My rating: 3 of 5 stars “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.” ~Douglas Adams

I don’t read fanfiction. I don’t even generally read published books based on movies or TV shows with the exception of some Star Trek novels (or if the book came first, obviously). Because of that, I was wary of picking up this book even though I love HHGTTG and I enjoyed the Artemis Fowl books I’ve read.

I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy the book because I did. I’m not going to say that Colfer was trying too hard because he wasn’t. What I am going to say is that it’s very, very difficult to take someone else’s creation and “make it your own” while simultanously trying to make sure that people who loved the original are appeased.

At least it wasn’t the abomination the post-Adams movie was.

If Colfer overused the word “froody,” I’m generally predisposed to forgive him because he didn’t do a lot of fan service. He didn’t do anything silly like bring Marvin back to life or make them travel back in time to find the depressed robot. There wasn’t any talk about the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation or other clichés (even if the Vogons were back and still bent on Earth[ling:] destruction).

I suppose I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I hoped because it still felt like fanfiction, even if he had permission from Adams’ widow to write the book and Adams himself had said he’d wanted to write another book in the series. I enjoyed it, but it could have easily been in its own universe rather than the HHGTTG’s universe. For me, this book falls in the realm of Books That Shouldn’t Have Been Written Because the Original Was Too Good.

I’ll probably reread when I get around to reading the HHGTTG again because it’s a part of the story. I appreciated seeing all the old familiar characters, but it still…lacked something. I just can’t seem to put my finger on it.

Colfer’s talented, though. I hope he writes more for adults, but I also hope he lets us see his own stories. View all my reviews >>