The Restaurant at the end of the universe
Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian and Zaphod Beeblebrox’s wanderings on the stolen Heart of Gold are well chronicled here. Zaphod Beeblebrox has a wonderful attitude, what with the two heads and all that.. plus being the President of the Universe , and the most important man in the Whole of the Universe (according to the Total Perspective Vortex simulation).
A perfect blend of Sci fi and Humor, this book is the second in the trilogy of The hitchchikers Guide to the galaxy , consisting of four books. (yup , its’ a trilogy of four). Zaphod Beeblebrox is now ex-President and conman; having stolen the starship Heart of Gold in order to use its improbability drive to complete a secret mission he himself was not aware of - this Zaphod achieved by cleverly locking off parts of his brains to the other parts of his brain to ensure complete secrecy-even from himself! A whole winding story ensues, running away from the Vogons, Zaphod mysteriously turning up in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy building in order to meet Zarniwoop and then causing the entire building to be hijacked to Frogstar World B.
Zaphod’s mission ends well, and they all decide to go to the nearest place to eat. Which happened to be The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; which was actually built on the ruins of Frogstar World B itself.
A lot of wild and twisted improbabilities later, Arthur and Ford land on prehistoric Earth with the Golgafrinchans and find the Question to the ultimate Answer .. the answer being Forty-two...Read the book to find out what teh Question is!
Highlights of the book: Marvin, the Paranoid Android and his amazing capacity for depression: ’The first ten million years were the worst, ’ said Marvin, ’and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn’t enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.’
Arthur Dent, trying to get the Sirius Cybernetics Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer to make him some tea
The trouble with Time Travel: 1. you could become your own father or mother ..(Zaphod Beeblebrox’s great granddad is Zaphod beeblebrox the fourth)
- The Grammar involved in it:Excerpt:
The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr.Dan Streetmentioner’s Time Traveller’s Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you for instance how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it.
The event will be described differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future , or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations whilst you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.
The end of the universe: which is the spectacular theme of the restaurant .. of course this was missed by Zaphod and his party from Earth; but Zaphod waves it off saying that it’s just a gnab gib (opposite of big bang)
Douglas Adams writing style, if you like one of his books, you’ll like all of them. It’ll have you rolling on the floor, pounding your hand on the ground, laughing. This book is available as a set of four books; THHTTG, So long , and thanks for all the fish, and Life, the Universe and Everything.