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The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Library Binding
Published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 22, 2025
I'm very glad I read this book much later than the first one. The jokes and satire are funny enough but repetitive. I dont think it did as good a job as the first. I would say that it felt worthless to read as nothing really happens in this one that didn't happen in the first book. However, I think the purpose of these books is to show that all of life is meaningless so might as well do anything you want. Nonetheless, I think there are some important moral issues that get raised in my thoughts about some of the stuff written, but he can't hear my thoughts and I'll tell the people who might wonder about it sometime. Although, I dont think I'll keep reading anything in this series unless I just have the next book.
April 14, 2025
A wonderful return to the absurd. This time it includes time travel, drinks and the End of Everything.
Continuing on the ‘trail of improbability,’ from ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,’ Douglas Adams' sequel, ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe,’ rockets forward (and backwards and sideways) with more wonderful nonsense.
If the first book asked the question “what on Earth is going on?”, this one likely answers with another question that goes something like “why settle for Earth in the first place?”
The gang is back:
Zaphod is somehow even more useless than before, Ford Prefect remains the galaxy’s most usefully-useless field researcher, Marvin is still hilariously deeply depressed, Trillian keeps her head cool amidst all the madness and Arthur Dent continues to navigate the cosmos with the general confusion of a man who’s just realized his house and planet were bulldozed.
In this second book out of the series, Douglas Adams continues his signature of satire, science fiction, and utter chaos.
This one, just like the first one, doesn’t have a plot. Instead, it has a chain of increasingly absurd events, loosely connected by sarcasm, space travel, and the vague hope of a decent meal (and for Arthur, a good cup of tea).
And yet, throughout all the absurdity, there’s a strange sort of wisdom in it. Questions about free will, the nature of time, and the point of the universe itself are scattered throughout the book. Often easy to miss, yet occasionally as clear as day.
This is not a book for those who need closure, linear progression, or protagonists who actually know what they’re doing and where they are going. But for anyone happy to be tossed through time and space by a deeply British sense of humor, it’s a fantastic ride. The kind of sequel that doesn’t try to top the original but just tilts it at a different angle and adds some laser beams while it’s at it.
Continuing on the ‘trail of improbability,’ from ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,’ Douglas Adams' sequel, ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe,’ rockets forward (and backwards and sideways) with more wonderful nonsense.
If the first book asked the question “what on Earth is going on?”, this one likely answers with another question that goes something like “why settle for Earth in the first place?”
The gang is back:
Zaphod is somehow even more useless than before, Ford Prefect remains the galaxy’s most usefully-useless field researcher, Marvin is still hilariously deeply depressed, Trillian keeps her head cool amidst all the madness and Arthur Dent continues to navigate the cosmos with the general confusion of a man who’s just realized his house and planet were bulldozed.
In this second book out of the series, Douglas Adams continues his signature of satire, science fiction, and utter chaos.
This one, just like the first one, doesn’t have a plot. Instead, it has a chain of increasingly absurd events, loosely connected by sarcasm, space travel, and the vague hope of a decent meal (and for Arthur, a good cup of tea).
And yet, throughout all the absurdity, there’s a strange sort of wisdom in it. Questions about free will, the nature of time, and the point of the universe itself are scattered throughout the book. Often easy to miss, yet occasionally as clear as day.
This is not a book for those who need closure, linear progression, or protagonists who actually know what they’re doing and where they are going. But for anyone happy to be tossed through time and space by a deeply British sense of humor, it’s a fantastic ride. The kind of sequel that doesn’t try to top the original but just tilts it at a different angle and adds some laser beams while it’s at it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews