Monday, May 8, 2017

Review: So Long, and Thanks for the Fish by Douglas Adams

So Long, and Thanks for the Fish by Douglas Adams
My rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The fourth installment of Adams' Hitchhiker series finds characters and reader returning to a planet that shouldn't exist and figuring out why. Yet like the original installment this one has series problems in plot and humor, incoherent for one and flat for the other.

Earth is back out of no where and Arthur Dent has hitchhiked his way to his home planet that he thought gone forever 8 years before, only for everyone else it's only be about 8 months. While hitchhiking to his house, Arthur meets Fenchurch and just has to meet her again even though she technically didn't meet him. Once they do meet up things just start happening as if it's mean to be, including Fen reminding him all the dolphins disappeared which leads them to California to find the answer to that. Meanwhile Ford finds that his very long entry on Earth has suddenly popped up on the Guide and hurries to Earth to get Arthur. Then the three of them travel to view God's last message to the Universe where they meet up with Marvin.

Honestly, this story had a lot of things going for it that never materialized in both plot and humor. The joke about Fenchurch's name is apparently is obviously just English based that anyone from elsewhere on the planet just has to assume it's an English in-joke and that it's suppose to be funny. The main plot, if there even is one, is Arthur just getting back into the flow of Earth after traveling the Universe and then falling instantly in love before solving a mystery.

Overall, So Long, and Thanks for the Fish has it's moments both for story and humor but nothing is really connected or coherent. It's ho-hum fine, but nothing I'd go back to read.

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