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Priya posted an update in the group
Autostraddle Summer Book Club 2011 12 years, 2 months ago Last night I finished The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (160 pages). I won’t summarise the story as I think it’s pretty well known. I’m still working out what I thought about it – it was funny and imaginative, it was accessible to non-Sci-Fi fans (I like sci-fi but I’m saying this as I know some might be put off by that element – it is more a humorous book than sci-fi) and it was enjoyable.
But, I don’t know, I wanted something more. I don’t know what though or how to articulate what I felt was missing. I’m sure I’ll carry on with the trilogy in between other books.
Actually thinking about it now, I think what I felt it lacked was emotion between the characters and their surroundings. There was a lot of frenetic energy when the characters seems to be in peril but aside from that it just seemed to be skipping from one disaster to another. And that’s great because the story is all about them making their way through the universe but some of my favourite bits were Arthur and Ford talking to one another or Marvin making bleak observations. I like books which have a lot of character interaction and are about feelings – maybe I just like books which have characters who are a bit more interospective, I don’t know.
Like I say, I will continue with The Restaurant At The End of the Universe and see how the characters and their stories progress and I’m sure much more emerges about all of them.
In other books I started Landing last night, am hoping to finish Sugar Rush tonight and continuing on with Ours Are The Streets.
I felt like there was something missing from the Hitchhiker’s Guide too, but I think I accepted it as funny enough to make up for a less character-driven plot. If you want funny not-so-sci-fi with more character development, you should read some Terry Pratchett if you haven’t already. My only complaint about his books is not knowing in which order to read them, but I definitely recommend them anyway.
I can see how Douglas Adams probably inspired books like Good Omens. Also there was a hint of Jim Butcher (I’ve only read Storm Front but for some reason it popped to might reading H2G2).
As for Pratchett’s books, I’ve not read many but I did like Masquerade which was a riff on Phantom of the Opera. Do you have any in particular you’d recommend?
I liked Nightwatch and The Fifth Elephant a lot, and they sort of addressed my problem with Pratchett by being about the same core group of characters. I’ve also read Thief of Time, which was good but at times I struggled to stay interested. I liked Death a lot in Thief of Time and that might be a good way of thinking about it — read the ones that have characters you like. Here’s a list of the books with the main character in brackets: http://stason.org/TULARC/education-books/sci-fi-sf-written/19-Terry-Pratchett-s-Discworld-books-In-what-order-shou.html
There are lists of the books online that suggest orders to read them in (like the above link) but I liked them without worrying about it too much. It’s only after you’ve read a few and you want to know more that you start thinking, ”What happens to Sam next?” or whatever. :)
Thanks for the advice, I’ll definitely look into more Pratchett books in future :)
Speaking of Sam, the books about the City Watch (starting with Guards! Guards! I think) are a pretty good place to start.
So is Monstrous Regiment, if you were ever into the type of books where girls dress up as boys to go into the army or have adventures or whatever and then kick ass.
Have put Monstrous Regiment on my ‘to read’ list, thanks!
I loved Hitchiker’s Guide so much when I first read it!
Are you in the Hitchhiker’s Guide group here on ASS?
I’m not but I’ll definitely check it out as I carry on with the rest of the trilogy :)