And Another Thing: The Next Hitchhiker's Guide

To say I'm a fan of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is an understatement. I consider the book series a major influence in my life and my writing. (If you've never heard of the book series or the TV series or the radio series or the recent movie, then you should try one of them. Or all of them.) That's why I was eager to read the fifth novel, Mostly Harmless. And I was very disappointed with the finality of it. Even Adams himself admitted that he didn't like the way he ended the series and planned to release a sixth one, but his death a few years later meant we would never have an official sequel.

When I heard they wanted to have another author write a new Hitchhiker's novel, I was skeptical. To me, having someone else write a sequel to another author's book series without the original author around to consult with is often a travesty. And the fact that the author they chose (Eoin Colfer) is best known for writing children's books didn't make me feel any better. Maybe I will one day read the final result, And Another Thing, but I have a deep-seated fear that it will ruin one of the most cherished milestones in my life. At best, it seems like the result can only be considered very good fanfiction. But I'll probably end up reading it, anyway.

Of course, my perspective is not biased at all by my own attempt at a sixth Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel, Really Wild Things, now available at fanfiction.net.