Wednesday, March 11, 2009

"AND ANOTHER THING..."

While comic book and sci-fi fans can now debate the merits of The Watchmen movie now that it has been officially released, a new debate looms on the horizon.
Penguin Books, in cooperation with the estate of author Douglas Adams, has announced the release of an "authorized sequel" to the beloved Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series.
And Another Thing... written by Eoin Colfer, is being billed as Part Six of Three in the classic trilogy (Hitchhiker..., The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, and then Life, The Universe, and Everything; which were followed by So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish then Mostly Harmless; all written by Adams) and is scheduled for release this October to mark the 30th anniversary of the original release of the first book.
Now, as much as I would like to see this series continue forever (like a lot of material has since the passing of its creators), can anyone else write a Hitchhiker's novel? Douglas Adams certainly had an unique sense of humor, and I'm willing to give Colfer a fair chance; although in all honesty I will probably check this book out of the library first instead of buying it outright.
But while this may be considered by some to be "Part Six of Three", where does The Salmon Of Doubt fit into everything?
This posthumous collection of Adams material was released by his estate in 2001, cobbled together from the files within his computer collection. While the biggest piece within the book is an unfinished novel from Adams' Dirk Gently series that he was working on at the time of his death, on the cover of the initial release it says, and I quote, "Hitchhiking The Galaxy One Last Time".
Of course, for Hitchhiker completests, there is also the short story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe". Originally written by Adams to benefit the Comic Relief charity in England, the tale has been in included in some omnibus editions and paperback reprints since.
So I guess fans will just have to wait and see what there is to see. But in the meantime, I'm sure they will all be celebrating Towel Day May 25th, which is becoming an annual celebration amongst fans to commemorate Adams and his work.

And don't forget, August 2nd will be the first annual (Inter)national "Don't Worry" Day!

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