And Another Thing...

It's been a busy fortnight here at Penguin Towers.

Two weeks ago we were contacted by the agent representing the estate of Douglas Adams who asked us if we might be interested in bidding for the right to publish a sixth installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to be written by Eoin Colfer. Needless to say we were and a crack team threw themselves into creating one of the best pitches anyone has ever seen. This (and a large-ish cheque) happily won us the rights to publish And Another Thing... and late last night we broke the news to the legions of fans of the Hitchhiker's series and the almost equally hardcore fans of Eoin's Artemis Fowl books.

We knew that there would be intense interest in this news and we wanted the fans to be the first people to hear it, so at 6pm last night we alerted them to these audio recordings which they quickly spread around the internet. 'Big media' grasped onto the story early this morning culminating in an appearance by Eoin Colfer on Radio4's Today programme.

Now, in the very brief lull between announcing this news and planning the delivery of the most exciting publishing event of 2009, we have a few moments to sit back and watch these most passionate of fans debate the merits of resurrecting the series.

Reactions have ranged from the ecstatic, to slightly concerned, to completely appalled via speculation that this might be part of an even deeper conspiracy. If you want to add to the noise, leave a comment below. We don't speak Vogon, but we do look forward to hearing from you.

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher

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Comments

[Edgar Loesel]

The fifth Hitchhiker novel wasn't a brilliant novel - it's debatable, if it is a novel at all - it's just a bleak book. Anyway, please don't turn Adams literary heritage into a string of soulless sequels. Hitchhiker is not Discworld! And Penguin hopefully isn't Disney! Please, show some decency and let Eoin Colfer write some sequels to Harry Potter instead.
Yours sincerely,
Edgar Loesel

[alex milway]

It would be easy to dismiss this as a money-making ploy, but Eoin Colfer is a great writer, who loves the source material as if it were his own. We all need a bit more Douglas Adams in our lives, and as long as it opens up the world of the Hitchhiker's guide to a new generation of readers, then it can only be a good thing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with it.

[Edgar Loesel]

Yes, it is easy to dismiss this as a money-making ploy, very very very very very very very easy. It's absolutely startling how easy it is. And so obvious ... How about letting Stephen Fry pen down some new Jeeves books? We all need a bit more P. G. Wodehouse in our lives.

[The Duke of Dunstable]

What I would like to know is; Why?

Cheers

Dukey

[Scratch]

What you need is your own brilliant idea instead of squeezing every last drop of money you can out of someone else's. Have you no shame?

[Richard Earney]

This is such a bad thing to happen. Just leave it alone and create something new. Stop this rehashing of the old. The HHGttG stands as it is, doesn't need embellishment, reinterpretation or addition.

[Tom]

@Dukey: 42, of course!

[Skyman]

@Tom:
"No - we already thought of that one, but it doesn't fit the question. Why? - 42 ... you see, it doesn't work."

[Paul Jacobson]

Guys come on.

HHGttG was done and dusted
it was finished and even the radio series did it justice and tied it all up nicely.

I have read Eoin's work and he is a good author, But leave HitchHikers alone.
PLEEEEASE
it'll just be a zombie of it's former self.

[Janette K. Taylor]

If some writer, somewhere, had written an amazing "Part SIx" and it was discovered and realized to be a truly excellent follow-up, and THAT was published with much hoop-la, I would find that much more exciting than this "assignment" to duplicate (or replicate) the inner workings of a truly original mind. A book is SO MUCH MORE than mere writing, it is the psychology, the cadence of language, the personal history that shows in the writing. Everyone gets different things out of a body of writing, so something will have to be left out. No matter what, it can't be the same without the original writer, and what are you then left with? "The further adventures of Arthur Dent." It will reflect Colfer's soul, but not Douglas'. That is my objection.

[Tim]

Please don't do this :(

What's next?
Great Expectations II - Greater Expectations ??
Another bloke from Verona ??

Do we have a repeat of the Hollywood horror where 'Arthur get's the girl' & every character has their catch phrase banned from utterance?

Please, it is done. Everybody's dead [Dave].

If it's all about the £'s then let's have a club together and pay to not have it written!

[Dan Brown]

I agreed with many of these people when I first heard about this being written. But then I learned that this was actually DNA's last project, besides of course the Salmon of Doubt which sadly ends mid-sentence. This book would have come out even without Adam's death. I have never read any of the Artemis Fowl books and will be the first to call this new guy out if he screws up, but come on. Give him a chance. Its not like he's going to be saying, "Whoops, never mind the whole bit about Earth's multi-dimensional destruction. It was all just an aftermath of quite a good party on Strogmula Beta." The title seems to suggest following Zaphod or something. I loved Mostly Harmless and don't care what you people think about it. It ended on a good note for me and if Eoin tries to ressurect Arthur I will be very insulted. But besides that I wish him luck.

[Paul Drew]

I seem to remember someone telling me that most of the latter hitchikers books were actually ghosted and not written by Douglas Adams at all so in the scheme of things it doesn't really matter.
Of course if you take the long view in the scheme of things nothing really matters!

[Evil Genius]

If there is a genuine outline for the 6th novel by D.A, then maybe a final book in the series might be worth it. I agree with many of the comments though in saying that it feels a like a grab for cash rather than a true & genuine installment of the HHGttG series.
For my part, the series ended with mostly Harmless, a bleak ending but not every ending is a happy one and in a way, made the series more poigniant because of the dark end.

[Edgar Loesel]

Douglas, you're turning into a Penguin. Stop it!

[Anonymous Gimp]

Appauling! Who is this Owen Coffin and why does he think he can capture the voice of Douglas Adams? It's insane to think that someone can just steal someone's story and write fanfic and publish it as a "sequel."

"I heard Jed Fontainne of Little Rock Arkansas wrote an Erotic sequel to the Harry Potter series, and boy are YOU going to love it!"

[Scratch]

Since Eoin Colfer is not allowing any posts on his blog that are in any way critical I shall ask my question here.
Mr Colfer, when you die would you mind very much if I continued to write your Artemis Fowl series?

[Ivan Routledge]

If the new book is good then why not just enjoy for what it is? Eoin has said he'll be using the characters but not the style of DNA. Hopefully he'll also be using the stuff that WASN'T pulished in TSOD too as this was deliberatly held back for just such an event. I really miss DNA but i can't stand all of this nonsense of othe people getting offended on his behalf. We have the 5 HH books. If these make your life complete then leave with these and explore other areas of enjoyment. As a self realised unrational human being I'll probably be able to enjoy it for what it is - a story concerning the adventures of some old friends. Life is too short not to...