Dining in Rochester

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Description

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons? Time for a cup of tea! Join the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his uncommon comrades in arms in their desperate search for a place to eat, as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbability.

Among Arthur’s motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a long-time friend and expert contributer to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMillan, a fellow Earth refugee who’s gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, the moody android. Their destination? The ultimate hot spot for an evening of apocalyptic entertainment and fine dining, where the food speaks for itself (literally).

Will they make it? The answer: hard to say. But bear in mind that The Hitchhiker’s Guide deleted the term “Future Perfect” from its pages, since it was discovered not to be!

Reviews

Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2010-07-30
Summary: "Enjoyable, but not so much as the first"

Like its predecessor, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Restaurant" is a very quick and easy read. Douglas Adams' writing style is light and entertaining, containing just enough words to let you know what's going on, rather than going on and on describing each and every detail. In this way, the story flows along quite nicely. However, I didn't find this book to be nearly as enjoyable as the first. While the characters are still the same as they ever were -- Arthur mostly clueless; Trillian very patient and caring; Zaphod arrogant and a little insane -- it just wasn't as comical as the first story. Don't get me wrong, the humor is still there. Ford Prefect's theories on humans still made me smile, and the chapter (which was just one page) on presidents and rulers struck me as so hilarious that I read it again. But, I didn't get that sense of random silliness with subtle social commentary that I got out of the first one. On another note, I do love Adams' creativity. When I read the phrase "at the end of the universe," I thought it meant in space, not time. How clever that it meant the end in time! Time travel is always a fascinating addition to any science fiction story. :)

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-06-03
Summary: "Poor Marvin"

I understand why my dear friend, Marvin is so depressed. No one cares about him! They forget him for millions of years or ask him to sacrifice himself for so they can live. It's all rather depressing. Being a robot is no reason to take him for granted. As he has clearly expressed, he has feelings too.

That said, I'm thrilled that I am a vegetarian. The idea of your dinner coming to talk you made me ill. I don't care if the meat wants to be cooked, it's just another example of humans trying not to feel guilty for torturing animals.

Rants aside, I am enjoying this series. Mr. Adams dry wit and humor continue to amaze me.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-05-18
Summary: "A brilliant zany sequel with plenty of laughs"

While the quality slips a bit from the first book to the second, this is still a delightful read that made me laugh many times. There isn't much of a story - the main characters go out to eat and travel through time and cruise around the galaxy and meet the dude who runs the Universe. A movie version would be terrible, as the story zooms around at a breakneck pace to nowhere and just stops on the last page, but it's beautiful as a book, where scene changes are just excuses to drop in a new set of jokes and wry observations about life. My favorite part of the book is the spaceship full of middle management types who aren't valued (rightfully so), so they're sent off to colonize a new planet, where they play pointless war games, do marketing research, and hold endless committee meetings. Along the way, one of them gets to subject two of the main characters to the most amazing interrogation ever. The rest of the book is good, but scenes with these characters bring everything to a new level of hilarity for me.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-03-21
Summary: "Review of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

I have absolutely nothing profound to say about this book. I don't even know why I liked it as much as I did (perhaps even more than Hitchhiker's Guide). I will tell you that I snorted, giggled, chortled, laughed and cried my way through it.

Thank goodness these are short books though - seriously. The weird factor in them gets a tad overwhelming at times and I have to put the book down and go do something else before my mind explodes.

And I swear I will never look at a steak the same way again.

I think, by far, my favorite character is Marvin. There is a scene in this novel where he faces off against a more powerful robot and it had me laughing so hard (in Starbucks of all places!) that I had tears rolling down my cheeks. For some reason the image, the voices - everything came to life in my imagination during that one scene and it was almost too much to handle. And yes, I do have a strange sense of humor.

Really fun book and I'm looking forward to the next.. but first I think I'll take a little break. Too much Adams and I'm afraid I'll spend the next week speaking to my table to see if I get a reaction from it.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-01-16
Summary: "Great book, buy a different print."

The hitchhikers trilogy is great, just read all of the other hundreds of reviews. I would just recommend getting The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (or the hardcover The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide Deluxe Edition ) it has all five books in one and an extra short story and cost much less than buying the books separately.