The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is quite entirely the most interesting, simple-complexity I have ever read. It is Sci-fi, after a fashion, but not in any serious sense; only in that it takes place in space with aliens and androids, however putting that aside ... it transcends catagories.

It is, in fact, a collection of five novels by Douglas Adams; a series with titles such as: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Young Zaphod Plays it safe. It follows the adventures of: Arthur Dent, the last of two living earthlings; Trillion, the other earthling; Ford Prefect, an researcher from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the fugitive, ex-president of the Galactic Council; and Max, the Paranoid Android.

To begin, I haven't finished the series which leaves me in a particularly interesting place of being able to start off a good description of the book without worrying about giving away the end.

Arthur Dent wakes one morning to find that a demolition crew is waiting outside of his house to tear it down to build a freeway bypass. In protest Arthur lies infront of the bulldozers to stop them. He is distracted from his mission by his friend Ford Prefect, who is in a concerned disaray. Ford manages to catch a ride on a spaceship that is part of the demolition crew that destroys earth to make an intergallactic bypass.

Meanwhile, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillion steal the "Heart of Gold", the most advanced spaceship built on the new "probability drive". This mechanism works on the basis that nothing is impossible, only improbable. However, Zaphod doesn't know why he wants to steal the ship.

Through several mishaps, and unprobable coincidences, the characters meet up and begin a bizarre journey through space and time.

This work is marvelously worded. Goofy, with a taste of psuedo science, enough sarcasm and wit to feed an army, and some social commentary to boot. It is a quick and long read: quick because it is easy and fun, long because it is ... well ... long. The only caveat I have is to warn you that Douglas Adams is a staunch atheist, and that peeks its way through now and again. However, all in all it is a magnificent read if you are looking for something fun, a little goofy, and that is thouroughly unimportant.