Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker Trilogy.

[Jack Parker]

That is one of my favorite trilogies with five books that I have ever read.

 

[Harpo]

I heard the first broadcast of the radio series too - although I stupidly chose to miss the actual first episode because of something-else-that-was-forgettable. Then I got the records & books, and then watched the TV series. Disaster Area released a single of "Only The End Of The World Again", which I also had.

 

[The Judge]

book 2 ain't bad, but the slide did begin imo from the third one.

Yep, that was my thought, too. I only had the trilogy of four, but after "Fish" I'm not interested in finding number five.

 

[JoanDrake]

The thing I liked about Adams was how he just boiled and bubbled over with so many good ideas and how he would frequently use very original concepts which other authors could easily make a whole book out of for just a throwaway gag. The only other guy I ever saw do that was Jack Vance, who would put an idea worthy of several volumes into one of his mysterious chapter intros and then never mention it again.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Vance and Adams had a lot in common, I think, with Vance heading off into surreality and Adams into absurdism. More similarities than differences perhaps.

 

[Harpo]

Just watched the film on BBC2 - lots of original lines stayed in, but whyohwhyohwhy did Hollywoodism get its claws into it?

 

[hitmouse]

Its not a bad film. To be fair, the radio, book, and the original TV all had significant plot deviations from each other, fully sanctioned by Adams. I think he was happy to play around with his stories. I am not sure how much input he had into the final film.

I read the Eoin Coifer Hitchhiker book. OK but not great. Happy to stick with the first 2. I bought the original HHGTTG paperback in Smiths in Winchester in the late 1970s, and the books and radio series are inextricably linked in my mind with childhood in that period.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Terrible, terrible film. I watched 45 seconds of it over the weekend before feeling the urge to throw a heavy book at the telly. Switched over to QI.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

For me the radio show is the best I made the mistake of listening to it before reading the books which paled in comparison for me. I read a similar veined self published book Smith by Mike Devlin which, for me, made a better novel in someways.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've just read the first book and felt that it's effect on me was somewhat diminished due to my over familiarity with the story that I've encountered in other forms.

I'm not sure whether I'll read on with the series but at least the rest should be less familiar to me and so may well be worth doing...

 

[Harpo]

Another radio series is coming
Original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cast to reunite for new series

 

[Vladd67]

I saw that, but I will be interested to see just how they can continue given how the last series ended.

 

[Vince W]

Obviously I will be listening in on this, but like @Vladd67 I'm not sure how they will move on.

 

[hitmouse]

Unfortunatel Peter Jones (The Book ) died a few years ago. Stephen Fry was a reasonable substitute in the film, but not quite the same as the original from teh TV and radio series.

 

[Alan Aspie]

It isn't actually a trilogy, as there are 5 books in the pack.

Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy is a four part trilogy that contains five books.

That is totally logical.