The first thing Arthur Dent does in the morning is brush his teeth. The next thing he does is lie in front of a bulldozer. His actions have nothing at all to do with the rest of the story. When miserable aliens destroy Earth to make a hyperspace bypass, Dent is introduced to aliens, space, the President of the Galaxy, poetry, super-computers, probability, mice, the truth about humanity and the Earth, and the infamous Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. With a cast of characters ranging from nonsensical to totally absurd, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy asks the question "what if the universe had been created by a somewhat scientifically literate comedy troupe?" Apparently the question was so good that they made four sequels, all of which rely heavily on your knowledge of the original. Science-fiction often falls into one of two categories: the wonder of exploration and discovery, or the absurdity of how it would probably turn out. Star Wars and Halo fit into the former category. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels fall into the latter. With little bits of real science surrounded by absurd comedy and nonsensical notions, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy captures the feelings of suddenly being thrust into the laughably absurd unknown.
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