And Another Thing...

*And Another Thing...* is a novel written by Eoin Colfer. Released in 2009, it is the sixth book in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and tells of Arthur Dent returning to Earth (again).

## Characters

* Arthur Dent

rest to be added

## Publisher's summary

**AN ENGLISHMAN'S CONTINUING SEARCH THROUGH SPACE AND TIME FOR A DECENT CUP OF TEA...**

Arthur Dent's accidental association with that wholly remarkable book *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* has not been entirely without incident.

Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate.

Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up...again.

*And Another Thing*...is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.

## Summary

*And Another Thing...* begins directly at the end of *Mostly Harmless* with Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian, Tricia McMillan, and Random Dent standing in Club Beta on the alternate Earth which is about to be destroyed by the Grebulons under the influence of the Vogons. Following the mental cues of its secondary master, Random, the Guide Mark II traps Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Random in a simulated "construct" in which they can live whatever lives they wish while being contained in real life in the exact seconds in which the Earth is being destroyed.

Finally running out of power to maintain their illusions and place in time after what seems to them to be decades, the Guide Mk. II calls them all together, informs them of what happened, and they return to reality – and imminent death at the hands of the Grebulons. Tricia and later the Guide Mk. II are eliminated by the Grebulon death beams, a fate expected by the others, before the sudden appearance of the *Heart of Gold* and Zaphod Beeblebrox, whose motives for coming to Earth are explained later. Back aboard the ship, it is discovered that Zaphod's second head, Left Brain, is now detached and acting as ship's computer. In a logic debate over the improbability of the *Heart of Gold* saving Ford and Arthur from doom near Earth twice, Ford accidentally freezes Left Brain and thus stops the ship from saving them.

They are finally, though rudely to Zaphod, brought to safety by Wowbagger, The Infinitely Prolonged's equally sudden arrival, due to his ill-timed attempt to go and insult Earthlings. Angered by Wowbagger's insults, Zaphod promises to try and get Wowbagger killed, something he also desires very much. To try and accomplish this they set off in search of Thor, a class A god and an old acquaintance of Zaphod, and see if a being of that power is able to kill an immortal. Meanwhile, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz is satisfied to have finally destroyed all Earths from all points on the probability axis, but then is angered to hear rumours of a colony of Earthmen still alive near and created by the people of Magrathea, and sets off to destroy them. Arthur realises about the colony and attempts to try and get Wowbagger to head to stop the Vogons.

On the Earth colony, the deliberately overly Irish leader Hillman Hunter is seeking out applicants to be the new planet Nano's god, from Gaia to Cthulhu, in order to keep Hillman in charge due to divine providence. Meanwhile, Zaphod, having reached the godly planet of Asgard tries to reach Thor, instead, he is shot out of airlocks, taunted, and overall not that well treated by the gods. Meanwhile, Jeltz's son Constant Mown is having rather un-Vogon thoughts, actually wanting to save the humans. Wowbagger and Random get into an argument and she is eventually drugged and "tubed" by Wowbagger. Afterwards, Trillian and Wowbagger fight also but in the end. they share a kiss.

Random is less than impressed with her mother and Wowbagger's actions and bemoans them to Ford, who is spending his less than respected employer's money on many extravagant luxuries while drinking. After trying to reassure Random, she walks off thankful and sweet, only for Ford to find that it was a pretence to buy something using his limitless company credit card. Elsewhere on the ship, Arthur ponders with Wowbagger's ship computer, which for him has taken the form of the lost Fenchurch from his memories.

Meanwhile, back on Asgard, Zaphod completes two of the tasks assigned to him by the god Heimdall and is struggling to get away from the god's dragons. Attempting to bribe them he accidentally triggers the planet's defence systems which leads to missiles taking out some of the dragons and gives Zaphod a chance to run to complete his final challenge to scale a wall. Angered Heimdall rushes and grabs Zaphod by the throat just before he reaches the wall, but by evoking the god's secret name he learned from Thor, is able to gain access to the thunder god. After comforting the emotionally distraught Heimdall over his name and lot in life Zaphod sets off to have his beer with Thor. Zaphod makes his way through Valhalla meeting reanimated Norse and various other strange and magical things, before finally meeting Thor. After a tense meeting given the reason Zaphod and Thor were no longer friends, Zaphod is able to talk to his old godly acquaintance.

Things on Nano are not going as planned and Hillman is struggling to find his god to keep order, as well as trying to control the Megrathean's building the planet, and his own populace. The book goes into detail about Hillman having created a religion based on salvation from a coming apocalypse in order to get the money of rich people, only for the Grebulons to create such an apocalypse. Having received an offer from the otherworldly Zaphod, Hillman and his followers had actually gone to their now under construction haven of Nano (actually named after Hillman's favourite grandmother). The plan has proven less of a haven then intended with staff abandoning their former rich employers and groups of new rival religions, most importantly the Cheese worshipping Tyromancers, fighting Hillman's rule of Nano. During a battle of this civil war between the Nanites and the Tyromancers, the *Heart of Gold* and Thor suddenly arrive, waiting to make a video fight that will return Thor to stardom after an ill-advised video made by Zaphod years earlier.

The dark matter travel of Wowbagger's ship has many emotional effects on its travellers. Trillian and Wowbagger's new found affections, Arthur's contemplations with the Fenchurch computer, and Random's further fury. With these thoughts, they land on Nano and are meet by Hillman's Cheese worshipping enemies. Meanwhile, Zaphod negotiates Thor to be Nano's god and reveals that his troubles are caused by a version of himself from a parallel universe which Zaphod also sold Nano too. It was his attempt to do try this yet again that had lead Zaphod to Earth in time to save Arthur and the rest. With Wowbagger organized for show reasons to represent the Tyromancers and Thor representing Nano, not to mention their own conflicts over Wobagger having "stolen" Thor's long ship the *Tanngrisnir*, the two meet. However, Wowbagger now has something to live for.

The battle begins, with Thor trying his best to make a good show of it, only Wowbagger doesn't die when hit. Thor is concerned about how this will affect his comeback while Wowbagger does not know whether or not he wants to die anymore. Random's package arrives through interstellar freight, the rubber bands involved in Wowbagger's transformation to immortality – and the only thing it seems that can hurt him. Putting the bands on his hammer Mjöllnir, Thor strikes Wowbagger up into the air, causing Trillian to faint in panic. Arthur rehabilitates her, and feeling sympathy with her plight given his loss of Fenchurch confronts Random over what she had given to the god. After forcing the information out of her, Arthur approaches Zaphod and Thor. With Trillian's assistance, Thor is persuaded to let him live. For show Wowbagger denounces the Cheese he was supposed to be fighting for and thus returns stability to Nano with Thor as the one god. Thereafter Wowbagger, now a mortal and Trillian fly off together in his ship to enjoy the time they both have left.

Meanwhile, the Vogons are approaching. Following his contractual obligation to Nano, and to boost his ratings, Thor goes up and deflects the Vogon missiles. Meanwhile, much to Constant Mown's apprehension, Prostentic Jeltz orders the use of an experimental anti-god missile titled QUEST. Trying to deactivate the bomb Thor is apparently destroyed, and the people of Nano await death with Arthur, Ford, and Random wondering if this time the Vogons will actually destroy a planet with them on it. Springing into action on his developing moral doubts Mown takes out the Vogon gunner and uses the argument that their orders are to kill Earthlings and not Nanites, legally two distinct groups, to try and get Jeltz to turn around and head home. Jeltz agrees to his argument and is proud of his son's ability to follow law and bureaucracy, even though he would not approve of his true reasons if known. Zaphod and Hillman tell the people that Thor is Nano's martyr and that all commands he will issue shall henceforth come from Hillman, only for him to be sliced in two by a piece of bomb debris.

Luckily Hillman's death is short as the *Heart of Gold* medical bay restores him to full health, with only one minor change – the addition of hooves rather than feet. This has helped him win over the populace under his leadership coupled with Thor's martyrdom. Still, he is displeased once he finds himself swamped with civic paperwork. Zaphod sets off to work on his re-election campaign for the Galactic Presidency with Left Brain after saying goodbye to his semi-cousin, who has stayed behind to study and sample the best Nano has to offer – for the sake of hitchhikers reading the *Guide*. Up in space, a very much alive Thor is pleased to learn of his video rise back to fame, and the success of his "martyrdom" trick. QUEST, as it turns out, was just another scam of Zaphod's. Arthur and Random settle into their new lives on Nano, and Random becomes Hillman's new assistant to help handle the increasing paperwork and to kindle her own political ambitions that started with her life in the "construct."

Constant Mown meanwhile tries to assure himself that he did the right thing, after finally reaching this conclusion, his father calls in and proudly calls his son an "utter bastard." "Not yet" Mown decides, "not yet." Arthur soon grows weary of staying on Nano – despite his daughter's slightly improved temperament – and tries to convince Ford to go travelling with him just like in "the old days." Ford claims to be too busy with his "research" so Arthur goes alone in the guise of checking up on his daughter's chosen university. On the way through hyperspace, he is shocked to see a version of Fenchurch talking absently to him, moving onto a different anecdote she says "and another thing..." before a distraught Arthur finds himself dematerialising from the shuttle. Once, a reemerging Arthur is on an isolated beach – almost identical to the one he lived in inside the "construct" - only for him to discover that even here he has Vogon trouble. The book ends with some contemplation on Arthur's bad luck.

## Sources

* Goodreads
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Wiki