The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition

· Del Rey
4.6
629 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages

About this ebook

This beautifully illustrated edition of the New York Times bestselling classic celebrates the 42nd anniversary of the original publication—with all-new art by award-winning illustrator Chris Riddell.
 
SOON TO BE A HULU SERIES • “An astonishing comic writer.”—Neil Gaiman

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read


It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien.

After that, things get much, much worse.

With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover.

Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .

Ratings and reviews

4.6
629 reviews
Michael Anino
February 1, 2013
This book broke my mind when I first found it in Junior High. It was exactly what I needed. It's Sci-Fi and comedy mixed together and its still one if my favorite books all these years later.
2 people found this review helpful
Elizabeth Thelander
June 8, 2013
There is not much to say but "read it." It's beautiful and hilarious and thoughtful and fairly complex. Beats the movie by a mile, and I like the movie. (A benefit to having seen the movie already is envisioning the quirky Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent!) Just read it.
1 person found this review helpful
Matthew Brown
December 30, 2014
This book helped to shape my view of the world. It can serve as either a gateway drug into the world of classic sci-fi or an obsession in its own right, and is both hilarious and a true masterpiece.

About the author

Douglas Adams was born in 1952 and created all the various and contradictory manifestations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: radio, novels, TV, computer games, stage adaptations, comic book, and bath towel. He was born in Cambridge and lived with his wife and daughter in Islington, London, before moving to Santa Barbara, California, where he died suddenly in 2001.

Chris Riddell, the 2015–2017 UK Children’s Laureate, is an accomplished artist and the political cartoonist for the Observer. He has enjoyed great acclaim for his books for children. He has won a number of major prizes, including the 2001, 2004, and 2016 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals. His book Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse won the Costa Children’s Book Award 2014. Riddell has been honored with an OBE in recognition of his illustration and charity work. He lives in Brighton with his family.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.