Colfer's Hitchhiker's Sequel: And Another Thing
Long-awaited Sixth Volume in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series
Sep 30, 2009
Douglas Adams once remarked of his now legendary Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series that “I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.”
Author of Artemis Fowl
Sadly Adams died before he could write this sixth volume himself, so the job has fallen to Eoin Colfer, author of the best-selling Artemis Fowl series of children's books. Just as Sebastian Faulks has been sanctioned to continue the James Bond series, Colfer has been given free rein to write the official sequel to the original series, which was originally to have been a trilogy.
Thus Penguin are to release Colfer's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Part Six of Three: And Another Thing ...in the UK on October 12th 2009, on the 30th anniversary of publication of the first book in the late Adams’ phenomenally successful series.
The occasion is to be marked with a full day conference and general celebration at London's Royal Festival Hall on October 11th, entitled Hitchcon'09 and featuring appearances from Clive Anderson, Andrew Sachs, Dirk Maggs, Simon Jones, Harry Shearer and Colfer himself. The original cast of the radio series of the novels will also be on hand to recreate an episode live on stage.
The Original Hitchhiker Series
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy originally appeared in 1978 as a radio series broadcast on BBC Radio Four, before Adams converted his own work to a series of novels. The first of these, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was published in 1979, and was then followed by The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish (1984) and Mostly Harmless (1992).
The series has also appeared as a BBC TV show in 1981, and as a film starring Martin Freeman and Mos Def in 2005.
Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox
As far as the plot of the new novel is concerned, the publishers are understandably keeping this under wraps, but as Adams' fifth book ended with the complete destruction of Earth (again!) then Colfer certainly has his work cut out for him. Still, as the novel promises to feature familiar faces such as Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Galactic President Zaphod Beelbebrox, Colfer has presumably managed to somehow raise them from the dead.
There will certainly be plenty of avid fans queueing up to find out when the book launches next month.
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