Jonathan Burton (1)

The amount of ideas presented in this book in no way reflect the total page count. Due to its relative shortness, it seems like a new idea is introduced on every page, and as such the reader feels very much like Arthur Dent: just along for the ride asking What?, saying I dont understand, and/or where's the tea?

My second time reading this, but first of this edition (the other being an omnibus of the five book trilogy and a short story), and i will say much of the story is remembered. Actually when the story or saga of all books is broken into each one individually, what happens is actually not that much (hidden in spoilers):

Arthur meets with Ford, his house gets knocked down, they hook a ride on the Vogon ship, but then get kicked out the airlock. Meanwhile, Zaphod steals the heart of gold, picks up Arthur and Ford on their way to Magrathea where Arthur is told the real history of the Earth, the others are split off, gassed, shown a catalog of planets, and then once back together with the mice, they all make a daring escape and end up getting some food at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe...

But like i said, so many ideas presented along the way, and all of the asides involving other cultures and consequences of actions across the galaxy etc make this book truly fantastic reading. As always, Marvin truly is depressing to the point where i dont really like his sections...guess he would accuse me of not caring about him either...oh well.

A note on this Folio Society edition: Bound in a metallic navy cloth with blue glitter on both boards. Silver foil stamped title on spine, Marvin the depressed robot and some stars and planet on the cover. Debossed around the stars and Marvin (falling thru space) are explosion lines. End papers are in a similar metallic navy paper. 8 total illustrations including a frontispiece depicting the Vogon ships over Arthur's house ruins. Very wide margins around the text, especially on the bottom of each page. Nice introduction by Terry Jones. And all of this in a slipcase wrapped in the same material as the end papers.… (mer)