Review: And Another Thing...

And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Nothing couldn’t be and if it shouldn’t be then it generally was."

This was fun. It's not perfect, but all I wanted was to spend a bit more time with the gang and that's what we get. Practically everyone is in it, including one of my favourites Bowerick Wowbagger and in a bit of a weird move to perhaps drag in some Dirk Gently connectivity, we also get some Thor action based on Asgard.

"The Vogons were not bad people as such. It was true to say that nobody liked them, and that their inter-personal skills didn’t extend much beyond trying not to spit on the person they were talking to, but they weren’t bad. That is, they would not blast your planet into atoms without the proper paperwork. With the proper paperwork, however, they would travel to the end of the Universe, and to as many parallel ones as necessary, to see the job done."

Discovering that the humans still persist, some fastidious Vogons set out to finish the job that they thought they had dealt with five whole books ago. Zaphod and Wowbagger have a falling out and Thor gets involved. The Heart of Gold with its improbability drive is now being controlled by Zaphod's spare head, Left Brain.

After we find out that Zaphod is now sporting a single head on his ex-presidential shoulders, Colfer explains that he had had two heads the last time we saw him. You know, there are some details that a 'Hitchhiker's' fan may not recall but the number of Zaphod's heads is probably not one of those things.

"Ford cradled Arthur’s cheeks in his palms. ‘Life is about moments, Arthur,’ he said seriously. ‘That’s the secret. Moments are longer than you think. If you add up all the good moments, then, you know – it’s, like, ages."

I have reread part or all of the series about once per year since first reading it nearly a decade ago. I listen to the audiobooks narrated by the author and nothing can compare to that experience, so even though I enjoyed this I'm not sure if it will make it to regular reread status. Probably not to be honest. Having the text to speech engine on my ebook reader "narrate" this book is never going to have the same effect. However I'm really glad that I finally gave this a go.

"did you see the list of submissions?’ He pulled a sheet from his cork board. ‘Oak Tree Rise. Aunty JoJo, the world’s greatest aunt. Frank. The planet Frank! Come on, kiddo."

Now, come on Colfer... ain't nothing wrong with a "Planet Frank" pal.

Lastly, you're not going to get everything you expect out of this story, so don't expect all of that. I think a reasonable effort has been made to keep the same spirit and feeling of the adventure alive. It ain't perfect but it is a fun one.

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