

New Hitchhiker's author announced - gps408
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7619828.stm

======
mechanical_fish
One of the salutary effects of watching open media in action is that I've
become quite fond of the idea of new authors reworking the characters and
stories of old authors. I'm tired of proprietary "canons". Particularly when
it becomes apparent that the guy running the canon has much less talent than
his fans. ( _Cough_ George Lucas _cough_.)

Though I think Douglas Adams is bound to be a tough act to follow. It does
help that the last _Hitchhiker's_ book is not the best work in the series. I
tend to read only the parts of that book with Ford in them (which are great)
and just skip all the existential despair that rounds out the book. I mean,
the _Hitchhiker's_ series is all about the existential despair, but you can
have too much of a bad thing.

What I really want to see, though, is more Dirk Gently stories.

~~~
scott_s
Except that I think I read Hitchhiker Guide books more because I find Douglas
Adams' writing a delight to read than because I like the particular characters
and story.

Which means I should be ashamed of myself for not reading any Dirk Gently
books yet.

~~~
mechanical_fish
You are one of the luckiest humans on the face of the earth: You have Douglas
Adams prose to look forward to.

And I agree: Nobody is going to _replace_ Douglas Adams, nor are the
characters or the plot the important part of Douglas Adams' writing. But that
doesn't mean the characters and plot are _entirely worthless_ as test vehicles
for other people's prose styles. Just because it isn't Shakespeare doesn't
mean that _West Side Story_ is a bad thing.

~~~
scott_s
True on both counts.

------
unalone
I think that if they really wanted to end the series, Colfer is the best man
for the job. He's no Adams by any means, but he's certainly good, and
hopefully he'll at least give us a feel for what Adams wanted.

Gaiman would have been an excellent pick, too: Good Omens, with Terry
Pratchett, is as close to Adams' humor as I've found. But Colfer has a much
finer sense of whimsy.

------
cliff
An audio response 'from' Arthur Dent about the new book:
[http://eoincolfer.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/and-
an...](http://eoincolfer.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/and-another-
thing.mp3)

(portrayed by the original BBC voice actor of Arthur Dent)

