MOSTLY HARMLESS

Mostly limp and inane: That's the sad reality of this, the fifth in Adams's once respectably droll Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Here, our formerly comic heroes are grappling with a new set of bizarre problems. In an accurate gauge of the level of the humor here, Ford Prefect is disconcerted to discover that the publishers of the Guide have been taken over by new, hard-nosed, 90's-style management (they turn out to be Vogons). In the most smile-worthy passages, Tricia (unlike Trillian, her alter ego, she didn't run off with Zaphod Beeblebrox) is abducted by polite but muddled aliens whose brains have gone missing. The perpetually confused Arthur Dent becomes an expert sandwich-maker, meets Elvis, and acquires a daughter by Trillian even though they never actually...er...um. Standout character Marvin the Paranoid Android never puts in an appearance. And so forth. Not a chuckle to be had.

Might raise the odd grin among the terminally amused.