Hold on to Your Towels...!

Maccabee · Post by **Maccabee** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 2:58 am

Isn't he a little homeostatically challenged to be writing?If they get someone like Terry Jones to finish it it ought to be fine. Jones has the right kind of sense of humor and has worked with Douglas Adams before. Him I'd trust.Maccabee"It's rather like being drunk."
"What's wrong with being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water."

Bevan · Post by **Bevan** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 3:04 am

And the only main character who survived the last book was Zaphod Beeblebrox. Unless it makes use of alternative realities, or is something like a prequel.

Roscoe · Post by **Roscoe** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 3:33 am

And Arthur had a girlfriend at the end of the fourth book, from an Earth that had mysteriously not been destroyed.This is Douglas Adams, master of incontinuity.------------------
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Bevan · Post by **Bevan** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 3:50 am

In Mostly Harmless, they mention that people from her reality vanish when taken to a new reality, and neither Arthur nor she knew that when they traveled to a new reality. And thus she vanished.So there is continuity, albeit a very bizarre one.

Pennyangelos · Post by **Pennyangelos** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 3:59 am

Bu-but! Everything blew up! It was done! Finished! Perfect! Arthur was at peace!I hope Mister Adams would want it this way, but frankly I'm skeptical.*Penny

T Campbell · Post by **T Campbell** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 7:40 am

Apparently, the book was fairly near to completion when Mr. Adams passed away. I confess, the ending to MOSTLY HARMLESS was such an incredible downer, I'd be willing to see any kind of resurrection...

ThePsiCop · Post by **ThePsiCop** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 8:20 am

Yeah, it was mostly written already and is now being edited from files on his computer.It will be titled "A Salmon of a Doubt"Hmm... though I didn't like the last two books as much as the first two, I'm pretty excited about this new one. I hope it'll be pretty cool

Quinch · Post by **Quinch** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 9:46 am

I must admit, when I first read it {via Usenet, I think}, I half-expected it to be some sort of hoax a la "Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Afterlife" but this.... well, I am rather eager to see how it turns out.BTW, who here liked the last two books as much as the original "trilogy"? I mean, most people I've met who dislike them is because the mood in the SLATFATF and MH was so much darker than the previous books, even though they were just as well written {if not better} as the rest...------------------
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Doublespeak · Post by **Doublespeak** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 9:49 am

I wonder if they will write out the ending based on his notes, or, which I prefer, simply include the notes after the fully written material runs out.Hope he kept thorough notes.

Red Viking · Post by **Red Viking** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 9:57 am

What is the answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything?Homemade apple pie...

FrustratedPilot · Post by **FrustratedPilot** » Mon Nov 19, 2001 12:54 pm

I just read on Yahoo! that the sixth book of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Trilogy is on its way to publication.

Shatteredtower · Post by **Shatteredtower** » Tue Nov 20, 2001 2:55 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by T Campbell:
Apparently, the book was fairly near to completion when Mr. Adams passed away. I confess, the ending to MOSTLY HARMLESS was such an incredible downer, I'd be willing to see any kind of resurrection...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Whereas I was hoping he'd done it to put the whole thing to rest, not getting trapped with it like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes or Ian Fleming with James Bond.I mean, he wrote a satisfactory ending with "Life, the Universe, and Everything," but there was pressure to continue. So he gave a more "happily ever after" ending with the next book, but that only caused an increased demand for another one.(It's almost like doubling your prices, then tripling them, and finding that they still come for your wares, I guess.)I really felt that the last book was done to put an end to things - not just by wrapping the series up, but by souring a number of people to the series. At least, that was my experience. And I was satisfied with that. As several writers have mentioned, the trouble with most stories is that if you continue them long enough, they have to end with death.I am disappointed to hear that the series could not be laid to rest by now, but that is not my decision to make. I only hope it had been Mr. Adams' decision to continue.

Khavren · Post by **Khavren** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 8:59 am

Of course it wasn't that's why they had to kidnap him and fake his death, now he like so many other famous authors are trapped in dingy roadside motels being forced to create at gunpoint! You don't think Peir's Anthony Wants to keep writing Xanth do you.....?Make too many posts on usenet and the same thing will happen to you, when's the last time you heard of the Wizard of Speed and Time?

Vitriol · Post by **Vitriol** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 2:57 am

*** POSSIBLE SPOILER FOR MOSTLY HARMLESS***Maybe its just my memory failing to kick in properly (I haven't read Mostly Harmless since it first came out), but wasn't the whole point of the ending the fact that every reality, everywhere, was totally destroyed, so there could be no more hitchhiker books, ever?Course it could be a prequel.[This message has been edited by Vitriol (edited 11-25-2001).]

Aris Katsaris · Post by **Aris Katsaris** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 5:09 am

***SPOILERS FOR MOSTLY HARMLESS*** <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Vitriol:
*** POSSIBLE SPOILER FOR MOSTLY HARMLESS***Maybe its just my memory failing to kick in properly (I haven't read Mostly Harmless since it first came out), but wasn't the whole point of the ending the fact that every reality, everywhere, was totally destroyed, so there could be no more hitchhiker books, ever?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Every *Earth* in every reality, yeah, I think... And every human also, or atleast that seems to be the point of most of the elaborate machinations in the book...And then in the very same book, Douglas Adams throws that idea away, by having Elvis still be alive (as the last human being?) in some planet somewhere... <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">

Doublespeak · Post by **Doublespeak** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 12:08 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Khavren:
Of course it wasn't that's why they had to kidnap him and fake his death, now he like so many other famous authors are trapped in dingy roadside motels being forced to create at gunpoint! You don't think Peir's Anthony Wants to keep writing Xanth do you.....?Make too many posts on usenet and the same thing will happen to you, when's the last time you heard of the Wizard of Speed and Time?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Piers: "Oh god..sob..sob...please no..no more panty freak out scenes. Please!"MAN 1: "Well, you see Mr. Anthony, I am fine with that, but your fans, your fans like panty scenes Mr. Anthony."MAN 2: "They love them."MAN 1: "They LOVE them. Now you can either give the fans *pushes a gun into the back of Pier's skull* what they love. Or we can think of some more puns. Would you like that? To write two full pages of brand new puns?"Piers: *sobbing*MAN 1: "*shrugs* Ok. Text book, a book made.."Piers:" NO! no, ok, panty scene, ok *types*"MAN 2: "Hehe freak out."

Leela · Post by **Leela** » Mon Nov 26, 2001 1:02 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Pirate Dave:
I actually like to pretend that Mostly Harmless never existed and that So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish is the last book in the series.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Same here. If I ever read the series again (probably when the 6th comes out), I'm just going to skip Mostly Harmless. So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish is the much happier ending. (and I liked its adherence to the principle I call "even the losers get lucky sometimes"...you can probably guess what that means).

Maccabee · Post by **Maccabee** » Mon Nov 26, 2001 1:29 am

Welcome aboard, Leela! Love the handle, by the way. I've been a Doctor Who fan practically since birth.Welcome also to Vitriol, assuming no one else has gotten it in another thread. Come to think of it, even if they have there's no law against multiple welcomes. So, "Welcome!" I say, and be damned to the rest of the universe! <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/biggrin ... Maccabee------------------
Risus est telum ultimum contra tyrranem. Nullus dictator exercitibus allibus ridiculem vulgi longe resistare potest.[This message has been edited by Maccabee (edited 11-26-2001).]

Vitriol · Post by **Vitriol** » Mon Nov 26, 2001 3:03 am

Unfortunately, the series does have a tendancy to go downhill. The original radio show is still probably the funniest of all his works (though the second show was pretty awful, and never got made into a book).

Kris · Post by **Kris** » Mon Nov 26, 2001 5:24 am

My wife has a leather bound copy of the fist four books in the trilogy. (Gee that looks weird in type, anywho...) Included is prolly one of my favorite bits, other than the radio shows. A short story called Young Zaphod Plays It Safe. Good stuff, but I have to agree with the majority of people here. I really wasn't thrilled with Mostly Harmless. Now, the Dirk Gently books, sheer brilliance!Kris
Who's D&D3E characters even carry a towel, just incase...