Once Upon a Geek

The sixth volume in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy is scheduled for release on October 12 (the thirtieth anniversary of the first book). The sixth volume, entitled And Another Thing…, is written by Eoin Colfer (known for his Artemis Fowl series).  Sadly the Hitchhiker’s creator Douglas Adams passed away back in 2001, but his widow has fully endorsed Colfer writing this new novel.

If you aren’t familiar with the Hitchhiker’s novels, then you are really missing out.  Ignore the movie (it was terrible), the books are brilliant, creative, and hilarious!  It’s really science fiction comedy at it’s finest.  Writer Douglas Adams originally produced Hitchhiker’s as a radio comedy, but quickly adapted it into novel form.  There were five novels produced between 1979 and 1992, each insisting that it was a trilogy (even for books four and five).  Additionally, there have been numerous spin-offs, including: a fairly terrible big-budget movie, multiple TV mini-series,  video games, comic books, stage shows, and more.

This new book is named for a passage in the third chapter of the fourth book, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.

The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills, like a man saying “And another thing…” twenty minutes after admitting he’s lost the argument.

When they first announced a sixth Hitchhiker’s book was being written by someone other than Douglas Adams, I was bothered and was convinced it was a bad idea.  Now after some reflection, and hearing lots of good things about Eoin Colfer, I’m apprehensively looking forward to this novel.  The cover looks great and is definitely in the spirit of Adam’s work.  Unfortunately for Colfer, his book is going to be compared to fan’s memory of Adam’s books; not necessarily the actual quality of Adam’s books, but fan’s idealized memory.  For example, I personally didn’t think the fifth book, Mostly Harmless, was all that great as compared to the other novels.  However, that is easily glossed over given how good the series is.  So that’s what Colfer will be up against, people’s overall opinion, rather than the quality of each individual novel.

For those of you who are absolutely dead-set against anyone else writing Adam’s characters, I challenge you to rethink your position.  What if Stan Lee had not allowed anyone else to write Spider-Man or the X-Men?  We would have been deprived of many fantastic stories.  It’s quite possible that Colfer will give us something fresh that will take our favorite characters in a new and exciting direction.  I am willing to give it a chance, are you?

And for the record, I know where my towel is.