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And Another Thing...
by Eoin Colfer
- Read by: Scott
- Date read: 2010-01-10
This radar plot is meant to give a graphical representation of the book in question. For a better idea of what each spoke means, see the table below. Also, keep in mind that higher numbers are not necessarily better. Depending on your taste, a 0 may be just as appealing as a 10 (or a 5, etc) in a particular category. (Click to close)
| Category | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maturity | 18+ | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
| Violence | Excessive Violence | Violent acts (no blood-gore) | No Violence | ||||||||
| Action | Constant Action | Even mix of action-drama | No Action | ||||||||
| Epic | Lord of the Rings Epic | Large scope, less detailed | Limited scope | ||||||||
| World | Completely unique | Half real/half unique | Set in our world | ||||||||
| Realism | Focus outside the realm of accepted science | Focus evenly split between explainable-unexplainable | Nothing unexplainable - not the focus | ||||||||
| Modernity | Present Day (or beyond) | 1980-1999 | 1960-1979 | 1930-1959 | 1870-1929 | 1800-1869 | 1700-1799 | 1400-1699 | 200-1399 | (1000)-199 | Ancient |
| Humor | Laugh out loud throughout | Funny (but not primary focus) | Intentionally not funny |
Arthur, Trillian, Random (Trillian’s daughter), and Ford Prefect are all back on Earth (at least, one Earth). Grebulons are about to destroy Earth in all dimensions simultaneously by order of the Vogons. Just before they are killed, Zaphod appears in the Heart of Gold and rescues the group. The Grebulon death rays trap the group, however, and just as they are about to be destroyed Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged shows up to tell Zaphod he is fat arsed. Zaphod is so offended he vows to get a god to kill Wowbagger, which so pleases him that he agrees to help everyone escape the Grebulon death rays.
Zaphod heads to Asgard to get Thor to kill Wowbagger. Meanwhile, it turns out that Zaphod brought a group of Earthlings to a planet called Nano. These Earthlings follow a fake religion created by Hillman Hunter. He is currently interviewing candidates to be the god of his new planet. The Vogons, realizing there are still Earthlings left, head there to finally eradicate all humans. Random orders rubber bands in order to help kill Wowbagger when he sees him kissing his mother. Trillian and Wowbagger fall in love.
On Asgard, Zaphod is able to convince Thor to kill Wowbagger. They arrive on Nano, and Thor attacks Wowbagger, but doesn’t do any damage. With Random’s rubber bands, however, he is able to hurt Wowbagger badly. Just then, Arthur realizes that if Wowbagger dies, Trillian would be upset, which would be bad for Random. He convinces Thor that mercy will look better to the universe than killing Wowbagger. Thor becomes the god of Nano just in time to stop the Vogon attack. He does so, but pretends to die in order to martyr himself. Trillian and Wowbagger leave on a honeymoon. Random, Ford, and Arthur stay on Nano, with Arthur and Random becoming citizens. Ford stays to do research for the guide.
Arthur leaves on a trip to research a potential school for Random, only to be accidentally transported to a beach. There, Vogons are trying to destroy a hut he was to live in
I really wanted to like And Another Thing…. I have such fond memories of reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in college, and I have loved everything else I’ve read by Eoin Colfer. I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I can’t say that this book lived up to my expectations. Sure, there were definitely some funny parts. (For example: “The stereotypical depiction of a sentient species under threat of destruction from a hovering alien spaceship usually sees them running around panic-stricken, clutching their most treasured household appliances close to their breasts and arranging their automobiles in neat jams on bridges” (250).) Ultimately, though, it just wasn’t very interesting.
First, I believe strongly that Colfer is an extremely talented author. Everything I have read by him so far (8 books in total - Artemis Fowl, Airman, and Half Moon Investigations) has been wonderful. With this belief combined with my experience of this book, I am forced to make some conjecture about why it isn’t good. Here’s what I have come up with.
(1) Colfer was trying too hard to capture Adams’s voice when writing this book. Instead of letting his own style and humor come through, he tried to be funny in the same way Adams was funny in the original 5 books. This is understandable considering he was adding to a series that was loved for a very peculiar sense of comedy and timing. Fans of the original would certainly expect something similar when picking up a sequel. For example he frequently used Adamsisms (Froody, pormwrangler, etc) to either force a joke, or draw a connection to the original books. It’s like he was saying “Hey, remember when you read this in the first book and it was hilarious? Yeah, that was great”.
(2) I don’t think I like these books anymore. As I was reading, wondering why I wasn’t enjoying this I started to remember more clearly what the original books were about. The more I thought about them, the more I began to realize that I don’t think I would find them funny anymore. I simply don’t think my sense of humor and my taste in books runs along these lines anymore. It’s sad, but ten years is a long time and I’m a very different person these days. So maybe this book isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be, and I’m just not in the audience anymore?
Sadly, I do not recommend And Another Thing…. What makes me even more sad, though, is I don’t think I can even recommend the original 5 part trilogy any longer. Oh well, that’s life, I guess. Or, as Adams would say, so long and thanks for the all laughs.
13 - It might be funnier to a 13 yr old?
No
Read ID (use for comment below): 40
