Angry Hitchhiker’s fans don’t faze Eoin Colfer

Irish author Eoin Colfer isn’t worried about the wrath of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans angry about his new book, which continues the series originally created by British author Douglas Adams.

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.

In a new light-hearted interview conducted by fellow fantasy author Jeff Vandermeer, Colfer responds to a question about being hounded by angry fans by saying:

“The only reason I could think of for not writing this book was that there were possibly people who would not want me to do it, so I argued with them in my head for a few days and eventually they came around to my way of thinking … To be honest I didn’t realise how many potential spankers were out there and how vehement they were. Pray Jesus for decent reviews.”

In the interview Colfer says he didn’t have any fragments or notes from Adams to use as a starting point for And Another Thing, and although he was plagued with doubts after finishing it, he enjoyed writing the book greatly and it needed less editing than other work he had done.

Commentary
Reading Vandermeer’s hilarious interview with Colfer gave me a great deal of pleasure in and of itself. It really gave me quite a lot of confidence that Colfer has a sense of humour; he didn’t take many of the questions very seriously, and made constant jokes!

A lot of readers have reacted quite negatively to an early review that claimed And Another Thing … may not be that funny. However, if Colfer can bring the same humour to the book that he brought to this interview, I’m confident that it won’t actually be that bad.