Terry Pratchett has invented a phantasmagorical universe in which a blissfully naive interplanetary tourist called Twoflower joins up with a drop-out wizard whose spells only seem to work half of the time. Together they undertake a chaotic voyage through a crazy world filled with monsters and dragons, heroes and knaves. Pratchett has taken the sword and sorcery fantasy tradition and turned it on its ear to create an entertaining and bizarre spoof....

This is the story of Arthur Dent, who seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, is plucked off the planet by his friend, Ford Prefect, who has been posing as an out-of-work actor for the last fifteen years but is really a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy aided by quotes for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with the words don't...