This is a first for me -- a book review, as opposed to a movie. The only suprise is that it took me so long to do one -- I do manage to read a lot. In fact, many movie reviews mention the books I've read, and whether the film does it justice or not (usually not). This book also has a connection to other media -- but first.....
It's a grand event -- replete with fish paste sandwiches -- the day of the launching of the greatest accomplishment of the greatest artist the universe has ever known -- the starship, Titanic. But her creator, the great man Leovinus is no where to be found. They search for him, but to no avail -- the time has come. The bottle of champaign crashes into the hull -- the miles of pink sheeting covering it falls to the ground -- there is the sound of waves crashing on the distant shores of memory -- the ship eases forward, wobbles, veers, then suffers a SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Exsistance Failure).
What they didn't know, was that Leovinus was on his creation -- goaded
into the visit by the nagging questions of a nosey journalist (who had
also been onboard). It turns out that the cost of Titanic had ballooned
beyond the hope of ever being paid -- even after moving construction away
from the craftsmen of Yassaca to the Amalgamated Unmarried Teenage Mother's
Construction Units on Blerotin (and devastating the economy of Yassaca
in the process), and the Chief Accountant and the Manager had planted
a bomb onboard in an attempt to claim the insurance money. And Titanic
did not suffer a SMEF, it was merely catapulted across the galaxy, where
it came to rest in the middle of an rectory in England -- Much to the
dismay of Dan, Lucy, Nettie, and Nigel, who were planning on turning the
rectory into a very nice hotel and resturant. When a robot comes out to
apologize for the inconvenience, and offers them free passage, Nettie
jumps at the chance, followed by Lucy and Dan. This leads us to the bulk
of the book, where they meet up with the Journalist, battle with the staff
robots to get upgraded from Super Galactic Class to first class, try to
keep the bomb from exploding, battle the Yassacans when they retake the
ship in repayment for thier work, the Blerotin Insurance adjusters who
also claim the ship, and try to rebuild the central intelligence core
before the final bang -- where Lucy and the Journalist run the Titanic
as a luxury hotel, Nettie and Dan rebuild the rectory and turn it into
the most popular tourist stop in the universe, and the Parrot returns
to a hero's welcome (just read the book).
This book, though titled Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic, was written
by Terry Jones (one of the former members of Monty Python that most people
can't remember), who also voices the parrot in the computer game that
this book is based on. The game is based on a short little paragraph in
the book Life, the Universe, and Everything. Adams did that a lot, take
some short little blurb from one book, and make another book out of it
-- Mostly Harmless, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, and The Long
Dark Teatime of the Soul were all phrases from earlier books, that became
later ones (and in the case of Teatime... , a very lengthy book at that).
Jones must be an avid reader of Adams, because the story comes off very
much the way Adams would have written it -- which is good. It is a bit
shorter than Adams' work (I read the book in less time than it took to
see the movie Titanic), but it is still very enjoyable. I don't know what
to say of the game -- it wasn't out when I wrote this -- There is a rather
interesting Web Site based on the game at www.starshiptitanic.com,
and a link to more Adams stuff at The Digital
Village (which is now a tribute site to the late author). Try it,
you'll like it.