donn@utah-gr.UUCP (Donn Seeley) (11/22/84)
This book is billed as 'the fourth book in the HITCHHIKER'S trilogy', which tells you at once just how serious it is... I won't attempt to describe the book for someone who hasn't learned how to fly, or to mix a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, or to enjoy THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and other books by Douglas Adams, but I will drop the following tidbits for aficionados: Arthur Dent is back on Earth, where curiously no one seems to remember that the planet was destroyed to make way for a hyperspatial bypass, and even more surprisingly, he manages to fall in love. FISH feels weaker than the other books in the series because its sole plot device is to tie together three fairly trivial loose ends from the earlier story, but it is more satisfactory in its treatment of characters -- we get to see more of Arthur Dent than his years of existence as the ashtray of history. The book is every bit as funny as its predecessors: Adams' talent for irony is superior to every other sf writer I know except possibly Robert Sheckley. The obligatory quote: THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, in a moment of reasoned lucidity which is almost unique among its current tally of five million, nine hundred and seventy-three thousand, five hundred and nine pages, says of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation products that 'it is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all. 'In other words -- and this is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation's Galaxywide success is founded -- their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.' Don't forget to forget the bit about hitting the ground, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn PS -- Monty Python's THE MEANING OF LIFE is currently playing on cable; if you're an Adams trivia freak, watch the movie's title sequence very closely and you'll see something amusing.