The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

By: Douglas Adams

Narrated by: Stephen Fry

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.") and a galaxy full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!

Listen to the rest of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy."

Want to learn more about the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie? Listen to this interview with Robbie Stamp, close friend of Douglas Adams and executive producer of the film.

©1980 Serious Productions Ltd (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

lovely

it's possible i could listen to stephen fry read the phone book and be pleased, but this is such a wonderful book as well. wickedly funny and imaginative.

Such a classic

Still an awesome, funny, all time classic. Well read by an easy to understand british gentleman. Awesome quality, great story. Very easy to visualize from the way it's read.

I have read 3 versions of the book, seen the original BBC mini series, the newer movie, and heard several radio broadcast versions and this is definetly one of the better ones. Well worth anyone's time and money whether it's your first time hearing this story or your 100th. It's funny, intriguing, unique, and just an all-time SciFi classic.

Truly enjoyable from start to finish.

Hitched a fun ride to the 70's

I'm no fan of science fiction but this book is a classic; it is hilarious in its absurdity. If you enjoy the humor of Monty Phyton, you'll love this book. And such a great reader! The intonation and British accent is a perfect match. Loved it, loved it...

Warning: Fun Adventure Ahead

But make sure you bring an open and creative mind. Everything seems believable but nothing seems plausible.

Being a self-professed geek, I'm not sure what took me so long to get around this classic sci-fi adventure. I LOVED this story! Douglas Adams is a genious who concocts a brilliantly goofy scifi tale.

The story is about two men, the first an alien who travels through the universe to write articles for the Hitchhiker's Guide and the second an earthling who gets whisked away on this journey. The fun is seeing how these very different personalities deal with seemingly random, coincidental scenarios.

Douglas Adam weaves a tale of silly events, connecting together unlikely things to bring to the reader a very fanciful and enjoyable story. I'm looking forward to the second book!

Love this book

I have read this series twice, had to get the audio when I saw Stephen Fry was narrator. Third time is a total charm, what a great person to have read this book.

spectacular with a very minor timing issue

Love the story, love Steven fries performance, but I was thrown off by a couple of the chapters ending with no more than a quarter of a second delay before announcing the next chapter. so some chapters ended as if the last word of the last sentence was the next chapter number. but that is a very minor editing issue regarding timing, everything else is wonderful and definitely worth revisiting in audiobook form.

Don't Panic

As good as all the hype. The jokes are better fleshed out than the radio shows. So much goodness.

hard to follow.

everything is slightly above average but the whimsical nature of the side logs quickly become hard to follow.

Really imaginative read

If you like Dr Who, you will probably enjoy this book. I may wait to download book two, but will absolutely do so.

Tons of fun before abrupt ending

Very fun listen even if you've read the book and/or seen the movie. Narration is perfect and my only complaint is how the original publishers chose to chop a complete story into three books.