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A review by aceinit
And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer
2.0
In theory, this book has everything required to make an excellent Hitchhiker's adventure: Ford, Arthur, everyone's favorite galactic president, Vogons and even Thor of the Aesir. Unfortunately, Colfer's addition to the series is a disappointment.
Though there were moments of genuine humor in the book, Adam's legendary wit is missing, and the prose comes off as dry and unentertaining. I was never drawn into this story the way I was with the original trilogy.
Colfer commits the unforgivable sin or "normalizing" Zaphod (who, in the interest of full disclosure is my favorite character in the series and one of my favorite charaters in all of literature). Gone is the 2-headed renegade President, replaced by a normal one-headed version. His surgically removed second head, suddenly elevated to genius level, has replaced Eddie as the interface for the Heart of Gold. And, given the imagery used to describe Left Brain's environment (Left Brain being the second head), I could not escape the visual of Futurama's head-in-a-jar.
Then there is Random Dent, Trillian and Arthur's teenaged daughter. I will freely admit to not reading the last two Hitchhiker's novels by Adams (I tried, but found them grossly unentertaining), so I will admit to knowing nothing about Random's character before going into this novel other than that she existed.
Random is the second biggest problem in this novel. After creating an alternate reality in which she grew up to become an apparently useful President of the Galaxy (and marrying what is, for all practical purposes, a telepathic hamster), Random emerges from her dream world to find herself a teen again. She then goes on to hold her parents resopnsible for all of their failings in her fictional world, making Trillian's life a living hell and reducing Trillian to an angsty, guilt-laden maternal cliché. Random is insufferable. Take every whiny, self-absorbed teen cliché and multiply it by the universe, and you will get the idea of how insufferable she is. I don't normally advocate violence but, seriously, someone needed to slap some sense into her at least once.
The biggest problem is the Guide itself. whereas Adams worked its information into the narrative flow with seemingly effortless grace, Colfer had chosen to completely (and frequently) halt the narrative to insert his Guide notes. At once point, during the climax, he writes that he will keep this particular interruption brief so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. This, to me, means he knows the interruptions are exactly that, which means he is also aware that they are probably annoying the readers. Not everything in the universe needs Guide entries, though Colfer seems to delight in throwing them at the reader.
The plot itself is adequate, though by no means exceptional, and Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged is an interesting addition to the cast. I would have liked to see more development of his relationship with Trillian, and more of him outside of his role as The Guy Who Insults Everyone. I mean, Trillian had to see something in him, right? As it stands, the entire romance is written up to a byproduct of accelerated hyperspace and, after some drama with Thor, everyone flies off into the sunset after an overly-prolonged series of goodbyes.
And Thor. Thor, Thor, Thor. Norse thunder gods shouldn’t be insecure, emo, mopey failed wannabe rockstars, mmm’kay. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. Because every time I think about it, my head starts to hurt just a little more.
Perhaps if the entries weren't quite so interruptive, so lengthy or a little more entertaining they would not have been such a nuisance. As things stand, I was barely skimming them by the second half of the novel, and skipping most of them entirely by the final 1/4.
Adams’s original trilogy is a masterpiece. I will admit that my hopes weren’t high going into this novel, though I was desperately hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I expected nothing more from Colfer than a pale imitation. Which is exactly what I received.
Though there were moments of genuine humor in the book, Adam's legendary wit is missing, and the prose comes off as dry and unentertaining. I was never drawn into this story the way I was with the original trilogy.
Colfer commits the unforgivable sin or "normalizing" Zaphod (who, in the interest of full disclosure is my favorite character in the series and one of my favorite charaters in all of literature). Gone is the 2-headed renegade President, replaced by a normal one-headed version. His surgically removed second head, suddenly elevated to genius level, has replaced Eddie as the interface for the Heart of Gold. And, given the imagery used to describe Left Brain's environment (Left Brain being the second head), I could not escape the visual of Futurama's head-in-a-jar.
Then there is Random Dent, Trillian and Arthur's teenaged daughter. I will freely admit to not reading the last two Hitchhiker's novels by Adams (I tried, but found them grossly unentertaining), so I will admit to knowing nothing about Random's character before going into this novel other than that she existed.
Random is the second biggest problem in this novel. After creating an alternate reality in which she grew up to become an apparently useful President of the Galaxy (and marrying what is, for all practical purposes, a telepathic hamster), Random emerges from her dream world to find herself a teen again. She then goes on to hold her parents resopnsible for all of their failings in her fictional world, making Trillian's life a living hell and reducing Trillian to an angsty, guilt-laden maternal cliché. Random is insufferable. Take every whiny, self-absorbed teen cliché and multiply it by the universe, and you will get the idea of how insufferable she is. I don't normally advocate violence but, seriously, someone needed to slap some sense into her at least once.
The biggest problem is the Guide itself. whereas Adams worked its information into the narrative flow with seemingly effortless grace, Colfer had chosen to completely (and frequently) halt the narrative to insert his Guide notes. At once point, during the climax, he writes that he will keep this particular interruption brief so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. This, to me, means he knows the interruptions are exactly that, which means he is also aware that they are probably annoying the readers. Not everything in the universe needs Guide entries, though Colfer seems to delight in throwing them at the reader.
The plot itself is adequate, though by no means exceptional, and Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged is an interesting addition to the cast. I would have liked to see more development of his relationship with Trillian, and more of him outside of his role as The Guy Who Insults Everyone. I mean, Trillian had to see something in him, right? As it stands, the entire romance is written up to a byproduct of accelerated hyperspace and, after some drama with Thor, everyone flies off into the sunset after an overly-prolonged series of goodbyes.
And Thor. Thor, Thor, Thor. Norse thunder gods shouldn’t be insecure, emo, mopey failed wannabe rockstars, mmm’kay. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. Because every time I think about it, my head starts to hurt just a little more.
Perhaps if the entries weren't quite so interruptive, so lengthy or a little more entertaining they would not have been such a nuisance. As things stand, I was barely skimming them by the second half of the novel, and skipping most of them entirely by the final 1/4.
Adams’s original trilogy is a masterpiece. I will admit that my hopes weren’t high going into this novel, though I was desperately hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I expected nothing more from Colfer than a pale imitation. Which is exactly what I received.