Sixth book in Hitchhiker's "trilogy" announced

Douglas Adams' death was a sad event years ago, but even with the release of chapters in The Salmon of Doubt, his works felt pretty much completed. While he was ostensibly working on a sequel to (in some ways) both Dirk Gently and the Hitchhiker's Guide, neither series really needed it. In fact, the end of Mostly Harmless did its best to wipe that possibility out by not just killing every main character, but instead utterly annihilating them in every possible universe that ever could have existed. The man was pretty thorough.

For some reason, though, that's not the end of things. Publishing giant Penguin announced that a new Hitchhiker's Guide novel is on its way, obviously not from the deceased Adams.  In fact, Adams himself probably said it best himself years ago, "This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." The man tapped for the job was Eoin Colfer, best known for the Artemis Fowl series of children's books. Then again, maybe it was Colfer who put it best, "My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series." Well said, sir.

The new book has the support of Adams' estate, which is mostly to say his widow Jane Belson. "I love his [Colfer's] books and could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new. The project has my full support."

Adams himself was extremely proprietary about his works. In fact, he excised a great deal of material from the book that had been in the radio series because he didn't want to share writing credit with his best friend, John Lloyd (who later co-authored two books with Adams).  Later on, he exerted a similar control with The Starship Titanic, removing himself as author despite the publisher's concerns that if he left his name on it the book would sell better. Judging from Adams' history, the assertion that he would be OK with this seems somehow off-base. 

Titled And Another Thing..., the new book  follows the standard Hitchhiker's Guide naming convention of taking a phrase from the first book. Its planned release date is October 2009. 

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