From: abw@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Andy Wardley)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: MOSTLY HARMLESS - review
Date: 9 Sep 92 08:52:37 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: International Computers Limited


Having been supplied with a pre-release bound but uncorrected version
of "Mostly Harmless" by fantasticly great (she told me to say that) 
girlfriend of yours truly who was in due course, wined and dined in
great style and at massive personal expense to myself (but it was
worth it), I settled down to the task of reading it.

Now that I have, I thought I might tell you what I thought of it.....

Do you really want to know?????

Well, Ok then, but watch out for spoilers in the latter part....I'll mark
them well.....

I have to say if I'm being totally honest, it wasn't REALLY great.  It was
sort of OK-ish heading towards good.  I mean I have only read it once (at
least 5 reads are required of any DA book to fully appreciate the nuances
IMHO) so I've probably missed a lot, but I didn't really find myself
laughing out loud all the way through like I did with the first two books.

It was up to the standard of LTUAE and SLATFATF which IMHO are not as good
as THHGTTG and TRATEOTU but not much more really.  Seeing as there has
been so much anticipation about the book and so long in the writing, I
was expected something _TRULY_GREAT_ so I was a bit disappointed. :-(

However, it was good to read the "Fifth in an increasingly innaccurately
named trilogy", to catch up on what's been going down with all our
fave characters and generally to amuse myself in a way which doesn't
need wipped cream.

So here goes.... I'll answer some of the question/rumours/speculations that
I've seen about the book and give a *SIMPLE* run down of the plot.  I'll
try not to spoil too much....

********** SPOILERS AHOY **********

"Arthur has a daughter" - True.  Random Dent appears midway through the
book and promptly causes the sort of trouble that our intrepid hero spends
most of his time trying to avoid.

"Fenchurch is not the mother" - True.  As it happens Fenny isn't in the book
at all.  It appears she disappeared one day during a Hyperspace jump never
to be seen again.  It happens quite often to carbon-based life-forms from
the Plural sectors.  Bit of a blow really.  Poor Art.

"So who is the mother" - Well actually it's Trillian.  "But", I hear you
cry, "When did Arthur, in a nutshell, fuck her?".  Well he didn't.  
Arthur, to raise a bit of money on the side, started donated skin scrapings,
toe-nails etc to various DNA banks.  When he found out that a single sperm
donation would net him anough dosh for a space flight anywhere, he made his
deposit, so to speak.  Trillian meanwhile, feeling the maternal instinct
but not having anyone to hand, goes to the DNA bank and gets the only 
sperm donation from a carbon-based lifeform in the bank.  Yep, Dent's
deposit.

"So how does it tie in with the previous books" - Erm, I'm not quite sure.
No really I'm not.  The thing is (the theme of the book perhaps) that 
there is a lot of talk on parallel universes and stuff so at differing
points thorughout the book there is a Trillian and a Tricia McMillan
who was the Trillian that went to fetch her handbag at an Islington
party and returned to find that the two-headed guy from a different planet
had already left.  There are various universes where earth has been 
destroyed and those where it hasn't.  And so on.  And so not.  I dunno
if it was an intentional step, but it has sort of given DA the chance
to create any story and not have to worry too much about how it fits in
with previous books.  I am not looking forward to the next six
months of "Yes, but 6*9 *DOES* equal 42 in a parallel universe" threads
in this group :-)  However, there are some really cute tie-ins with the
previous books and it all fits together pretty well.  When I've read
it a few more times, I may understand what's going on where more fully.


"So what happens?" - Well, to be brief.....Arthur settles down on a quiet,
rural planet where old Thrashbarg, the local prophet inspires the
inhabitants with a fear of "BOB".  He becomes the sandwich maker.
Ford goes to HHGTTG head offices and finds  that things are not as they
seem.  There is a new guide which can transcend parallel universes.
He steals it.  More accurately, he mails it to himself c/o Arthur.
Trillian, having had Random who is now 14 because of the incongruities
of hyperspace and time travel, decides that Arthur should live up to
his responsibilities and dumps Random on him.  Random throws sharps
stones at him.  

***** It's big spoilers now so be warned ****

Ford comes to pick up the guide and Random steals his ship.  They chase
her and all end up on Earth (Arthur, Random, Ford, Trillian and Tricia
McMillan).  Then the climax happens.......

But I'm not going to tell you.  Read the book.

If you hassle me enough, I'll divulge the ending, but you might as well
wait and read the book.


Well that was a bit of a whirlwind tour of the book.  There is a lot more
in it, some of which I haven't even begun to understand yet - Remember
the first time you read Teatime?  Did you understand it all?  If you 
did then you're a better man/woman/small furry creature from Alpha 
Centuri that I.

If there's anything else you want to know, feel free to ask, but I'm 
leaving this hallowed place of employment this Friday so make it quick.
I'll be back on the net towards the end of September from a *different*
address and look forward to seeing y'all then.


Cheers
Andy
-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
 , '   Standard disclaimer available on request                Andy Wardley
-o O-                                                   abw@oasis.icl.co.uk
  l                                                     
  _    "Luke, you've turned off your targeting computer.  Are you drunk?"
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams