The title, Hitch Hiker`s Guide to the Galaxy is the name of a sort of electronic
encyclopedia, which contains information about just about anything in the galaxy
and is especially made for Hitch Hiker`s. Ford Prefect is an editor for the
Guide. All along the story Ford and Arthur are often helped out by this little
gadget. Structure This edition that I have read is a part of a collection called
The Hitch Hiker`s Guide to the Galaxy: a trilogy in four parts. It contains four
books, the first of which I will be doing this book report on. Setting The story
begins in England, in Arthur Dent’s home, but it soon expands to a science
fiction like setting in outer space. Main characters and their relation to each
other Arthur Dent is one of the main characters, he is a simple human from
earth, he has a friend, Ford Prefect, who is an alien (Arthur didn’t know that
until the beginning of the book) from Betelgeuse, he is an editor for the Guide.
And finally there is Zaphod Beeblebrox, a friend from Ford’s youth, who is
also an alien from Betelgeuse. Zaphod is also the president of the universe and
he has two heads. Main character in detail Arthur is a really simple guy,
content with his little life and not very concerned with anything else. When
Ford takes Arthur with him to outer space and shows him all kind of weird stuff
it all becomes a little to much for him and he all let it kind of pass him by.
He just tries to stay out of harm’s way and he does not understand much of
what is going on around him. He is a pretty boring fellow, if he could he would
like just to go back to earth and go on with his simple life, forgetting about
all that had passed. Three things the story is about I think the story is about
the insignificance and insanity of many of the things we do, it is like the
demolition of Arthur’s house at the beginning of the book: he does everything
he can to prevent it, but ten minutes later all earth is demolished. It is also
about bizarrity of the universe and everything on it. And finally, it is about
not taking life too seriously. Short summary The tale begins when Vogons come to
demolish Earth, Ford saves Arthur by hitching a ride on the Vogons ship together
with him. When the captain finds this out, they get kicked out of the ship, but
they are rescued by Zaphod Beeblebrox, who just happens to be flying in the
neighbourhood in his own ship, the Heart of Gold which he stole when it was
showed to him being the president of the universe. The Heart of Gold contains
the Improbability drive, which is a device that can do anything as long as you
know how improbable it is (that is also the reason why Zaphod stole it). In the
ship are also a human woman, Trillian, and a robot, Marvin. The three of them
were looking for a planet called Magrathea, there custom made planets are built,
and because they have nothing else to do, Arthur and Ford decide to tag along.
Eventually they find it and land on it, there Arthur finds out that Earth is
actually a great computer created by the people of Magrathea by order of the
mice to calculate the question of life, the universe and everything because they
had built a computer that gave them the answer to it, but when they got the
answer they realised they didn’t know what the question was. The mice want to
take Arthur’s brain because he is the last part of the computer Earth, since
it blew up five seconds before the question was calculated. But they escaped and
went off to have a bite at the restaurant at the end of the universe. My opinion
What I liked about it: -the incredibly good sense of humor -the insane devices
and gadgets that they use -the way Arthur never understands -the always busy
Ford -the ever depressed Marvin -the strange ways of Zaphod What I disliked:
-the end of the story, nothing really happens I strongly recommend this book if
you want to laugh and enjoy some real crazy things. And you can never be
prepared for what’s going to happen.