Between seeing The Princess and the Frog (love it, see it) and dinner the other day I had a bit of time to kill, so wandered over to the local book store. The “Everything 40% Off” signs intrigued me, and while I was sad to discover they’re going out of business (not at all surprised, however; they’re located in the local mall, which has been slowly dying for years) I did come across a curious tome: And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer. The thing that jumped out at me as curious wasn’t the title (though the bright neon sign it is displayed in on the front is eye catching, upheld by a viking ship sailing through the outer cosmos as it is) nor the author (whom I’d never heard of), but this bit at the top:

Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Part Six of Three

This struck me as particularly odd. Any good Hitchhiker fan knows the H2G2 is a five-part trilogy, so stumbling across a part six, written by someone whose name isn’t even an anagram of Douglas Adams, was more than a little strange. At 40% off, though, I couldn’t very well pass up the apparent next installment in one of my favorite series of books.

After getting home I discovered that Colfer has done much of his own work, none of which I’m particularly interested in for the moment, but also that Adams’ widow gave Colfer her blessing in penning a sixth installment (something Adams himself had planned on doing before his untimely death).

So far I’ve read the introduction and first chapter. Colfer does an admirable job of mimicking Adams’s style, though it must be said that, at least this far in, there’s something notably missing from the prose. Everything is there, but it doesn’t mesh quite as well as Adams himself might’ve made it mesh. It also doesn’t help that, as of the end of the first chapter, very little has been explained. It’s easy enough to understand what’s going on, but not exactly how, or why, or to what end.

It has me intrigued though. Mostly Harmless (the book preceding this one) was an incredibly bleak ending to the series, so the chance to revisit things and see what happens after that is welcome. And to Colfer’s credit the introduction, which roughly summarizes the events of the last five books in about three pages, does a great job as an introduction to the sixth book. The Guide Notes interjections are also a nice touch in the way they’re integrated into the text but blocked off instead of being buried in footnotes.

Here’s hoping our froody travelers get a happier ending this time around, and that Colfer can do justice to Adams’ works.