Resenhas - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

DTK 10/09/2021

Meia boca
Ainda que o estilo imprevisível e humor marcante da saga se mantenha ao longo do livro, a qualidade diminui de maneira considerável.
Passei boa parte me sentindo perdida na história dessa vez e a ausência do Marvin foi uma fonte de estresseee.
Enfim, espero que melhore no último

Rick 18/01/2020

Revolutionary.
I expected the book to be just like the two first ones. I thought that the book could not be worse than the previous one, and I'm so glad I was right about that. I expected many things from this book, but what I didn't expect was Douglas changing the genre. It is still sci-fi, and it is still, to some extent, comedy. But the drama and romance here were predominant and all I could think of while reading chapter by chapter was how brave Douglas was for taking such leap. I do believe he tried to something different (judging by his standards) in the third book, but failed somewhat miserably, and now seeing that he was able to deliver a piece of work divergent like this one really makes me wonder what else he was able to write, if given the possibility.

It's the best book of the franchise and is, and unfortunately to some more conservative readers, not even the spirit and soul of the story. I have no idea what to expect of the final turn of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but this that I just read, I like. The drawbacks, of changing so suddenly the genre, are not that bad. In fact, they even open up to more character development, and avoid fruitless side stories for other characters that are there simply to punch out, because they have nothing really to do. The centre of this book is Arthur Dent, this lovely girl called Fenchurch, and Ford, as a secondary character. We do see someone else from the original group a little bit later on but I'd rather not talk about that...

The story starts with Arthur and Ford (separately) going back and forth on the idea that the Earth was in fact not destroyed. Arthur then just lands there (without knowing) and starts seeing the patterns that make him feel like home. He then meets a girl who he feels is connected to, and he courts her. The thing about this is that they are indeed somehow connected (although the motives are not that clear, at least yet) and they date. Other things happen as well, as usual in a book, but what exactly happened is what I find so different about this book in comparison to the second and third ones. The things that happen (pretty much all of them, unless I missed any) are connected, they come together, as Sartre would point out, as for these stories essence precedes existence. There's no "side story", per se, there are foreshadowings. If anything, this was not a perfect book, far from that, but I just can't stop feeling that this book was so well done, and is definitely my favourite unless Mostly Harmless goes as well as this one and has a dignified closure, one I can be satisfied with, one I can just lie down and think "It's over, the story has finally come to an end." And as much as I love Douglas Adams and this franchise, I can't quite picture him being able to close this series with a book that will end it all. This forth book is more than I asked for. It's more than I thought I would need to crave for more. It is definitely a good reason to revisit the franchise when I'm older. It's a fun one and I'm hoping Douglas had as much fun writing it as I had reading it.

Final rating: 4.80.