasy/adventure, Stardust was much more of fantasy/romance/adventure for adolescents and adults, and Neverwhere is a fantasy/adventure for adults. Gaiman is not a highly known author; at least, though his works are well known his name does not always get mentioned. But between his mini-series, novels, and comics, and the ability to transform works into all types of different genres, his works reveal that they can appeal to nearly everyone. But as an adult and someone not into the whole "romance" as the basis of the novel, I view Neverwhere as something truly artistic.

Wyrm's Recommendation: 8/10

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my review blog. First, a little about myself; I am relatively young and I love books. I'm in college and live with my fiancé, who surprisingly doesn't read very much. I don't have a lot of interests except books. They've been my main source of happiness since I could read at age 4. Okay, that's enough about me, moving onto this blog review. Obviously I'm an amateur and all I know about reviewing is giving my opinions and staying true to the book and author and of course giving the benefit of the doubt as best I can is always good too. At some point I may move to movie reviews, but that's far beyond my reach at this point. I have a fair collection of books ranging across genres and access to a fair number of others, but I obviously cannot read everything (although I'll try!). If you have a request for me to read and review or even give my opinion on, I may not be able to afford the time or money, but I will do my best.

Now let me take a moment to possibly make an attempt to avoid any future inquiries or accusations. Everything I write is completely my own opinion, unless otherwise noted. It is not a "bottom line" of how the book is, nor would I dream of telling people a book sucks because I know that people all like and love different things. If you don't agree with me, I'm sorry and feel free to continue to like and love whatever you want. If you still feel the need to disagree vocally, please make sure to keep it respectful and I will gladly show you the exactly same courtesy you give me. Just remember, love what you love and don't let anyone talk you out of loving it, unless it's illegal!

Have a wonderful day
~Wyrm

PS
I have decided to update once a week on Friday, mainly due to classes and work I have throughout the week. I promise to try to be as consistent as I possibly can.