Friday, September 26, 2008

Colfer Does Adams

I must confess that I'm a huge Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan. I don't think I've ever mentioned to you that I remember the days when it was a radio programme, well before the book came out. Tuning in to the BBC after lunch was a Sunday ritual, and I remember holding my breath (at least metaphorically) when we were promised the answer "to life, the universe, and everything" which turned out in the next episode, of course, to be ... 42.

The TV series, the films, in my opinion never really cut it. The real delight of the book and its sequels is in
... Adams's mordant voice, and in his torrential flow of comic and science-fictional ideas
as Peter Robins says in the Telegraph's Paper Tiger blog.

One wonders therefore how Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer will fare, comissioned to write a sixth book in the series. Robins reckons :
He's a pro of the sort Adams delightfully wasn't, an extremely skilled constructor of thrilling plots. He's quite capable of turning the universe
inside out, but he wouldn't generally do it for the sake of a one-liner. ... Still, elderly science fiction fans should be careful about heaping scorn on him. His Artemis Fowl children's books - Artemis is an underage master-criminal - are a hoot, and they mix fantasy, SF and humour in a way recognisably descended from Adams's work (they also appear to have outsold him). It's encouraging that he isn't aiming to write "as" Adams, in a Sebastian-Faulks-as-Ian-Fleming sort of way. In fact, I find it very difficult to tell from the publicity so far what I should expect. Perhaps this is a good sign.

Colfer posts a video response on his blog.

Blake Wilson on the NYtimes Paper Tiger blog alerts us to the online adventure game based on the series which you might enjoy playing!

(Sorry, my dears, that I didn't post yesterday. Am having big connection problems at the moment which I hope to get sorted out in the next day or two. Patience!)

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

"look at me, brain the size of a planet..." LOL :)

It's true, but then again Douglas Adams died suddenly at 49 :P I have almost the entire collection here somewhere :)

That's what I mean, everytime you read the book, you find something new.

Anonymous said...

this is a sacrilage!!!. why are these people so greedy ?

i wish the vogons come and do something about this...

ah pong

umapagan said...

Oh God! WHY?

Martin Bradley said...

Admittedly Colfer is no Adams, nor Pratchett either but his Artemis Fowl books have a distinct charm of their own, so lets wait and see instead of calling foul!

Martin Bradley said...

ps I too am a great fan of Adams and used to listen to the radio show in UK and once had all the books, sadly left behind in the UK.

Lynn said...

I love both Adams's and Colfer's books. While I don't think Colfer's brand of humour is quite the same as Adams's, I can't wait to see how Colfer will do with the 6th book!

Chet said...

Apparently the creators of the AlphaSmart machines are big Adams fans. When the AlphaSmart 3000 was released, it had an Easter egg in the calculator function. When users keyed in 6 x 7, the answer that came out was "life, the universe, and everything". The Easter egg was later removed from subsequent software updates.

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