Forty-Two

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Synopsis

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Part Five, Part Two. Picking up the instant that Mostly Harmelss ends, Forty-Two answers all of the unanswered questions, ties up all the loose ends, and questions all of the unquestioned answers.

Creation

I grew up with the Hitchhiker trilogy and can't remember a time that I didn't know of its existence. As cheated as I felt by So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Mostly Harmelss drove me to near murderous rage. I took a day off from work to read it all in one sitting and did not see the ending coming. I always knew that they could have been pulled out of that fire, soap-opera style, with a little deus ex machina. But using Zaphod was even better.

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It wasn't until doing research for Forty-Two that I found out that Douglas Adams was unhappy with Mostly Harmless's end as well.

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The opening scene on alternate Earth was actually a very vivid dream. I woke at three in the morning and started banging it out on the computer before it escaped me.

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I re-re-read the first three books and the fifth book of the trilogy, so that Adams' voice would be fresh in my head. I think it is captured nicely.

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The idea of splitting Ford's personality into two came when I couldn't make up my mind which course of action he was going to take; so he took both.

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Dig this: Between the time that I submitted this novel to the Faulkner-Wisdom contest and the time that they announced winners and finalists and such, there was a press release stating that Eoin Colfer would be writing the sixth. Come on!