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Category: Books
Seller: Hyperion
Requirements: iPhone OS 3.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch
File Size: 475MB
Version Reviewed: 3.0
Price: $14.99
Age Rating: 12+

It’s true. There’s a sixth installment in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. With the death of Douglas Adams in 2001, it seemed the landmark series had reached a less than impressive end with Mostly Harmless, a book which Douglas himself referred to as “bleak.” But is a bleak ending better than one written by another author—in this case, Eoin Colfer of Artemis Fowl fame? I’ll let you all worry about that. Here, I just want to talk about the iPhone app.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer carries such an unwieldy title, I’m guessing, because they wanted to make sure the series name is in there for promotional purposes. The author’s name is in there to make sure everyone knows up front it’s not a Douglas Adams novel. As a result, the actual title of the app gets buried, making this look like a compendium instead of a work of fiction. Further confusing the issue is a thumbnail that reads “Don’t Panic.” Fans will recognize this friendly piece of advice from the series, of course, but again, what is this app about?

Well, the meat of it is the novel. The whole thing is here. I’m not going to review that, of course, but I can review the features. Upon launching that portion, you’re presented with a screen that allows you to adjust the font size and to jump to any chapter or continue from where you left off. Upon making your selection, you’re taken to the written page with some minor graphic enhancements. You can scroll up and down to read the whole page, or you can hit play to have the section read to you audiobook style. Controls allow you to slide around in the audio, and a timer at the bottom shows how long it will take to listen to that chapter, and how much time you have left. I like that feature, but would prefer to be able to “turn” the written pages instead of scrolling through them.

Now, that’s why you’re going to purchase this app. You either want the book, or you don’t. Hyperion threw in quite a few bonuses to sweeten the deal (and justify the $15 price tag), but their usefulness will depend upon what you already know about the series. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy includes a very brief summation of each book, along with a few quotes from each. Die hard fans won’t need this, and it’s not enough to introduce new readers to the series (although, seriously, if you’re new to the series, you absolutely shouldn’t be starting here), but I haven’t read any of these books in a few years, so I found it helpful for reminding myself what happened where. It ends with a glossary that I doubt I’ll be using.

Three short videos are included: one from the author talking about writing the book, one bit of comedy set around the description of the fictitious guide, and an extremely pointless one with interviews of people at what appears to be a sci-fi convention talking about why And Another Thing… should even exist. All three are YouTube fodder, and aren’t at all necessary.

More helpful is an Events area where author appearances and, presumably, other book related events are listed. This is great, but outdated as of press time on this review. The events listed run from October 19th through the 30th. Along the same lines, a Links button pulls up online stores from which you can purchase the book. Why would you do that after spending $15 on the app? Well, I just bought my physical copy yesterday, so it does happen.

After that, we get into the fun sections. Deep Thought pulls up a quote from the series, which you can change by shaking the phone or swiping the screen. Fun, but there aren’t nearly enough, and they keep the same pattern as you cycle through them. There are also three images you can use as wallpapers for your device. Again, only three? This problem carries through to the Trivia feature, which has only ten painfully obvious questions. Worse, there’s no reward or acknowledgement for taking this test. Once you answer question ten, you bounce right back to question one. Although, now that I think about it, that’s actually a pretty good Guide-style gag.

Is all of this worth $14.99? The audio book and written version is, sure, although, because of iPhone limitations, the app needs to be running while you’re listening. I guess that’s fair…it needs to be running while you’re reading, too, but keep that in mind. The bonus features are all either too short or too pointless, which is a shame, because a few of them could’ve been more fun if they’d been more robust. Fewer videos and promos, more fun stuff, please.

So, whether you want to spend $14.99 on this should come down solely to whether you want to read this book. The extras don’t make it any more worth it, but if you’re looking for some kind of closure (?) on these characters and this wonderful universe Douglas Adams created—and if you’re willing to accept that Douglas isn’t the one bringing that closure—then…well, let me get back to you on that.