This is part three of a five-part review spanning “The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide,” by Douglas Adams.

I love Adam’s story of the planet Krikkit. The people of Krikkit to lived under a dusty sky that blocked out the stars, so they believed they were the only life in the universe. When a ship crashed on their planet, the people of Krikkit discovered that they weren’t the only live beings in existence. They then decided that the only solution was to destroy everything that existed. They were stopped before success and were sealed inside a Slo-Time envelope until the rest of the universe died naturally. One Krikkit ship somehow escaped the Slo-Time envelope and is searching the galaxy for the pieces of the Wikkit Gate, which is the key that will unlock the envelope and allow the Krikkiters to complete their mission.

The secret behind this is that before hand, there was a warlike race of creatures called the Armorfiends. They built a computer called Hactar that would construct a weapon of ultimate destruction. Hactar finished the weapon but put in a tiny flaw, hoping that the Amorfiends would eventually change their violent ways. This didn’t happen, and the Amorfiends (before they died out) destroyed Hactar, who now makes up the dust cloud of Krikkit’s sky. Hactar could still operate, however, and made a mock ship that crashed on the planet to stir up the Krikkiters’ anger. The Tim-Slo envelope put his efforts on hold. The single Krikkit ship succeeds in creating the key, but they have become peaceful and don’t use the weapon. Arthur and friends return the pieces of the key, and while they’re on Krikkit Arthur can’t resist bowling on Lord Cricket’s Ground. He suddenly realizes that the ball he’s holding is actually the bomb planted by Hactar and accidentally trips, sending the weapon off into the distance.

The great thing about this plot is that it is so intricate, yet not confusing. Everything is so closely linked together that you must pay very close attention when reading to ensure that you pick up on every little detail. Plus, the fact that it’s fiction means that Adams can make it was wacky and wild as he wants – and he goes all the way.

My favorite scene in Life, the Universe, and Everything is when Arthur flies for the first time. According to Douglas Adams, to fly you must throw yourself at the ground and miss, and not think about falling at the very last moment. Arthur is dashing down the mountain to escape Agrajag (a being who is unintentionally killed by Arthur many times in different reincarnations) when a landslide suddenly occurs. He trips, and “just at the moment he [is] about to hit the ground astoundingly hard he [sees] lying directly in front of him a small navy blue tote bag that he [knows] for a fact he had lost in the baggage retrieval system at the Athens airport some ten years previously…” Arthur misses the ground and floats up into the air. To avoid falling, he quickly begins thinking about tulips and the interesting variety of colors they come in. As he swoops down to pick up the bag, Arthur suddenly can’t believe what he’s doing and collapses on the ground. He flops forward, and at that moment remembers that the bag he was carrying had a can of olive oil and retsina (Greek white wine) in it, and this distraction causes him to begin flying again.

I like this part of the book so much because it is a very unique way of describing the experience of flying. Many stories show it as a magical experience full of wonder and happiness. Adams takes a different route and instead describes more how Arthur desperately tries to keep himself afloat. The author uses humorous language, including words and phrases like “giddiness”, “cheekily”, and “his body seemed like an unwieldy sack of potatoes…” This again brings up the topic of humor. I enjoyed reading this series because nearly every page had some instance of comedy. My life is often filled with a lot of stress, and to be able to come home and dive into a different world (well, actually, an author’s take on our world and the planets around it) full of wit is my way of taking a break from it all.