An early review of part of the Eoin Colfer-penned sequel to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy series has panned the book as not being very funny.
Prolific British writer and comedian Adams tragically passed away in 2001 at he age of 49, leaving behind five immensely popular Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books (and a variety of other works in different media) that have kept readers laughing for many years.
However, on 17 September 2008, publisher Penguin announced it would publish a new book in the series, authorised by Adams’ widow Jane Belson and written by Colfer, author of the best-selling Artemis Fowl novels. The book, entitled “And Another Thing …” is scheduled to be published in October this year. But is it funny?
“If you read Hitchhiker to have a good laugh, maybe you’re going to be disappointed,” wrote Nicolas Botti, on his Douglas Adams fan site earlier this month. “I didn’t find it very funny. There are some good funny moments (mainly at the beginning) but Colfer’s ideas being less original than Douglas’, you are less surprised. And he has not the same grip on comic timing than Douglas had.”
The fact that Colfer was writing a sequel to the famous series has always been controversial, ever since it was first announced, with many fans seeing it as trampling over Adams’ grave.
“Sure … why not. Why bother letting a CLASSIC piece of work stand on it’s own merit when there are dollars to be made for retailers … what a joke. I hope these folks are haunted by Douglas Adams,” wrote one fan on the Sci Fi Wire website of US science fiction TV channel SyFy in March this year, when the cover to And Another Thing … was first published.
Wrote another:
“Better called Eoin Colfer’s So Long, and Thanks for All the Cash. Next up: Slaughterhouse-Six; Catch-23; George Orwell’s 1985; and The Lord of the Rings 2: Pippin Longstocking. “
But other fans, especially those who have read some of Colfer’s other works, appear to believe that the book will be a hit and true to Adams’ memory, due to the Artemis Fowl author having his own brand of humour that will fit well in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Universe.
In the original press release when the new book was announced, Colfer said being given the chance to write the book, was like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice. “For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world. It is a gift from the gods. So, thank you Thor and Odin,” he said.
Then there is also the fact that Adams reportedly said before his death that he himself would like to continue writing in the HHGTTG universe: “I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book … I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.”
Commentary
Science fiction and fantasy writers tend to write long series that sometimes are not finished when they meet their end tragically early. The classic example is, of course, Robert Jordan, who passed away without finishing his masterpiece series The Wheel of Time.
In the modern era, there is often much demand for the book “brands” that they started to continue on, especially if there are significant plot or character elements that are left unresolved, and thus, fans left unsatisfied.
However, as I have previously noted, to continue and try and “finish” a dead author’s work is a path trod with peril. In some cases, as would so far appear to be the case with The Wheel of Time (but only a few people can say this for certain just yet), another author can be sourced who can at least flesh out and give words to the final vision of the original author, and thus give their work and their fans some closure.
However, the danger lies in trying to go past the original author’s vision, as is believed to be the case with the new Dune books as published by the original author Frank Herbert’s son, Brian Herbert, and prolific science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson. Doing so risks alienating much of the original author’s fan base, even if the new books do succeed commercially, sometimes with a wider audience.
Where will the new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Book sit? I would bet somewhere in between. As Botti writes:
“I don’t want to give the feeling that it is a bad book. It is not. But maybe I was expecting too much. And let’s keep in mind the fact that it is just the first half of the book with all the transitional bits that were needed (this book has been written in a way that you could read it without reading the other books first — there’s a resume of the previous book at the beginning — but I really, really hope that new readers will read the other books first, or at least afterwards). I don’t feel in anyway that it’s a shame, or an insult to Douglas Adams’ memory; it’s a nice fan fiction. Take it or leave it, but if you like Hitchhiker, give it a chance.”
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HUH! who the heck is Eoin anyway? a-biscuit!
Umm, comments like that only serve to display your ignorance. At least go and google the name before you voice your opinion.
His Wikipedia page says he is a biscuit. At least it will when I change it.
but will he be a biscuit which thinks “oh no! not again!” ?
Well, in the case of Robert Jordan, he knew he was dieing, and arranged to outline the remains of the story he had set out to tell, and pass it on with the intent of it being finished.
That is a whole different thing then someone coming up fresh and deciding to do their own follow-on with their own sensabilities.
Yes, and I think the “classic” example would be Frank Herbert and the Dune series.
Hoo-boy.
Really ?
You wanna expound on that idea ?
I am obliged to applaud this type of mature and relevant comment.
A path fraught with peril? Judging by the 494 pieces of Hitchhiker homage on fanfiction.net, it seems a lot of people have managed to traverse it.
The problematic thing with this is that it’s a very peculiar beast: *authorised* fanfic, and not authorised by the original author but by the deceased author’s estate. It gets this status not because Colfer has any especial access to the genius of Adams’s style, but because of a conviction of our lawmakers that copyright is not only a public good, but so good that dead writers’ estates should possess it, and have the power to annoint a successor, while other people’s fanfic remains on a sometimes legally shaky footing. So what makes this piece of fanfic different from those 494 others isn’t so much that there’s anything special about Colfer, accomplished writer though he may be in his own right. It’s a legal distinction more than an artistic one; and that, I suspect, is why this sort of situation is apt to create animosity: Colfer can no more create series canon than anyone else now alive, and yet he gets the pedestal and some of the royalties.
perhaps Copyright should, in the case of a decedent, extend only to extant works? ..as any subsequent creative works are not at all of their doing – being dead being a serious impediment to the decedent’s creative output?
It didn’t seem to bother Hotblack…
Seriously, why didn’t they just clone Adams and get him to finish his own work?
If the stories about Adams’ work habits are true, that might be easier than actually getting the original to finish his work.
perhaps not a clone, but just another Adams in another parallel reality… maybe we could get the Krikkit ‘bots to drag him from this other reality and have him write some more books…
My legacy has been raped for cash.
Mine as well.
(Damned Gravatars! :D )
Nice effort (read: money grabbing), but trying to write like Douglas Adams is like singing like Freddie Mercury. Don’t. You’ll make a fool out of yourself. Douglas Adams was a genius and no one can top him.
Aaaaaactually, George Michael did a pretty good job of aping him.
George Michael wrote a Guide sequel? Holy hell, that man can do ANYTHING!
I would say that Mika did as well. When I first heard him I thought they found some strange studio recording somewhere.
PJ O’Rourke manages to write similarly to Hunter S. Thompson
Douglas Adams managed to write in a similar fashion as Tom Stoppard
Gyorgy Dalos wrote a sequel to *1984* called *1985* already.
As indeed did Anthony Burgess.
It’s easy to become overly nostalgic about these things but even Douglas Adams was hit and miss with the original HHGTTG books. When he was going through a particularly rough patch in his life, it was reflected in his books and they weren’t funny. They began taking themselves too seriously. Douglas had pretty much destroyed the franchise by the time of his death and the movie did nothing to revive it.
I say let this guy have his chance.
I agree. Reading the Hitchhikers books again recently, the greatest pleasure I got from them was being reminded how much I loved them in my teens. They are, as Adams himself said, “just jokes” and in the third, fourth and fifth volumes, the jokes aren’t all that great. Adams’ best books were Last Chance to See…, Dirk Gently 1 and The Meaning of Liff.
Ditto Wuahn.
Anyone who followed Adams closely knows that he couldn’t give a luxury bath towel what we do. He’s not here. What’s he gonna care? Worm food people.
As long as we do it from an honest place (one where we’re making people laugh, not where we’re just making money – FWIW, I think Colfer is doing just that.), I don’t see a problem with it. It’s not like someone’s ghost writing a long forgotten manuscript & trying to pass it off as Adams’.
I think the original HHGTTG works stand on their own. What harm can come from someone drawing inspiration from them & expressing accordingly? And all the better someone sanctioned to do so by his widow/estate? None as far as I can tell.
As always IMHO,
Sid.
The original was the radio play. That stands the test of time a lot better than his books. I’m only familiar with them because my brother used to read excerpts — the funny bits — so I don’t know any of the crap bits.
Umm, Catch 22 HAS a sequel, it’s called “Closing Time” and Heller wrote it in 1994.
As others have said, Adams’ work on Hitchhiker was uneven at times, despite his obvious genius. I haven’t read the books in years, but I do recall being put off somewhere in the middle (with the Fenchurch character I believe). Mostly Harmless was a great reprieve until the very end, which incited real anger in myself and friends I’ve discussed the book with. Speaking for myself, I’d love to see where a new author takes up the concepts Adams originated, with the understanding that I probably won’t see the same mastery at work in the new sequels.
I think defining Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers works as “funny sci-fi” is clearly missing the mark of his genius. The genius of his books is Accessible Philosophy, not slapstick humor. So accessible, in fact, that most don’t notice the large philosophical framework that surrounds the series or the cutting Oscar Wilde-esque satire intended to point out mankind’s typical obliviousness to it.
Every aspect of the series, from the falling whale, to the returned meal in the italian bistro, to the quest for the The Question, to the ever expanding and collapsing edge of the universe is meant to emphasize that life is a Journey.
And the cast of obtuse characters caught up in their everyday lives points out how so many of us just don’t get it.
This Eoin Colfer, seemingly cash-motivated sequel, will live or die on its grasp of the underlying philosophies of the series as well as its inventive delivery.
It’s almost ironic that his estate mimics the characters he mocked in his series, when perhaps what they should be saying to Douglass Adams is, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
it should have stayed firmly on the backwater pages of fanfic sites, so other lonely malcontent social outcasts could read and awe.
In their mothers’ basements, no doubt. If you’re going to indulge a negative stereotype, go all the way, I say.
Uh, the orginals weren’t that funny either– if you were an adult.
dick!
I think Adams, as a strong evolutionist, would not have any problem with any of this. Here’s why.
If you don’t want to support this, don’t buy the book.
If the books aren’t any good, others will pass the word, and no one will buy the book, and Eoin’s -alleged- financially biased motivation will be thwarted.
If the books, however, are very good, others will pass the word, people will buy the book and be entertained, and Douglas Adams’ intentions (to entertain) will be maintained.
Either way, the situation will handle itself. No need to go nuts.
“If you don’t want to support this, don’t buy the book.”
I’ve heard that one before :)
Eoin Colfer was said to be ‘disappointed’ by the book’s reception and was just about to embark on a reading of his 6-book epic ‘Artemis Fowl’ series, when his own major intestine… etc etc ;)
I just thought I’d come back so I could be the 42nd post.
I applaud your effort Phil :)
Heh. Nice one… took me a second, but I laughed.
So what if he is cash motivated? So were the makers of that awful movie. I for one will wait for the soft cover, and then purely for the nostalgia, will give it a read.
Heard Mr. Adams speak once, and have visited his grave, I prefer to think this new book, is a homage to the man and his work.
well its kinda hard to make a new book with almost all the charcters dead and all. the plural anomaly wrapped it self up earth is gone so is trillian arthur ford and random ….. so is this going to be zaphods big performance?
“Colfer´s sequel is of course the third worse in the Universe…” Douglas Adams (in memoriam)
“It is like Arthur without Dent.” Arthur Dent
“This guy, Colfer, is NOT a frúd!” Ford Prefect
“Colfer can be one of us…” Prostetnik Vogon Jeltz
What a crock of shit. Enough with the remakes and reboots for less intelligent generation. If the work is intelligent, it might just help to increase ones IQ. At the very least teach some dumdums a few new words for their vocabulary. So long Colfer, and thanks for all the shit.