h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7619828.stm

Not sure how I feel about this.

Seems a little odd since the Earth and all the characters were destroyed in every possible reality. How do you follow that up?

Are the Artemis Fowl books good? Funny?

I suppose it doesn't really matter who does what with the characters. It won't be like the Adams' writing, but it could still be good in it's own right.

Sounds ghastly.




Colfer???? Really??? I got about half way through Artemis Fowl before keeling over in sheer boredom. Is he supposed to be humorous?

I just posted about this in someone's journal.

I loved the Artemis Fowl books, as did my son! Although I didn't keep up when he kept churning them out.

Personally I like the thhgtg characters so much that yes, I am in favour and want to hear more about them. I don't remember Artemis Fowl being funny though, nor so immensely quotable, so I don't know how that will work.

So this is it, we're all going to *sigh*.

Good luck to him, that's the toughest act of the century to follow..

It'll certainly be worth a trial read.

I see that DNA's wife 'approved' - I wonder who initiated it - her / Colfer ... or BBC ?

Following on - how often does that work well?

According to http://www.douglasadams.info/weblog/index.php?2008/09/17/230-h2g2-part-6-a-new-book-will-be-published-in-october-2009 it was Penguin who commissioned the book.

I enjoy Artimis Fowl A994791 so I'll read this with interest. It might be good. It might be dire.

TRiG.

Penguin? - well, they should know, if anyone does.

It doesn't sound like a good idea to me. How can anyone recreate Douglas Adams' boundless wit? And quirkiness? It would be like remaking Casablanca. *shudder*

I can't go along with this plan. What's the point? The books were good, yes, although I would argue that a great strength was the quality of the writing, and asking another writing to recreate this just daft. Aside from that though, if you pinned down the person who came up with this idea and tortured them until they told you truthfully why they came up with this idea, I feel that 'because it will make a lot of money' might feature strongly. This really should be called 'blank cheque', to be honest I think it smells at least a little bit.

Pinning down and torturing the person who came up with the idea sounds good as an end in itself

Vogon poetry?

grauniad article says it was the estate that approached Penguin

"The proposal from the literary agency which manages Adams's estate was "quite out of the blue", said Penguin marketing and publicity director Joanna Prior. "It was something I guess [Jane Belson] had been mulling over for some time, and we jumped the minute we got the call...""

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/17/douglasadams

Here's a thought, how about reading what is published before criticising it?

That might be nice...

"Here's a thought, how about reading what is published before criticising it?"

Respect for DNA would be a start, something the perpetrators of this nonsense would have done well to consider.

Here's the thing - if it's terrible we'll all hate it for being terrible, and if it's great we'll all vocally decry it as a rip-off and claim we hate it whilst secretly placing it on our shelves next to Mostly Harmless.

Who here, honestly, hasn't thought about how the story could continue? Even taking into account my statement above, I'm so jealous that someone other than me got the chance to carry on the trilogy!

Nice Hitchhiker's promo on BBC front page now (one of the four tabs) with link to 'online community'!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Sit up straight and smile everyone