Book Review – Restaurant At The End of the Universe By Douglas Adams

This week we move onto part two of the Hitchhiker’s series

Here is what Goodreads has to say about this instalment…

THE RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE.
When all questions of space, time, matter and the nature of being have been resolved, only one question remains — “Where shall we have dinner?” The Restaurant at the End of the Universe provides the ultimate gastronomic experience, and for once there is no morning after to worry about.

The book picks up where the first ended naturally, in fact the easy transition from one to the other probably explains why both the TV series and the film found it so easy to merge one with the other.  Adams wit continues to shine through and provides humour on several levels for all ages of reader.  However now reading as an adult you can pick up on darker undertones which can be seen as a possible social commentary on the way life was going though of course at the time Adams could have had no idea just how close to the mark he was moving.

The concert being held by Danger Area and the way that those environmentalists that were complaining were taken care of, might seem to be a little more blunt than we would like to accept but in certain countries it would still happen today and in many others a cheque book can help silence protests and make issues go away, so not really that different.

The we have the Ameglion Major Cow, food which wants to be eaten.  Now okay once again we have not quite gone that far but with genetic modifications you have to question if one day it might not be so far fetched.  Of course it was more a debate about meat eating vs vegetarianism, which of course still continues.  I am not going to get into a debate on that suffice to say Sunday mornings in my house involves bacon and will continue to but I would point out that if we all became vegetarians I am pretty sure most of those animals they want to save would become extinct pretty quickly because people are generally not going to keep pet cows, well maybe a pretty little jersey but the rest will become exhibits in zoos.

I can only match this score with last weeks which means another 5 out of 5.