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The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
1996 · 815 pages · Science fiction
How it reads
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is science fiction (comic science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is funny. The humour is the point, not garnish. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.
It's set in an invented world, in no single period, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are nature and identity. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.
It opens a series. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 815 pages it's a real commitment. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something funny
- you want a book that pulls you through
- you want an escape
Maybe not if…
- you need something melancholy, dark or tense
- you want dense, lingering prose
- you want something you can finish this weekend
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- fictional world
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- funny
- Pace
- fast paced
- Tone / weight
- light and escapist
- Length
- long
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- nature, identity
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective AgencyDouglas AdamsShares: science fiction, funny mood, light and escapist tone, ambiguous ending- MetaTom ReynoldsShares: science fiction, funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
Myth-Taken IdentityRobert Lynn AsprinShares: funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced, set in an invented world
The Palace Job (Rogues of the Republic)Patrick WeekesShares: funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced, set in an invented world- Off to Be the WizardScott MeyerShares: funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced, set in an invented world
He Who Fights with MonstersShirtaloonShares: science fiction, light and escapist tone, fast paced, set in an invented world
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