I like this series of books beyond any reason or justification so my review of this book probably isn't worth much.
I listened to the audiobook version this time, narrated by Martin Freeman. Of course, the fact that it wasn't narrated by Stephen Fry was a huge dissapointment during the first few chapters, but, a few pages in Freeman won me over. He might not have the aristocratic air of Fry, but he had the voice-acting down to perfection. This made the story really come to life for me, more so than the voice-acting of Stephen Fry (whose "Marvin" was pretty bad to be honest). ( )

Wasn't as good as the first but will continue listening to the series. ( )

“Se stamattina hai fatto sei cose impossibili, perché non concederti come settima una colazione da Milliways, il ristorante al termine dell'Universo?”

Sembra abbastanza allettante, no? Niente panico: grazie a una non ben precisata cosa (Ford Prefect era troppo ubriaco quando ha cercato di spiegarlo a Arthur Dent), non finirete insieme all'Universo. Fico, no?

Scherzi a parte, non credo di riuscire a scrivere qualcosa di molto intelligente che vi convincerà a leggere questo romanzo (e, perché no, tutta la trilogia in cinque parti). Sono troppo occupata a ridacchiare come una scema (o come Arthur e Ford davanti alla domanda formata dalle lettere dello Scarabeo) e a congratularmi con me stessa per essermi decisa a leggere l'opera di Adams.

È una trilogia in cinque parti così geniale e immensa che, se fosse una fetta di torta di mele, me la mangerei. Come ogni grande opera fantascientifica, ha previsto alcune future invenzioni (anche una che ci piace tanto: l'e-reader) e ha dato una risposta alla Grande Domanda, la Domanda Fondamentale sulla vita, l'Universo e tutto.

Fa pure ridere, che volete di più? Che abbia personaggi indimenticabili, dileggi teorie del complotto, sminuisca l'importanza di un pianetuncolo come la Terra (per non parlare dei suoi abitanti, poi), celebri l'importanza di riempirsi la pancia quando si ha fame e consigli di rivolgersi ai parenti solo in caso di estrema necessità, sopportando indefessamente ogni loro sproloquio? Tranquilli, c'è anche tutto questo. E molto altro ancora. ( )

Hilarious novel filled with tons of philosophy, space ships, time travel, the end of the universe and more!

A book that really makes you think just how small you are in this universe! A fun sequel, but still suffers from the unfortunate fact that Arthur Dent doesn’t really do anything as a main character. ( )

Ten noteworthy things about this book (other than Marvin, whose every utterance is pure gold):

1. Funny even on repeat reads/listens, because of the layers of humor
2. Satire on bureaucracies and bureaucratic personalities
3. Finds humor in existential and depressive crises (looking at you, Marvin)
4. Linkages between seemingly unrelated details (related: this story can be read as an ode to the butterfly effect)
5. How Douglas Adams manages to capture physical/slapstick humor with the written word (credit also goes to Martin Freeman in the audiobook version)
6. Such a satisfying ending!
7. A multidisciplinary work, in its allusions to foundational concepts of anthropology, sociology, evolution, mathematics...
8. The deliberate depiction of Arthur Dent as the most human of humans, an Average Joe with almost no distinguishing characteristics
9. The discussion of the paradox of who is fit to be a political leader versus who wants to become a political leader sums up my views on the topic perfectly
10. The book manages to perfectly capture human fickleness and fallibility without falling into cynicism ( )