If you liked
Books like The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams's The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide collects all five novels in the increasingly inaccurately-named trilogy. If Adams's voice is the part that hooked you, these five share its conceptual ambition without trying to imitate the comedy.
The shortlist
What to read next
The Algebraistby Iain M. Banks
“Iain M. Banks's standalone space opera. A galaxy without faster-than-light travel, a millennia-old gas-giant civilization, and one of his best villains.”
The Light Of Other Daysby Arthur C. Clarke
“The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter 2000 review. Wormhole technology lets anyone look anywhere, anytime. The end of privacy and the end of secret history arrive in the same decade.”
The Cat Who Walks Through Wallsby Robert A. Heinlein
“The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein 1985 review. A late-Heinlein World-As-Myth novel in which the writer Richard Ames is recruited into a multiverse-spanning conspiracy on Luna.”
Wizards, Inc.by Orson Scott Card
“Wizards, Inc. edited by Orson Scott Card 2007 review. A 13-story anthology of urban-fantasy and corporate-wizardry stories featuring Esther Friesner, Karen Joy Fowler, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and Mark Wandrey.”
Microserfsby Douglas Coupland
“Microserfs by Douglas Coupland review. The 1995 novel about Microsoft programmers starting a Bay Area startup. The defining Silicon Valley novel of its decade.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide read-alikes
- None of these are comic SF in the Adams register. Why?
- Because almost no one else successfully wrote in that register. Terry Pratchett is the obvious cousin (Discworld). The picks here share Adams's conceptual ambition (single ideas followed all the way through, multiple-layer plotting) without attempting his joke density.
- Which is closest in spirit?
- Iain M. Banks's The Algebraist. Banks shares the Adams trick of treating impossibly large concepts (galactic civilizations, deep-time, planetary politics) with one foot in the absurd.
- What about And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer?
- The 2009 authorized continuation novel. It works as Colfer; it does not quite work as Adams. Worth reading for completionists, not the first thing to recommend.
The original