Time Recursion

And now it’s time for a classic in the science fiction related novels. The Hitchhiker’s Guide is in it’s essence a science fiction comedy, a parody on humanity and our way of living. It represents our eternal struggle to understand and comprehend everything, but at the same time it shows that while we try to reach things that are beyond our power, we forget about what we can, or could improve.

The series is a “trilogy”, which consists of five books, named: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, “Life, the Universe and Everything”, “So long, and Thanks for All the Fish” and “Mostly Harmless”. In September 2008, a sixth book was announced to be written by Eoin Colfer and bearing the title “And Another thing…”. The release is scheduled for 30th of October this year.

The story, written by Douglas Adams, starts with the contractors arriving at Arthur Dent’s house to demolish it and making way for a bypass. Only a few moments later Vogon space ships arrive, to demolish Earth and making way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur’s friend Ford Prefect, who turns out to be an alien from a distant planet somewhere near Betelgeuse, manages to hitch a lift for Arthur and himself on one of the Vogons ships, just in time before the Earth is destroyed. There, when the Vogons discover them, they are tortured with Vogon’s poetry, which happens to be the third worst in the known Universe, before they’re thrown into space through an airlock. At that time, they are, very improbably, picked up by a ship named Hearth of Gold, which is powered by an infinite improbability drive and was stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox, the President of the Glaxy, who is on the quest to find the planet of Magrathea. And this is when their voyage, full of improbabilities and odd events begins. It puts them on a quest to find the Ultimate answer to Life the Universe and Everything, which turns out to be 42. And since they find this answer unsatisfactory, they are thrown on the pursuit of the Question to the ultimate answer, to finally comprehend its true meaning.