Following on directly from the ending of Restaurant At The End of the Universe, Arthur is still stranded on prehistoric Earth. Soon after running into Ford prefect, he finds himself chasing a Chesterfield sofa across a field, which then, as these things do, transports him to Lords Cricket Ground in the middle of a match, about 2 days before the imminent demolition of the planet.
Another old character pops up and whisks them off on an intergalactic adventure to prevent an all out war across the universe that could wipe out existence forever.
This was adapted from a rejected idea for a Doctor Who serial and Adams had to really work hard in shoehorning the least heroic set of characters in literature into a story about saving the universe.
I remember thinking this was probably the best of the books on my first time through. On this reading, I realised how much of this book is infodump, and how little the characters actually do. That's not to say it's not a good book at all. It's still a great read and I was laughing out loud from the first paragraph. It's just that the story is not as strong as I remember it being.
That said, Agrajag and Wowbagger are two of Adams's greatest creations. The Agrajag chapter is possibly the single funniest segment in his entire oeuvre.
So in summary, not as brilliant as I recall but still brilliant.
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