Panic or not, a new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novel, obviously not penned by the deceased Douglas Adams is due to be released titled, And Another Thing, which is really just asking for it. It shouldn’t be all that shocking, after all how many Robot and Foundation, Blade Runner sequels and Dune novels have been released that were not written by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick or Frank Herbert. And how many of those should have been pulped from the start? The honest reality is despite some decent moments, most of them. A series that people genuinely enjoy is an author’s personal vision and not really everyone’s playground. And if that is true for series like The Foundation and Dune, which took place on an epic scale, it is all the more true for the Hitchhiker novels which were erratic, eccentric and personal. They can’t be duplicated except as a thin copy and there is no reason to try. And even Douglas Adams had run out of steam writing them, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish was a radical detour into a more personal intimate realm and Mostly Harmless was mostly empty. I don’t think anyone but die hard fans really took Salmon of Doubt as being all that promising. And that only makes this all the more senseless. If even Douglas Adams had lost the knack for writing Hitchhiker novels, having some third party do it will not fly, even with all the jumping off high places and not looking in the world.