The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams

I enjoyed this even more than the first in the series The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Probably because I had read it right after I watched the movie, which I enjoyed immensely, and ended up comparing the two all the time, and finally I spoiled the whole reading experience. Just like it happened for Bridge to Terabithia.
With Restaurant at the end...nothing of the sort happened. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I will try not too put too much time in between reading the next so that I will still feel close to the story and its characters. Sometimes I have troubles warming up to sequels that I left unread for too long.
But I better say something about this one first! It starts with the Vogons about to destroy the Heart of Gold and all its passengers (Zaphod, Ford, Arthur, Trillian and the most adorable paranoid android, Marvin). The Vogons' purpose is made even easier by the fact that Arthur has inadvertently caused the whole ship computer system to freeze when he asked the Nutri-Matic to produce a proper cup of tea. The Nutri-Matic had asked Computer for advise and the whole ship had become unusable.
But I won't go further into the plot, because:
1) if you haven't read these books you need to start from the first.
2) the plot is not the main reason why you should read these books.
3) it doesn't make much sense, anyway.

It's enough to say that they're a work of comic genius. They follow a perfectly absurd logic and they're completely unpredictable, but they are also seriously funny and seriously smart.
They're not so much about a story as about ideas. That's why it's very hard to explain what actually happens!It's a series of crazy events with incredibly funny situations and some pretty mad ideas, like existentialist lifts, a restaurant that shows the end of the universe as a special feature show, the Total Perspective Vortex and much much more!

My only complaint is that Trillian as a character doesn't have much space. She only has few lines and doesn't seem to be much use to the story. Perhaps she will become more important later on. I hope so.
The ending left me also wondering about poor Marvin, my absolutely favourite character. What happened to him? Will he be alright? I need to read the rest of the series!!

other blog reviews:
Once upon a bookshelf
The wasteland
Adamduckworth
I can't stop reading