Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams - Spoiler Free Review

Spoiler free review of book 3 in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series - Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
Goodreads: / neville-ridley-smith
#scifi #booktube

[@richardbrenton8983]

Oh no, not again. The radio plays were wonderful. I even got to wear my dressing gown and towel to my local theatre for the radio play tour a few years back. I can't read the books without hearing their voices from the radio. You're spot on with the analysis here :)

[@NevsBookChannel]

Thanks Richard!

[@TheRedPolyhedral]

Listening to the radio plays is good advice, but don't just listen to a few. Listen to all of them. Repeatedly. Oh, and Nev? He's just this guy, you know?

[@NevsBookChannel]

Thank you Gag Halfrunt!

[@PaperlessWriter]

Have you played the Infocom text adventure of Hitchhiker's? Would love to see a video of your thoughts on that bonkers game. I like your channel; keep up the good work:)

[@NevsBookChannel]

Thanks! Yeah, I played the game on my Apple IIc back in the day! Seem to remember getting stuck on the boat with Zaphod or something. Would love to do a video on that! Perhaps when I’ve finished all the book material

[@DutchGreyBeard]

LOL LOL!!! Timing is everything!! Thanks Nev for another great explanatory video. I am one of those who don't know the radio plays, and absolutely did not like this book. Too late for me, now. I'm buried in other reads. By the way, great graphics!!

[@NevsBookChannel]

Thanks Ed!

[@IFStravinsky]

Just finished reading the whole series, and I didn't find it as amusing as I had been led to believe I would. The only one I really liked was the last one, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, which turned out to be a love story. And Arthur wasn't the lump he was in the first three books. Never heard the radio plays.

[@NevsBookChannel]

Did you read And another thing?

[@nick_john]

If you look at the the whole trilogy as a work of satire, it’s not exactly a slapper. But it’s got lots of funny little hooks that stay with you. To this day, for example, I simply can’t read or watch a video about the hugeness of the universe without running to the fridge for a piece of fairy cake.

[@NevsBookChannel]

Love it!

[@taker68]

The Radio series is where I first heard THHGTTG and I loved it. Got the album versions and saw the 80s TV series. Got the first 2 books, the third comes out without any adaptation (wouldn't be for a long time) and it did feel flat to me. It's not bad but it doesn't have the feeling of the various other versions of the first 2. Same goes for the 4th and 5th books. Has the absurdity just not the fun of the early stuff. The eventual radio (?) version helped make those 3 books better for me. I've heard this book is a reworking of a rejected Dr. Who script.

[@NevsBookChannel]

Ah yes, I read that somewhere as well about the Dr Who thing. And to my chagrin, I haven’t listened to the series 3 adaptation!

[@Scruffy-LookinTerfHerder]

This is an interesting theory for me personally because I listened to the first book and really liked it but I read the second, liked it but not as much, and read the third and did not even finish it cause it did not really come together in a meaningful way for me. I'll have to try listening to the corresponding radio play and see if that changes things for me.

[@NevsBookChannel]

Would love to know if it does!

[@jeremysmetana8583]

Your thumbnail asked whether this work is actually funny. Very fair question. Douglas Adams is rarely, RARELY laugh-out-loud funny. I've always felt like most folks who claim his work is hilarious are forcing the issue because they feel they are expected to, given the high brow class of nerds his work attracts and the snooty reaction one encounters if we cannot roll out six or seven quotes from his work in quick time. Douglas Adams' work is funny in a sort of mild, atmospheric way. He sustains a good sense of the absurd throughout. But he's not really funny in the colloquial sense of that word. He is insightful (mostly) witty (though his wit is sometimes perfunctory and obvious). His work is an enjoyable read, though I find it tedious at times. He tries too hard, on occasion.

[@NevsBookChannel]

That’s a fair analysis

[@jrpipik]

Yes, it's funny. Very funny.

[@cruxofthecookie]

I love the book, and have never listened to any of the radio series ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@NevsBookChannel]

This is a valid outcome!

[@rogerbourke5570]

I was at the same college at Cambridge just after Douglas. The word was he was an arse-bandit (queer).

[@NevsBookChannel]

Hmm, ok. Had never heard that