Review of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete Radio Series by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete Radio Series by Douglas Adams is a radio play series that follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, who manages to escape the Earth after it is destroyed, with his friend Ford Prefect. There's not much of a central plot to this series, but a lot of subplots as Arthur and the people he meets experience one improbable event after another. This series is hilarious, zany, and nonsensical, and I never get tired of listening to it, so I highly recommend it. I would say that I enjoyed the radio plays even more than the books. While the books are very funny, there is just some humor that is better expressed through an actor's voice and with music and/or sound effects. I would strongly suggest that any fans of the books should give the radio plays a chance. I would even recommend listening to them multiple times, because even though this is at least my third or fourth time around, I'm still picking up on things that I don't remember hearing before.

Review of Whom God Would Destroy by Commander Pants

Whom God Would Destroy by Commander Pants is a satirical novel that makes fun of both religion and the mental health industry. In this story a mental health caseworker named Oliver meets Jeremy, the owner of a new age shop, through one of his clients. Oliver quickly becomes enamored with the extremely charismatic shop owner, and begins to rethink his life while Jeremy does everything in his power to recruit Oliver as his first follower. In addition to Jeremy trying to bring about a new religious movement, this novel also follows the stories of multiple mental health patients who aren't quite as ill as they appear. I thought this book was hilarious and I highly recommend it. Please don't read it though if you think you will be easily offended by the subject matter, which includes explicit sex as well as the religious and mental health satire.

RIP Terry Pratchett!

Fantasy author Terry Pratchett dies at age 66.

I was so sad to hear this news. Terry Pratchett was my favorite author after Douglas Adams, and now he’s passed on as well. It’s rare for me to get emotional upon hearing about the death of a celebrity, but hearing the news definitely brought tears to my eyes, and I will most assuredly mourn his death.
This man’s books have brought me so much joy over the years, and I will always be grateful for that. I hope he is at peace now and making people laugh with his wit in the great beyond.

Review of Alice in Wonderland: The Vampire Slayer by J. J. Maddox and Lewis Carroll

As indicated by the title, Alice in Wonderland: The Vampire Slayer by J. J. Maddox and Lewis Carroll is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland set in a world in which vampires are real. Alice's profession is vampire slaying, and she ventures to Wonderland in order to destroy the Blood Queen hoping to put an end to the vampire war once and for all. This short story was an ok read, but I don't think I'd have any interest in reading it again, and I'm not entirely sure I'd recommend it. For those that are curious, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to read it though. For the most part, the story seemed to stick fairly close to events from the original tale with details changed here and there up until the end. When reading this story, I got the feeling like I was reading fanfiction, which I suppose it essentially is, but it also had more of an amateurish feel to it. There were also a few errors here and there in the text, which would be much easier to overlook if this was a free piece of fanfiction posted online rather than a published work. I really don't think that this short story is worth the price it is being sold for on Amazon.com, so if you really want to read it, I'd suggest waiting for when it goes on sale for free like I did. This short story is also labeled as being the first in the Vampire Wonderland series. I have no plans to read any additional stories in this series unless I can pick them up for free like I did with the first one.

Review of Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

In Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork receives a letter from the Agatean Empire demanding that a great wizard be sent to them. He relays this message to the Arch-Chancellor of Unseen University. After conferring with the wizard staff of Unseen University, they come to the conclusion that none of them want to undertake the journey, so they decide that they should send the inept wizard Rincewind. They summon Rincewind through magical means, and then subsequently transport him to the Agatean Empire. Once there, Rincewind finds himself being forced to participate in a revolution quite against his will that it turns out was inadvertently started by an old friend of his. Rincewind wants no part in the revolution and seeks only to escape, but Fate has other plans for him.

This was a really fun and hilarious book. I really love the characters Rincewind and Twoflower, and I was delighted that the Luggage made a reappearance in this book. I highly recommend it to fans of Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series, or anyone that enjoys British humor. While it's probably not necessary to read all of the Discworld books that come before Interesting Times prior to reading it, I would recommend at least reading The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic first, and perhaps Sourcery and Eric as well.

Review of The Complete Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Kent David Kelly

The Complete Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Kent David Kelly contains much more than the original stories of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. This edition also contains two additional versions of Alice in Wonderland, which are Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which was the original first draft of Alice in Wonderland, and The Nursery Alice, which was a version written for young children. Also contained within this text is a missing chapter from Through the Looking Glass, called The Wasp in the Wig, and a long poem somewhat related to The Jabberwocky, called The Hunting of the Snark.

This book contains lots of wonderful commentary and annotations that tell of the background behind how these stories were created, as well as explain references that have been lost in obscurity in the modern age. While some of the commentary I found dull and tedious, a lot of it was really quite interesting. I think my favorite bit of commentary was regarding the number 42. This number will make any fan of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy grin, and as such I could not help grinning every time it came up in these stories. One bit of commentary after The Hunting of the Snark said that Lewis Carroll was actually obsessed with the number 42, and that the reason Douglas Adams gave that number such high significance in his book was because he was doing it as a tribute to Lewis Carroll. I am unsure how much truth there is to this statement, but it certainly is a lovely thought, and it put a smile on my face.

Depending on how big of a fan of these stories you are, there may be some parts that you'd want to skip. Alice's Adventures Under Ground may or may not be worth reading depending on your point of view. As I previously stated, this was the original first draft of Alice in Wonderland, and as such it contains much of the same material as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but has quite a few scenes missing. It might be interesting to some to read it though, just to see the differences in certain story details in the original draft, and there are different illustrations as well. I wouldn't really recommend reading The Nursery Alice at all. Even taking into account that it was meant for little children, it seemed like a poorly written version and I didn't really enjoy it at all. The Wasp in the Wig was an ok chapter, but I can see why it was originally cut out. It's still somewhat interesting, and it won't take up too much of your time if you decide to read it. I highly recommend reading The Hunting of the Snark, especially if you enjoyed The Jabberwocky poem. Alice does not appear in this poem story at all, but it does take place in the same setting as the other stories, and many references are made to things from The Jabberwoky. It was a very humorous poem, and I really enjoyed it. Overall I'd highly recommend this edition to anyone who is a big fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, especially if you'd like to learn more about the background of these stories and of the author.

Review of Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett is the story of a young musician named Imp who journeys from his small mountain town to the big city of Ankh-Morpork hoping to make it big. He meets up with a couple other musicians and they form a band but they have little success. When Imp's harp is accidentally destroyed, his band mates purchase a strange looking guitar for him from a mysterious music shop. Imp seems to have no trouble learning to play this new instrument and it seems to cast a spell upon him, his band mates, and everyone who hears his music and he becomes an instant celebrity. Unfortunately there are those that are not a fan of this new music and will go to great lengths to put a stop to it.

This book was pretty funny, and as always I loved Pratchett's use of humorous imagery and phrasing as well as the hilarious footnotes. I also loved all of the music related puns throughout the book. I'd definitely recommend this book to fans of Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series.