***** - Excellent
**** - Good
*** - Okay
** - Bad
* - Terrible
+ - Half-star
The Learned Art of Witches & Wizards
Anton and Mina Adams
Barnes & Noble Books
Nonfiction
***
DESCRIPTION: Perhaps no belief system on earth has as varied and muddied a history as witchcraft. Varied, as the term covers similar ideas
from all over the world. Muddied, as millennia of persecution and lies have led to a distorted and often downright inaccurate public opinion of
witches and wizards. This book tries to set the record straight, with an overview of the practice of witchcraft, historic cultures and noteworthy
figures, and modern-day rituals and rites of this much-maligned belief system.
REVIEW: Though this book contains plenty of information, much of it is vague. I wanted more detailed discussions of some of the subjects, incidents, and people
mentioned. Still, it is a decent sourcebook for the true history - or as true as can be known - on the many belief systems classified as witchcraft. Aspiring
witches or wizards, curious outsiders, or those who (like me) intend to use a similar magic/worship system in future writing attempts should find something of value
here. I just wish the authors had gone into more depth on several points mentioned.
You might also enjoy:
The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Spells & Magic (The Diagram Group, Nonfiction - An overview of magic traditions)
The Giant Book of Magic (Cassandra Eason, Nonfiction - World magical practices and their use today)
The Complete Book of Amulets and Talismans (Migene González-Wippler, Nonfiction - Creating magickal objects)
Eyewitness Books: Witches and Magic Makers (Douglas Hill, YA Nonfiction - A visual reference of magicians and their tools from around the world)
The Book of Alchemy (Francis Melville, Nonfiction - An overview of alchemical principles and practice)
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The Salmon of Doubt
Douglas Adams
Harmony Books
Nonfiction
*****
DESCRIPTION: Douglas Adams, best known for his popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy sci-fi comedy series, died suddenly in the spring of 2001.
He left behind a wife, a child, legions of stunned fans and colleagues, and a number of articles, interviews, and items salvaged from his computers by a
longtime friend. This compilation gathers various writings, published and unpublished, by the late and still lamented author, plus interviews, a few letters,
and other notes. Also included are chapters from the last book he was actively working on, a Dirk Gently novel that seemed, according to his last interviews,
to have elements that wanted to be in a sixth Hitchhiker book instead.
REVIEW: As this book eloquently points out, there was a lot more to Douglas Adams than sci-fi.
He was quite learned in a number of subjects from music to computers, an educated atheist who saw both the profoundness and absurdity of human nature, and an
active voice for environmental issues. He was also a legendary procrastinator and energetic, witty person, one of those truly original personalities whose
place will never be filled. I found this compilation quite enjoyable, if somewhat sad, as it always is learning about such people after they've gone. That's
the peculiar magic of books; when you read them, the voices of the dead come back to life. I haven't read his Dirk Gently books, so I can't say much about the
unfinished chapters except to say that they seemed like typical Adams fare, full of peculiar characters and peculiar humor. This book confirms a suspicion of mine
that the last Hitchhiker book was written during a dark period of his life. I suppose it could be considered a final joke on the part of Fate that Adams, the
ultimate procrastinator, died in his prime before he could write the many books waiting in queue, let alone a more upbeat conclusion for the series about Life, the
Universe, and Everything which he will forever be associated with. In any event, as I read this right after finishing The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (having been
depressed for a full day after the sucker-punch downer of an ending), I may have subconsciously given this the extra star that Ultimate lost by a coin toss.
Maybe it was because this had the odd effect of cheering me up a bit, ridiculous as that sounds. Even then, it's an entertaining, informative, and diverse collection
of writings by an author who didn't get to write nearly as many things as he should have. Dang it...
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The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Books 1 - 5)
Douglas Adams
Wings Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***
DESCRIPTION: On an insignificant planet in an insignificant corner of the Galaxy lives Arthur Dent, a decent sort of fellow who, like most other decent fellows
on Earth and especially in England, is less concerned with the possibility of alien life and the deeper meaning of the Universe and more concerned with local matters,
such as the bypass slated to go through his house. His impending homelessness seems laughably trivial when he discovers that a longtime friend is really a hitchhiking
alien, and Earth itself is about to be demolished by the sluglike Vogons for a hyperspace expressway.
Ford Prefect, originally from a planet near Betelgeuse, came to Earth as part of his job as researcher for the Galaxy's most widely-read reference book, "The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy," only to be stranded for 15 years because outbound flying saucers have been very difficult to come by. When he finally gets a lift on one of the Vogon
ships that destroys Earth, he takes his still-stunned human friend Arthur along with him. Together, they endure Vogon poetry and ejection into outer space, are improbably
rescued by the Galaxy's first Infinite Improbability Drive-powered starship, meet the two-headed fugitive President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox and his human girlfriend
Trillian (an English astrophysicist he picked up at a party), deal with the depressed moods of Marvin the Paranoid Android, discover a mythical planet and the secret of the
Earth's origins, ponder the long-sought Question to the perplexing Answer to Everything, travel to the ends of time, save the Universe a time or two, and generally keep
themselves relatively sane (or insane, as circumstances demand) amid the endless flood of large and small incidents that make the Galaxy go 'round.
This was originally published as five books:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Arthur and Ford escape Earth's destruction and learn of the planet's unusual origins while traveling with Zaphod and
Trillian aboard the prototype Infinite Improbability ship Heart of Gold.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Traveling to various ends of time, Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian continue their improbable adventures and seek the
Question to Everything and the mysterious Ruler of the Universe.
Life, the Universe, and Everything: An ancient evil is poised to be released upon the Galaxy, as the xenophobic residents of the exiled planet Krikkit seek to
escape into normal time again. Somehow, Arthur and company must help stop them from achieving their dream of obliterating the rest of the Universe.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: Earth, or a version of it, somehow has reappeared. Arthur tries to go back to his old life, but questions remain: Where
did this Earth come from? What happened to the old one? And where are all the dolphins?
Mostly Harmless: After long searching and much disappointment, Arthur has at last found a place in the Galaxy as a revered Sandwich Maker on a backwater
planet... until a rebellious teenaged daughter he never knew he had is dropped on his doorstep.
Also included is the bonus short story Young Zaphod Plays It Safe, about one of Zaphod's early salvage missions.
REVIEW: I've been meaning to read the Hitchhiker series for a long time, and the recent movie release prompted me to finally do it; this collection seemed the best
(and most economical) way to read the whole thing at once. To be fair, I once saw the BBC TV series which covered the first two books, so I had a rough idea of what to expect.
It started out funny in that way oddly unique, in my experience, to British writers, simultaneously absurd and insightful, the characters having just enough integrity to hold
their molecules together in the inherently insane Universe they were written to inhabit. I quite enjoyed the early journeys of Dent, Ford, and company. By the fourth book
(So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish), the silly tangents started to wear a little thin, as did the listless plotlines and the overall quality, but the humor carried
things along well enough. By the end of the last book (Mostly Harmless), I wondered if the late Adams had grown sick of the whole thing, from characters to concept to
the writing game in general, delivering the punchline to the ultimate joke of the series in a way that felt as if he had reached out of the story and slapped me across the face.
One thing I cannot abide from any author is betrayal. To define, "betrayal" as used here isn't a beloved character dying or a not-entirely-happy ending. Betrayal means tripping
the plot up with spiteful events that destroy its rhythm and throw the preceding story (and the reader's emotional investment in said story) into the trash, existing because
the author felt like jerking the reader around and/or just plain no longer gave a rat's rear about the book. Yes, I know it was just a silly series when all is said and done,
the ending a final dismissive shrug on the part of the Universe which was, in retrospect, foreshadowed from the first book. Yes, I know it's ridiculous to be upset about
occurrences in a book of any kind, that attaching any sense of realism to fictional creations is the result of having an excesively impressionable imagination. And, yes, I
know Adams may have been planning a sixth book before his untimely death, so it's possible that that last book wasn't really how he wanted to end things but was just a victim
of cruelly indifferent Fate, much like Adams himself. (I also know this review may be deemed tacky, speaking ill of the dead and all.) I still don't like being betrayed by a
story. It depresses me. Entering a state of palpable depression is not why I read any book, let alone a humorous series. Considering how the last book tainted my perception of
the preceding material, and how I'm sitting here still saddened by that sucker punch of a last chapter, I don't know if I can give The Ultimate Hitchhiker an accurate
rating - that is, a rating equivalent to what I would've given the series had I read the books individually. Perhaps it was, as I initially felt, a rather witty series, well
deserving its reputation as one of sci-fi's most beloved works, and it was only writer burnout or other factors that made the last parts so disappointing. Then again, perhaps
that smack-in-the-face finale (if finale it was, and sadly we'll never know for certain) really was the intention all along, turning most of the preceding material into so
much rotten red herring. In deference to the fatalistic and irreverent nature of the Hitchhiker series, I ultimately flipped a coin to determine the rating. (Tails, for the
curious. Heads would've been 4 stars. Not that it means anything.)
UPDATE - How times have changed... Evidently, I wasn't the only one completely dismayed at the way this series ended. Bestselling author Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl series,
among others) has been commissioned to write the official sixth book in the "trilogy," slated for release in late 2009. Yes, I've read it. Read the review
here.
You might also enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker, Fiction - "The Company" uses immortal cyborgs to manipulate human history for future profit)
Galaxy Quest (Terry Bisson, Fiction - The washed-up cast of a cheesy old sci-fi series meets aliens who think it was all real)
The Vlad Taltos series (Stephen Brust, Fiction - Sharp wit characterizes these tales an assassin and his dragonlike familiar)
Eoin Colfer's books (Eoin Colfer, Fiction - Witty sci-fi and fantasy)
Help is On the Way: A Basic Instructions collection (Scott Meyer, Comics - Witty observational humor)
Heroics for Beginners and The Unhandsome Prince (John Moore, Fiction - Humorous fantasy that mocks genre stereotypes)
The Red Dwarf books (Grant Naylor, Fiction - A Liverpudlian loser aboard a Space Corps mining ship becomes the last human alive after a radiation leak traps him in stasis for three million years)
Close Encounters of the Worst Kind: A Brewster Rockit collection (Tim Rickard, Comics - Clueless captain Brewster Rockit and his dysfunctional crew run the orbital space station R. U. Sirius)
The Android's Dream (John Scalzi, Fiction - The fate of Earth rests on finding a rare breed of sheep for an alien coronation ceremony)
Forever After (Roger Zelazny, creator, Fiction - After defeating the evil wizard, heroes must return magical artifacts to their original hiding places or risk unleashing chaos)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Widescreen Edition)
(2005 movie DVD)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(1982 BBC version DVD)
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