Book Review: Douglas Adams' "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe"

Rating: 4 out of 5

Part four of my review of Douglas Adams' The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide focuses on the short story: Young Zaphod Plays It Safe.

By-Products

This short story pick up with a character left out of the last book, Zaphod Beeblebrox, on a search and rescue mission. Zaphod is now running a salvage company, The Beeblebrox Salvage and Really Wild Stuff Corporation, and is assisting two officials from the Safety and Civil Reassurance Administration somewhere in the Western Galaxy check the holding area of the Starship Billion Year Bunker. The starship was built to be the most secure and impregnable ship ever designed, yet it managed to get itself about four thousand feet underwater and the storage hold broken in two. Oh, and the escape capsule was gone as well, but all the crew (mostly dead now) are still aboard the ship.

What was in the storage bay that so urgently needs attention? What is waiting in Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha? Are we still missing Trillian? These questions may or may not be answered in this short story. You are going to have to read it for yourself to find out.

I think this is a pretty good transition into the next (and final) installment in the series. The story was short, but sweet.

Book Review: Douglas Adams' "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish"

Rating: 4 out of 5

Part four of my review of Douglas Adams' The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide focuses on the forth book in the series: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.

Rain God

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish succeeds in shifting the Hitchhiker's Guide storyline where Life, the Universe and Everything failed. The story begins with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect separately finding out the the Earth, on which they were standing when a Vogon Construction Crew vaporized the planet, was in fact, still there. While Arthur is trying to hitch his way back to his old home, he gets picked up by a burly man named Russell who happens to have the most beautiful woman Arthur had even seen drugged in the backseat. That woman, Fenchurch, is Russell's sister; and she was drugged (sedated) because Russell believes her to be crazy: she thinks the Earth really blew up some eight months ago when everyone knows it was a CIA induced hallucination.

A few months go by while Arthur attempts to re-adjust to life on Earth when he (almost) runs into Fenchurch walking down the side of the road and offers to give her a ride to wherever she is going. He doesn't really care where, he just wants to spend as much time with her as possible. So, they have lunch at a diner before Fenchurch catches a train to London and Arthur gets her number, which he immediately loses due to a raffle. Another few months go by as Arthur Dent calculates the current location of the cave he called home back on pre-historic Earth, which happens to be the exact location of Fenchurch's place.

After spending a lot of time together and learning each others secrets, which I am not going to tell you what they are, they make plans to try and find answers to the recent mysterious events. This takes them to California to meet with Wonko the Sane, who lets them in on the secret of the dolphins. After which, Arthur and Fenchurch meet up with Ford Prefect who just made it back to Earth. And they all set off on another journey to find "God's Final Message to His Creation."

What took Ford all that time to return to Earth? What happened to all the dolphins? Is that Marvin over there? Read So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish for all these answers and more!

Movie Review: Ghost Rider

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 - Ghost Rider Official Site

Starts off slow, but quickly picks up speed. Ghost Rider is the story of Johnny Blaze, played by Nicholas Cage, who, as a child, sells his soul to the devil to cure his father of cancer. His father's untimely death a few hours later in a circus show "accident" prompts Johnny to run away from his current life and leave his love behind. Years later, Johnny Blaze becomes a successful motorcycle daredevil (a la Evil Knievel), meets up again with his long lost love, and has the devil come to collect on his payment. His payment: during the night, Johnny is possessed by a spirit, and in the presence of evil, he turns into the Ghost Rider. It is the Ghost Rider's job to collect the souls of the damned and send them to hell. The devil makes a further deal with Johnny: if he can send the devil's son back to hell, the devil will give him his soul back.

It takes a little time to build up the back-story, but once Johnny Blaze first turns into the Ghost Rider, the story progresses rapidly. Perhaps a little too rapidly. Most of the battles between good and evil don't last that long. The Ghost Rider spirit knows how to kick-ass from the get-go, no fumbling around learning how to use his powers.

I actually thought the movie was going to be a little on the children's side, but the PG-13 rating is there for a reason (lots of fire and death). The special effects and storyline elements make this an enjoyable flick for teens and adults.

Book Review: Douglas Adams' "Life, the Universe, and Everything"

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Part three of my review of Douglas Adams' The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide focuses on the third book in the series: Life, the Universe and Everything.

Bristromath

The story picks up on Earth some two billion years before the Vogons destroy it to build a hyperspatial express route. Our heroes had been broken up into two groups, Ford/Arthur on Earth and Zaphod/Trillian on the Heart of Gold, after Marvin successfully teleported them off of Disaster Area's stunt ship that ended up crashing into a star (presumably with Marvin with it).

Eddys, or pools of instability, in the fabric of spacetime open up on Earth that allows Ford and Arthur to travel to Lord's Cricket Ground just a few short days before the Earth will be destroyed. While there, Ford and Arthur stumble upon a S.E.P. (Somebody Else's Problem) which lands them in the middle of Slartibartfast's attempt to prevent a rogue group of white robots from obtaining the pieces of a key which will release their Masters from Krikkit. Krikkit is a small little planet evneloped en a spherical Dust Cloud which kept them from knowing anything existed outside their little world. That is, until a spacecraft crashed into their planet. Once the people of Krikket discovered life outside their world, they decided it must end. After the two thousand year Krikket war and some two grillion people killed, the Krikket planet was finally locked away in a Slo-Time envelope. Ten billion years later, or five years from the Krikket Slo-Time perspective, eddys in spacetime have allowed the pieces of the Wikkit Gate (the key) to reappear in the universe.

Ford, Arthur, and Slartibartfast's journey leads them to a forth-generation cocktail party where they meet up with Trillian just in time for the Krikkit white robots to recover another piece of the Wikket Gate. So, our heroes must make their way to Krikkit to prevent the Krikkit campaign to destroy the universe.

Where is Zaphod in all of this? Is Marvin still alive? Can Arthur learn to fall and miss the ground? What does an italian restaurant have to do with space travel? The answers to those questions and more, will not be addressed here. Read the book yourself.

While I enjoyed Life, the Universe and Everything, I thought the story was a little bland in comparison to the two previous novels. The characters were on their own or in pairs for a large portion of the story which took away from the group dynamics. The plot felt more like a side quest rather than a continuation of the series. Still glad I read it, but I hope So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish has more to offer.

Book Review: Douglas Adams' "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

Rating: 4 out of 5

Part two of my review of Douglas Adams' The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide focuses on the second book in the series: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Milliways

When last we left our heroes, they were about to head off to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe to grab a bite to eat. Unfortunately for them, food would have to wait. Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Tricia McMillan (Trillian), and Marvin (the manically depressed robot) were being attacked by the Vogon fleet who destroyed the Earth minutes before it would have finished calculating the ultimate question to the ultimate answer of life, the universe, and everything. Prior to discovering this fact, Arthur Dent was busy arguing with the Nutri-Matic Drink Synthesizer (a device designed to produce personal drinks that matched the tastes and metabolism of whoever used it). Arthur was trying to get the Nutri-Matic to make him a cup of tea. The components of which, dried leaves boiled in water with a squirt of milk from a cow, utterly confused the Nutri-Matic who had to seek help from the onboard computer of the ship; a process in which shut down all ability to control the ship. Zaphod had to call upon his great-graddad, Zaphod Beeblebrox the Third, from the spirit world to help them out of this jam. The Heart of Gold was able to make an improbability jump at the exact moment the ships defenses would have been breached and the ship destroyed.

At the end of the improbability jump, Zaphod and Marvin found themselves on Ursa Minor Beta, the headquarters of Megadodo Publications, the creators of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Arthur, Ford, and Trillian found themselves still inside the Heart of Gold, but still with no control over the mobility of the ship. While on Ursa Minor Beta, Zaphod told himself (the locked down part of his brain told the active part of his brain) to find Mr. Zarniwoop (an employee of Megadodo Publications). While Zaphod and Marvin were looking for Zarniwoop, a team of Frogstar Fighter robots descended upon Megadodo Publications in search of Zaphod Beeblebrox. Not finding him directly, the Frogstar Fighters took the entire building to Frogstar World B where Zaphod would be subject to the Total Perspective Vortex, which was designed to destroy your soul by showing you your relation to the entire universe. Luckily for Zaphod, the universe he was in was designed specifically for him by Zarniwoop, so he survived the Total Perspective Vortex. After tracking down Zarniwoop in a delayed (900 years delayed) cruise liner, Zaphod learned that the Heart of Gold was in his pocket and that they all must travel to meet the controller of the universe. Zaphod and Zarniwoop returned to the Heart of Gold, upon which time, Zaphod punched out Zarniwoop and along with Arthur, Ford, and Trillian, set off to eat at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe...

What did they find at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe? What happened to Marvin on Frogstar World B? What does Disaster Area consider a "good gig?" Just who is it that controls the universe? And will we ever find out the true question to the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything? Well, you are going to have to read the book yourself to find out.

While good, I did not think The Restaurant at the End of the Universe was as good as the first book, it was definitely entertaining enough to read. The end of this book is the end of the BBC television series, so from here on out, I do not know what to expect from the rest of the Hitchhiker's Series. :-)