Boekverslag : Douglas Adams - The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 744 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 744 woorden.
Titel
The Restaurant at the end of the universe
Auteur
Douglas Adams
Published
First published in: 1980
This edition published in: 1995
Title explaination
The story is pretty much about the same things as the first part: About the insignificance and insanity of many of the things we do, about the bizarrity of the universe and everything in it and about not taking life too seriously.
Structure
The edition I am reading is part of a collection called The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: a Trilogy in five parts. It contains five books, the second of which I will be doing this reading report on. The book was 156 pages.
Setting
The setting is in outer space and science-fiction like, with time and space travel and all that.
Main characters and their relation to each other
Arthur Dent is one of the main characters, he is a simple human from earth, he has a friend, Ford Prefect, who is an alien from Betelgeuse, he is an editor for the Guide. There is Trillian, an Earth woman, and marvin the Paranoid Android, he is a chronically depressed robot. And finally there is Zaphod Beeblebrox, a friend from Ford's youth, who is also an alien from Betelgeuse. Zaphod is also the president of the universe and he has two heads. The last three persons were the complete crew of the Heart of Gold until Ford and Arthur joined them in the first part.
Main characters in detail
Arthur has somewhat developed since the first part of the `trilogy' and is now more involved in what happens around him, but still he doesn't get much of what's going on. He is a calm Englishman and is not very much exited by the space travel and all that, he would rather go home and sip his tea.
Ford on the other hand, a good friend of Arthur's is a busy guy, always talking and meddling in everybody's business. But he is smart too and he knows a lot about space travel, being an editor for the Guide and all. In contrary to Arthur he likes space travel, especially because he had been stuck on Earth for fifteen years because there were no rides to hitch.
Theme
The story is pretty much about the same things as the first part: About the insignificance and insanity of many of the things we do, about the bizarrity of the universe and everything in it and about not taking life too seriously.
Short summary
The story begins when Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin have just escaped from the planet Magrathea in The Heart of Gold. They are then suddenly attacked by the Vogons and Zaphod sets up a sceance to ask his great-grandfather if he will help them, and he does. Zaphod and Marvin are teleported to Ursa Minor Beta, home of the Htich Hiker's Guide to the Universe, but Trillian, Arthur and Ford are still in The Heart of Gold. Zaphod is captured by the inhabitants of the Frogstar planet and he is thrown in some torturing device which has no effect on him so he escapes. He finds the Heart of Gold back and together with Arthur, Ford and Trillian they are off to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. There they have a bite and steal some rockstar's stunt-ship from the Garage where they also find Marvin. Unfortunately the ship is set for a course in a sun, so they teleport out, but the teleporter malfunctions dropping Arthur and Ford back in time on some strange ship and Trillian and Zaphod back on the Heart of Gold, Marvin had to operate the contols, so he smashes into the sun. The ship Ford an Arthur landed on contains insane people in deep sleep. The ship crashes on prehistoric earth and the insane people wake up and replace the natural inhabitants so they become the forefathers of all humans. Here the story ends.
Opinion
I liked
-the incredibly good humor of the writer
-the insane devices and gadgets that are mentioned (like the total perspective vortex)
-the way Arthur never understands
-the always busy Ford
-the ever depressed Marvin
-the queer ways of Zaphod
I disliked
-the end of the story (nothing really happens)
-that Arthur is so little part of the story (he is merely tagging along with the rest, it would be nicer if had a more active role.)
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