And Another Thing... review

Book Six of Three

Douglas Adams was never very happy with the way he ended his series, but never got 'round to writing a new book. After his death, his wife chose Eoin Colfer to give the series a proper ending.

So, after a bit of confusing introductions, the action picks up in Stavro Meuller's Beta club in New York. The earth is about to be destroyed, yet again, when Zaphod Beeblebrox shows up in the Heart of Gold. Unfortunately, they're not able to escape. Fortunately, Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged shows up in the space longship Tanngrisnir. Wowbagger is able to get them safely away from the earth in exchange for Zaphod convincing an A Class God to kill Wowbagger. Wowbagger, you see, is tired of immortality and just wants it to end.

Arthur, Trillian, Random, and Ford go with Wowbagger to the planet Nano, where oddly enough there's a colony of earthlings. Zaphod heads to the planet Asgard to pick up his old friend Thor.

It's all very bizarre and confusing, as they get to Nano and learn that the colonists are on the brink of war over religion (one group worships Cheese while the other is looking for a god, Cthulhu even interviewed for the part). Also, the Vogons have learned of a planet with Earthlings and are determined to wipe them out completely, so as to tie up all the loose ends in the paperwork.

Overall it was a fun book. It gave the whole story a much better ending than Mostly Harmless. Colfer did an excellent job writing in the H2G2 universe. But, it was rather confusing at times with possibly too many interjections by the Guide itself in an attempt to clarify things. And the overall story was rather muddled to begin with by this point, so it had that going against it from the beginning. Definitely worth reading if you're a Douglas Adams fan. If not, you won't enjoy this one at all.
/ [Viking]

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