Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

The fifth part of the "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series. 20 years on, the Guide falls into the hands of Arthur Dent's daughter, Random, whose mother, unexpectedly to all concerned, is Trillian. Random journeys to an insignificant planet, whose entry in the Guide reads "mostly harmless".

That took a weird turn in the end...

Incredibly slow for the first half but eventually picks up and then finishes quite abruptly. Some funny and clever stuff but not on par with the earlier books in the trilogy, imo.

A rather unpleasant way to end the series, particularly spoiled by the presence of the surprise daughter; the stereotypical selfish, needy tween girl (which is a solid way to ruin any form of media).

Of all the books in the Hitchhiker's series, this one seems the darkest. There is a weird cynicism presented throughout which says, yes terrible things are happening in the universe and only the main characters seem to care. In this particular case, it's the wild and crazy Ford Prefect.

I might have forgotten about this book deliberately and pretended the series ended with Life, the Universe, and Everything if only because that would wrap up things for Arthur nicely, taking him from passive tourist to active participant in saving the galaxy.

Still, I like this book. Adams can't really write a bad one; all the humor and bizarre story stuff is there. The bits with Arthur and his daughter are interesting, though I have a lot of questions about the character motivation on Trillian's part that never get resolved. Selfishly having a daughter with Arthur's DNA and without his permission, then sticking the responsibility on him seems out of character, but then we never learned much about her anyway. We get more here, with the story of her life in an alternate reality where she does not go off with Zaphod.

If you're a die hard fan, it's an entertaining book to read. If you're casually interested in the old Hitchhiker's phenomenon, this one's skippable.