Read History
2026 | Score: 8.5
The start was odd but I really liked the section at the end with Arthur, Ford, and the Golgafrincham people. I want to know more about Marvin.
Format: Book
Days: 6
Date: 9/24/2026 -> 9/30/2026
Summary (Spoilers)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #2
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Summary
Captain Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, who has recently destroyed Earth, spots the Heart of Gold in space and plans to destroy it also. On board the Heart of Gold, Arthur has just spent a lot of time describing tea and how it was discovered and made to the computer, which causes it to stop all other functionality to try and figure it out. Zaphod tries to flee the Vogon ship but can’t because the computer is busy trying to make tea, so he holds a seance for his great grandfather, Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth.
His great-grandfather appears and spends most of his time berating Zaphod and letting him know how disappointed he is. He tells him he needs to find the man who controls the universe, then does something that sends them far away, and Zaphod disappears.
While the others are on the ship with no idea where they are, Zaphod appears on Ursa Minor Beta (With Marvin the robot), and goes to the publishing house for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He asks to see Mr. Zarniwoop, but is told he is on an intergalactic cruise in the office currently. Him and Marvin go upstairs to his office but then the building begins getting attacked by Frogstars. A strange man named Roosta comes and leads them to a room, but they have to leave Marvin behind to stop a frogstar tank, which he makes so angry at humans it blasts the floor from underneath itself and falls away. The frogstars pluck the whole building up and take it to one of their planets, Frogstar World B.
Roosta leaves and Zaphod and Marvin are led by the invisible soul of Gargravarr, who is going through a divorce with his body, to the worst torture device in the universe. The Total Perspective Vortex is designed to show the occupant the entire universe, which no one can handle. Zaphod is forced to enter, but exits unphased shortly after. Apparently it showed him how terrific and great he is, which he already knew, so he sets off.
Zaphod finds an old ship with people put to sleep in it that never took off due to not having any lemon-soaked paper napkins. On the ship he finds Mr. Zarniwoop, who tells him that they planned this all in the past (before Zaphod edited his brain and removed the memories). Their goal was to steal the Heart of Gold and use it to find the man who rules the universe. Apparently Zaphod has been in an alternate universe, and finds the heart of Gold in his pocket, he throws it down and it grows into the full ship and him and Mr. Zarniwoop re-enter the actual universe. Zaphod runs into the ship before Zarniwoop and leaves him behind.
Zaphod, Ford, Arthur, and Trillian arrive at Milliway’s, the restaurant at the end of the universe, which is not a location but a time, as the universe will soon die. Ford sees an old friend, Hotblack Desiato, a member of the band Disaster Area, but can’t talk to him since he is dead for a year for tax purposes. They eat and drink, and a man named Max Quordlepleen does the entertainment. They hear from someone else that Marvin has been parking ships in the parking garage, and go down to see him and leave the restaurant. Marvin has been here for five hundred seventy-six thousand million years, and they realize Milliway’s must be in the far future of Starfrog World B, which they thought they left. They get on a pure black ship, but it turns out to be the stunt ship for Disaster Area’s next show, and is being flown into a sun for dramatic effect. There was a random teleporter in the ship, but it had to be activated from outside, so Marvin teleports them all away and then the ship flies into a nearby star.
Ford and Arthur appear on a strange spaceship, with what look to be dead bodies in coffins. The bodies occupations listed are stuff like telephone sanitizer and hairdresser. They get captured by Number Two, who takes them to the captain who is taking a bath. They learn these are people from Golgafrincham, and this is ship B of the Ark Fleet. Their planet was going to be destroyed by some unknown cause, so they put all the leaders and scientists into ship A, and all the people who do work into ship C, but they sent everyone else off in ship B first, although neither of the other ships ever left. The ship is programmed to crash into a random planet.
They crash into a swamp and most of the people die but several hundred thousand are left, and don’t seem to know how to take care of themselves so Arthur and Ford just go exploring.
Zaphod and Trillian reappear in the Heart of Gold, with Mr. Zarniwoop waiting for them. They go to meet the man who rules the universe. Normally the planet is protected by a field of unprobability which only six people have a key for, but the Heart of Gold can bypass that. They meet a strange man living alone with his cat, who is not sure that anything is real and who questions everything. Zarniwoop really wants to get information out of him and Zaphod and Trillian leave in the Heart of Gold while he is distracted.
Ford and Arthur continue exploring this beautiful planet they have crashed on, meeting a few locals on the way, and eventually find Slartibartfast’s signature on some fjords, and realize they are walking in what will be Norway, on Earth 2 million years in the past. They return to the Golgafrinchamites and try to get them to do anything rational but the group of fools are busy deciding things like fiscal policy and declaring war on trees. They realize that this probably messed up the experiment Earth was running to find the ultimate question. Arthur and Ford eventually just decide to try to enjoy life on this planet and meet a couple of women. THE END.