16 June 2009

REVIEW | The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Promo Book for And Another Thing (Hyperion)

I picked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on my BEA jaunt. I 've actually been meaning to get this for awhile. It only took 3 requests including one from ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, the Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Appreciation Society to finally get me to do it. When an appreciation society comes a knocking you better answer lest you have the whole society gunning for you. I honestly had no idea there was a society dedicated to Hitchhiker, but I wasn't too surprised as it is a series certainly worthy of one and as we all know those Brits were crazy enough to produce Douglas Adams. This is more of a description than a review since this is a hard to find book and there is honestly not much to review. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was described to me by the publisher as the DVD extras of the series. I was a little disheartened when she told me as I was hoping for a sample copy of And Another Thing or at least a chap book, but alas Hyperion is trying to keep a tight lid on the contents. Basically The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a promo piece to get bookstores and other accounts who don't know much about the series to update themselves. It also acts as a reminder about the series itself as it has been more than a decade and a half since the last book in the series came out. It's very slim 64-page small hardcover book printed in 2 colors (black & red) without a jacket as the cover is printed textbook style with the type done in spot gloss. The format is quite whimsical since the text is a bit scant. Pages 1-16 is a nice synopsis of the series by Eoin Colfer titled So Far As We Know. The next section gives four pages over to each book, which consists of one page for the title of the book, one page for a paragraph description, and two pages each with a quote from each book. The third section is a glossary of characters, devices, and important facts. The last section titled A Brief History of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 4 page description of the impact and products involved with the series. My guess to some of the material will start of And Another Thing and some will be used in the back such as the glossary. I can't really give something like this a rating, but I can tell you I am glad to add it to my collection just because I am something of a completest and this is certainly a collectible. I doubt there are 5,000 copies of it in print. Probably a lot less than that given even big publishers print less than that for galleys and promo pieces. This will sit proudly next to my Subterranean Press limited edition novellas.

3 comments:

  1. I will most definitely begin searching this book out. It sounds mightily interesting. Still not sold on Colfer doing the next Guide though. Oh well, I'll still read it.

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  2. I have one I could sell make me an offer!
    omegadrone@gmail.com

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  3. I have a mint copy, make an offer via eBay store name: whatawhale

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