The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: Complete Books 1-5 Box Set - Fiction - Paperback

Summary The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy started unassumingly as a half-hour comedy programme on BBC Radio 4. Since then, it has grown to be a multimedia phenomenon, and a massive influence on the worlds of science fiction and comedy. Loved by writers from Neil Gaiman to Russell T Davies, the series is now revered as a classic.

A sixth novel in the series, And Another Thing…, was written by Eoin Colfer of the Artemis Fowl books. The series is perfect for teenagers and young adults seeking their next hilarious adventure. The series has been adapted into stage shows, albums, comics, games, TV, and a 2005 Disney movie.

However, the most beloved version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the novels. This 42nd Anniversary Collection features all five books written by Douglas Adams in the inaccurately named trilogy. Each book has a foreword from a famous fan, and comes with material from the Douglas Adams archive.

What happens in the books? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete Collection contains all five books in the trilogy. The first novel was adapted from the first four episodes of the radio series.

In it, the Earth gets destroyed to make way for a hyperspace expressway. Englishman Arthur Dent survives by managing to hitch a lift on the Vogon destructor fleet. He and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien researcher for "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" currently undercover on Earth, are tossed out of an airlock, and rescued by Ford’s two-headed semi-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Galactic President with a stolen Infinite Improbability Drive, and his human girlfriend Trillian.

The gang, accompanied by depressed robot Marvin, discover the secret origins of the Earth, the Ultimate Question, and two hyperintelligent mice, in an unlikely and hilarious adventure. The second novel picks up immediately afterwards, as the gang travels to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Adapted from episodes five and six, this instalment sees a quest to find the Ruler of the Universe, a visit to a restaurant in a time bubble overseeing the collapse of everything, and an unscheduled and lengthy stay on prehistoric Earth.

The third book, Life, the Universe, and Everything, was inspired by the rejected script Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen. This book sees robots land at Lord’s Cricket Ground two days before the Earth’s destruction and run off with the Ashes. These escapees from the planet Krikkit wish to destroy the universe, and only Arthur and Ford can stop them.

Also, Arthur learns how to fly. It’s pretty simple: you just throw yourself at the ground and miss. The fourth book wasn't based on anything, and is quite different.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is a romance, which sees Arthur returned to an apparently not-destroyed Earth, and fall in love with a woman called Fenchurch. Together, they investigate the disappearance of all the dolphins, which had evacuated Earth before its destruction, which apparently didn’t happen, and everyone else dismisses as a hallucination. Mostly Harmless is the fifth book, and the last book Adams published in his lifetime.

Having misplaced Fenchurch in a hyperspace jump, Arthur ends up stranded on a planet, and begins a career as a sandwich maker. Meanwhile, Ford Prefect steals the unpublished and sentient Hitchhiker's Guide Mk 2 from its new publishers, the Vogons. He sends the guide ahead to Arthur, who has also been left with a teenage daughter by Trillian.

Both of Arthur’s ‘gifts’ escape together on Ford’s ship, and it’s up to our heroes to pursue them to an alternate Earth. Who are these books for? The Hichhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series is endlessly quotable, utterly unpredictable, and essential reading for fans of Doctor Who, Terry Pratchett, and funny science fiction adventures.

This five book set is the perfect package to get into the series, available here at a great value price. Who was Douglas Adams? Douglas Adams was a bestselling author, environmental campaigner, and futurist.

The first brush Douglas Adams had with success was in 1974, when he became one of only two people other than the Pythons to write for Monty Py