Mostly Harmless (Hitchhiker's Guide Series #5)

by Douglas Adams

Overview

This is the fifth volume in the ever-popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Her father is Arthur Dent, her mother, unexpectedly to all concerned is Trillian, her godless godfather is Ford Perfect. Through a complicated series of misunderstandings at the naming ceremony she is named at random, or "Random" for short. When Random sets out across the galaxy to find out the truth about her vanished mother, her journey takes her to an utterly insignificant and little blue-green planet whose only entry in the guide reads, "Mostly harmless...."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780345379337
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/28/1993
Series:	Hitchhiker's Guide Series , #5
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	61,531
Product dimensions:	5.54(w) x 8.15(h) x 0.61(d)
Lexile:	970L (what's this?)

About the Author

Douglas Adams was born in 1952 and educated at Cambridge. He was the author of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy, including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless. His other works include Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency; The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul; The Meaning of Liff and The Deeper Meaning of Liff (with John Lloyd); and Last Chance to See (with Mark Carwardine). His last book was the bestselling collection, The Salmon of Doubt, published posthumously in May 2002.
You can find more about Douglas Adam's life and works at douglasadams.com.

Table of Contents

Editorial Reviews

Ford Prefect, of the planet Betelgeuse, and Earthman Arthur Dent began their whimsical odyssey in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In Adams' latest book, Ford relies on serendipity and his own quick wits to protect a powerful new edition of the Hitchhiker's Guide from the loathsome, sluglike Vogons. Ford's pal, Arthur, misses his planet and his old flame, Tricia McMillan. The rootless traveler from Earth finds his metier, however, on Lamuella, a world whose people subsist on Perfectly Normal Beast. Adams sets a rapid pace that becomes even more hectic when Arthur is unexpectedly joined by Tricia; her peevish teenage daughter; Ford Prefect; and the travel guide to the stars. The book once looked like a hand-held computer; now it takes the shape of a mechanical talking bird. Using new techniques, this floating device can whisk users through space and time. Thus the scene shifts back to Earth, where the past, present and future braid together. Adams may depend too much on the cliffhanger form. But his ingenious wit still captivates, and his characters frolic through the galaxy with infectious joy. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Hitchhiker fans rejoice! . . . [Here’s] more of the same zany nonsensical mayhem.”—New York Times Book Review

“It is Mr. Adams’s genius to hurl readers into a plot that seems to go everywhere and nowhere, then suddenly drop the pieces into place, click, click, click, like tumblers in a lock. . . . Delightful.”—Baltimore Sun

From the Publisher