And Another Thing...

"And Another Thing..." is the sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book, and the first one not to be written by Douglas Adams, given that Adams has died. Instead, it is by the Irish writer Eoin Colfer, which unfortunately means that most of the people I've mentioned it to to declare they don't want to read it, because it "isn't Adams." But I decided to try it out, and was not disappointed.

"And Another Thing..." starts off where the last book, "Mostly Harmless," left off, with the obliteration of the planet Earth in all possible universes. However, our main characters are saved through a series of ass pulls, first being saved by ex-President of the Universe Zaphod Beeblebrox in the improbabilty drive-powered ship The Heart of Gold, then by the immortal alien Wowbanger the Infinitely Prolonged in the dark-energy powered Viking longship he stole from the god Thor. Already you're beginning to sense that Colfer is able to capture at least some of the insanity of Adams in his writing.

However, Colfer seems to have based a lot of what is featured in "And Another Thing" based on characters and incidents that Adams had mentioned in passing in his books. The two most notable examples of this are Wowbanger and Thor, both minor incidents in previous books and both major important characters here. Colfer does a pretty good job of it, and Adams did it as well (most notably in the character of Fenchurch, who appeared first in the first book only to become a main character in the fourth), but it does make it seem that Colfer isn't really creating all that much original of his own.

However, nothing further could be the truth. The book is littered with notes from the Hitchhiker's Guide itself, which more often than not are just as random and off-the-wall as Adams' mentions from the guide. The most notable touch of Colfer's comes in the leader of the planet Nano, a colony of super-rich humans who managed to escape Earth before it was eradicated, who's an Irishman who behaves exactly like the most stereotypical Irish person imaginable ("fecks" and "begorrahs" included), in order to distract people from his manipulations. I'm sure Colfer was digging at the British and American readers of the book who probably believe some of those stereotypes.

Colfer is able to develop all of the human characters he inherited from Adams (Arthur Dent, Trillian, and Random) into very unique characters. Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox don't change all that much, but both are as fun to read as they always were. The new characters of Wowbanger and Thor are both interesting and somewhat complicated, Wowbanger being snarky and jaded because of his involutary immortality while still sympathetic, and Thor being big, powerful, and strong, while gripped with a very pronounced insecurity. The Vogons are back as the big bad, specifically Prostetnic Jeltz, who was fun in his utter evil horribleness. His son Mown, who's secretly sympathetic to the humans, is slightly too hard to believe: Vogons have been set up as evil, ugly, and totally unsympathetic, and it's a little hard to buy a sympathetic, even good, Vogon.

the plot is interesting, mostly getting all of the characters to the planet Nano and then seeing what happens. Thor and Wowbanger are set up as rivals (basically Wowbanger thinks only a god would be able to actually kill him, and so stole Thor's ship to provoke him), while still being both sympathetic: the reader wants both to succeed in their struggles against each other. I liked how this book drew upon Adams' material while forging its own path. I can see this growing into a series of its own, one that could even possibly be as cool as the original. The ending is a little bit of a confusing downer, so I didn't like that all that much, but aside from that it was a pretty fun book, and I would suggest all Adams fans check the book out if they can. You won't be disappointed

Moonlight and Vines

Canadian author Charles De Lint is most well known for his Newford stories, all set within the fictional city of Newford. "Moonlight And Vines" is the third collection of short stories set in Newford, and it demonstrates quite well all of the neat things one can do if all of the stories have a common setting.

This is largely because Newford is an expansive and diverse locations. Stories in "Moonlight and Vines" are set in the artsy bohemian area of Gracie Street, Newford's gay district, the slums known as the Tombs, and the blue-collar neighborhood of Crowsea. De Lint's talents lie in his ability to tie all of these places together: all seem like part of the same city, despite being significantly different. Each story that takes place in a different area immerses the reader in a place that has history, culture, and its own dynamic, unique characters.

The characters as well as quite diverse. they include temps, journalists, strippers, the homeless, fortunetellers, and De Lint's apparent favorite class of people, artists. There are all kinds of artists: musicians, painters, sculptors, writers, and even a comic book creator. It's this presence of an art scene that really makes Newford seem dynamic and interesting.

De Lint is a fantasy writer, and so almost all of the stories have a fantastical element. A lot of the stories deal with what happens after death, but they vary from a story about a fiddler who doesn't want to move on after his death to a countrysinger having a final chat with the dead aunt who inspired her, to a gritty crime story of two people murdered by the mob who have to take revenge against their killers. Quite a lot of stories also involve human interaction with supernatural beings, be they the mysterious "animal people" who seem to be Native American animal spirits, to faerie folk who appear in the most unique guises, to a very odd take on the Greek Fates. But what is most important in De Lint's stories is not the external magic of spells and faeries, but the internal magic of the characters discovering the beauty and magic of the mundane world around them, or the kindness of those around them. This makes almost all of the stories inspirational and uplifting, leaving the reader with a good feeling after finishing a story.

I really loved this book, and it really made me want to read more De Lint, to immerse myself more into his intricate and interesting world. If Newford was a real city, I would move there in a second. Characters like the artist Jilly, folklorist Christy, and fortunetellers Cassie and Bone seem like such interesting, diverse, and real people that I really intensely want to meet and just hang out with them. I think that's probably the best rule of thumb for whether a book had succeeded or not: whether you would want to be around its characters. All of the stories are interesting and unique, and I highly reccomend this book.