'''''And Another Thing...''''' is the sixth book in the [[TrilogyCreep increasingly inaccurately-named]] ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' trilogy. It's notable for being the first installment of the series not written by its creator, DouglasAdams, but by EoinColfer[[note]]although it's very difficult to tell at times and painfully easy at others[[/note]], author of the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' series (not counting ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic'', a tie-in novel written by Terry Jones of Creator/MontyPython fame). The book was released on October 12, 2009, to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the first book's original publication. Its storyline follows directly from where the fifth book, ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', left off.

Seconds before the Grebulons (the clueless, would-be [[AlienInvasion alien invaders]] from ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'') demolish the [[AlternateUniverse alternate-universe Earth]] as part of a [[ThePlan crafty gambit]] set up by the Vogons over the course of the previous books, our protagonists (Arthur Dent, his daughter Random, her mother Trillian Astra, and their friend Ford Prefect) are given one last shot at self-preservation by the Guide Mk. II, who abandoned Vogon Jeltz's side to fulfill Random's dying wish.

Almost at once, the gang is rescued by Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox, who, apparently, had been up to some ''very'' funny business since his last appearance. Now endebted to Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, an aeons-old immortal, the President embarks on a quest to meet with the [[NorseMythology Nordic thunder-god Thor]] to fulfill his part of a very odd bargain. Meanwhile, Arthur Dent is elated, and the Vogons are very displeased, to find that the human species may yet live on, in the depths of a faraway dark nebula... (''[[ScareChord bohm bohm bohhhhm]]!!'')

Features a guest appearance by [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu.]] It all [[ItMakesSenseInContext makes sense in context.]]

Preceded by ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''.
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!!''And Another Thing...'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* AgeInappropriateDress: Arthur's school uniform which Wowbagger's ship forces him to wear. Oddly, it's not really milked for humor all that much.
* AllGirlsLikePonies: Random's version of their rescue from Club Beta involved unicorns.
* AllTheMyriadWays: [[spoiler:Except for "our" versions, every single Arthur, Ford and Trilian in the multiverse is killed, apparently out of sheer spite on the part of the multiverse itself. Many of these are also {{Necro Non Sequitur}}s.]]
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Zaphod suffers from ADHDDAAADHD (ntm) ABT, which his attention span is too short to remember. It causes him to become distracted by twinkly lights whenever people are discussing topics other than him.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Arthur, sucked into a wormhole just as Fenchurch did between books four and five, finds himself stranded on an island very similar to the one he'd fantasized about in the Guide Mk. II's LotusEaterMachine. It's a place of absolute peace... until he's made aware that the Vogons are on their way.]] Made even more bittersweet by the fact that the story is now almost certainly over. Unless you thought it was funny.\\\
And made ''even worse'' when one considers that [[spoiler: (A) this happened just seconds after Fenchurch appeared right beside him, talking as if they'd never been separated and (B) EVERYONE ELSE got a happy ending. Trillian, Wowbagger, Ford, Zaphod, Random Dent, Thor, the people of Nano, even Agrajag, ''even the friggin' Vogons''.]] In one book the universe was actually explicitly stated to hate Arthur.\\\
Made ''even worse than that'' when you remember that Douglas Adams was going to have a happy ending in book six (Before the Trope-Naming AuthorExistenceFailure)
* BoisterousBruiser: Thor
* BrickJoke: One of the Guide entries near the beginning of the book tells how Fenrir was disintegrated as a result of driving into a white hole (all except for one of his molars, which became an asteroid). He's mentioned in passing (though not by name) near the end of the book, and then a few pages later said asteroid makes a brief appearance.
* BroadStrokes: Since the book it follows on from was largely set on an alternate Earth, and established that Earthers jump parallel universe at random, it probably makes sense to {{Retcon}} Fenchurch's Earth as being one of these, rather than getting into all the stuff about the dolphins.
* ButtMonkey: Arthur, of course. Ford suffers more verbal abuse than usual and becomes a bit self-conscious about his chin, not to mention Wowbagger and the Guide Mk. II both opining that he's not very clever. And the narrative reckons he's out of shape, and Arthur thinks he's not a very eloquent writer...
* CampStraight: Zaphod wears boots with silver high heels, may or may not be wearing eyeliner, and seems very concerned about his hair. Nonetheless, he'd like to go down in history as a "great satisfier of women".
* TheComicallySerious: Arthur, in-universe. Ford (high on a FantasticDrug) and Zaphod (high on life) find it hilarious that he's startled to hear a knock on the door in a spaceship in flight.
-->''Arthur was kind enough to provide both a delayed reaction and a double take for the entertainment of the Betelgeuseans.\\
"You get it. It's your... arkkkkk!"\\
"You're funny, buddy!" howled Ford, punching his shoulder. "Didn’t I tell you, cousin? I’ve been telling you for years. Arthur is a riot."''
* ContinuityNod / MythologyGag: Colfer makes numerous references to people and places that Adams originally used as one-off jokes in previous books and adaptations.
** The most significant of these is Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, who [[AscendedExtra becomes a major character]] in this book after only appearing in three scenes of ''Life, the Universe, and Everything''. And making an appearance in ''The Salmon of Doubt''.
** Thor only had ''one'' scene in ''LTUAE''. He first appeared in a brief cameo at ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse''. Although clearly, these are two different Thors. In ''Literature/TheLongDarkTeaTimeOfTheSoul'', Thor is physically intimidating, but his personality is fairly mild and non-confrontational; he even forms a childlike friendship with Kate. The Thor featured in the ''Hitchhiker'' book is an arrogant, boisterous braggart who never passes up a chance to demonstrate his machismo. Really, as a god, he could be interpreted in many different ways, even in the same world as in ''Literature/AmericanGods'' (assuming the [[WildMassGuessing theory]] about Ford in ''TheSalmonOfDoubt'' is correct). Just look at [[{{God}} our guy.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Hillman Hunter. Not ''corrupt'', per se, so much as ''sleazy.'' Bonus points for having created a phony space alien-related religion that is totally ''not'' {{Scientology}}. Could be argued it was more like the Heaven's Gate cult. The whole "being taken away by aliens in a spaceship" thing.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Zaphod. He's genuinely stupid, but it turns out [[spoiler:he manipulated a good amount of the events in the book]].
* CultColony
* DeathOfTheOldGods: {{Cthulhu}} applies for the job as a new world's god but he can't close the deal because, since nobody is currently worshiping him, he's technically dead.
* DeathSeeker: The main reason for [[spoiler:Wowbagger's]] actions.
* {{Depower}}: [[spoiler:Thor knocks the immortality out of Wowbagger during their big showdown.]]
* [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu Did You Just Turn Down a Job Application from Cthulhu?]]
* DiscontinuityNod: The beginning of the book to the ending of the radio series.
* DontExplainTheJoke
** Vogons tend to explain what few jokes they make because of their poor understanding of humor.
** Incidentally, some of the Guide Notes in the book also have the unfortunate effect of explaining jokes.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Tricia and the ''Guide'' Mk. II.]] The second one may count as a ContinuityNod as [[spoiler: the Guide Mk. II spontaneously disappeared from existence at the end of ''Mostly Harmless'', meaning that it was DoomedByCanon in a sense.]]
* DubInducedPlotHole: The American printing of ''And Another Thing...'' retains the original text that says Wowbagger had previously called Arthur a jerk and a complete arsehole, even though the American edition of ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'' had [[{{Bowdlerise}} replaced]] "arsehole" with "kneebiter". Later American releases of the book seem to be unedited in this regard, so it depends on how recent the copy they read was.
* DumbassHasAPoint: Zaphod once does this to ''himself''.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[spoiler:Bowerick "Bow" Wowbagger.]]
* FantasticDrug: Ford gets rather high off a cigarette made out of a worm.
* FriendshipMoment: Although Ford finds Zaphod somewhat trying, the annoyance doesn't seem too mutual: when Zaphod [[spoiler:suffers a near-death experience at the hands of Heimdall, his near-last-thoughts [[ItsAllAboutMe aside from those concerning himself]] are about Ford]].
* [[CoolShip Froody Ship]]: The ''Tanngrisnir''.
* AGoodNameForARockBand
** A slight variation.
-->''Zaphod blew into his hands. "Good. Great. Can we get on with it then? I am freezing. My spare neck hole really feels the cold, which incidentally is the title of my next album."''
** Arthur thinks Cosmic Nomads "would be a great name for a band".
* {{Goth}}: What Colfer unfortunately identifies Random as, when he really should have said EmoTeen.
* {{Guyliner}}: Zaphod may or may not wear it.
* HouseHusband: [[spoiler:Arthur is a stay-at-home dad for a while towards the end, although since Random has a job and the intellect of an adult (although she still has the emotional problems of a teenager), he's not especially necessary. So he decides to go traveling, since he's started to actually enjoy it.]]
* HowUnscientific: Although this isn't the first time gods have appeared, there seems to be rather a lot of them all of a sudden and they've become quite important.
* HumansAreMorons: Played with: apparently Betelgeusians aren't much cleverer. This hasn't stopped Ford and Zaphod from calling Arthur a moron, although it so happens they're not doing much of that in this one.
* IdleRich: The population of Nano, leading to some of their many problems.
* InadequateInheritor: Constant Mown, the free-spirited, paperwork-hating, protocol-neglecting son of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz.
* InherentlyFunnyWords: Instead of inventing inherently funny words the way Adams usually did, Colfer often uses funny-sounding ''real'' words and takes them out of context. One example is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenzizenzizenzic zenzizenzizenzic]], an archaic mathematical term meaning "raised to the 8th power".
* InnocentProdigy: Due to her LotusEaterMachine experience, Random is mentally a highly experienced adult, but has the mood swings and fondness for ponies of a teenage girl, so she's basically this trope plus puberty.
* JerkassRealization: Random gets a rather heavy-handed one towards the end.
* KissMeImVirtual: Arthur becomes majorly distracted by the hologram of Fenchurch that Wowbagger's shipboard computer creates from his memories.
* KissOfLife: Trillian passes out and a little bird tells Arthur this is the smart thing to do, so he does. She doesn't seem too concerned either way about it.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall
** In the prologue, Colfer says that if you type "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" into The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an icon will tell you that there are three results, which is confusing because there are clearly five listed below it. Get it? The ''five'' books of the Hitchhiker's Guide ''trilogy!'' FridgeBrilliance-tastic!\\\
It gets better: "Each of these five results is [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy a lengthy article]] accompanied by [[Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy many hours]] of [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy video]] and [[Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy audio]] files and some dramatic reconstructions featuring quite well-known actors." Which makes the description of the text-only appendix you will find at the bottom of the page, "with absolutely no audio and not so much as a frame of video shot by a student director who made the whole thing in his bedroom and paid his drama soc. mates with sandwiches", (ending "this is the story of that appendix") SelfDeprecation.
** When the Guide Mk II displays "neon stick figures" to explain the plot, this might be a reference to the excellent hand-drawn "computer graphics" of the TV series.
* LotusEaterMachine: The state of virtual reality the ''Guide'' Mk II keeps Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Random in, as a compromise between the conflicting orders it received from Random and Jeltz. All four of them are given chances to live out long, pleasant lives within a virtual universe, while virtually no time passes in the real world, to compensate for their real lives coming to such an unsatisfying and premature end. This serves as a handy excuse for any personality [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap changes]] the characters undergo due to the new author.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident
** {{Inverted|Trope}}: the dragons guarding Asgard are ordered to kill Zaphod accidentally but make it look like a murder in order to make his death particularly confusing.
** Almost played straight -- but averted at the last moment when [[spoiler:Mown manages to talk Jeltz out of destroying Nano. Thor was seconds away from smiting the bureaucruiser (and making it like debris from the earlier attack did it) when they jumped to hyperspace.]]
* MomentKiller: Apparently a law of the universe:
-->''As previously discussed, the Universe has an aversion to tenderness and cannot allow it to exist for long, as every loving glance has to be balanced by a short sharp shock somewhere else in the cosmos. Sometimes not so short.''
* MortalityEnsues: Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged wants to die, but can't because he's been made immortal against his will. [[spoiler:At the end he become de-immortalized, so he will eventually die. Close enough.]]
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Constant Mown, a Vogon with a conscience and a sense of aesthetics.
* NotNowKiddo: A fate to which Random is constantly relegated.
* {{Oireland}}: Subverted with Hillman Hunter, [[spoiler:who, as the consummate salesman, intentionally plays up every last nostalgic Irish stereotype imaginable in order to earn his clients' trust. He even bases his act on Barry Fitzgerald's character from ''TheQuietMan'']]. ''Jaysus an' Begorrah.''
* OutlivedItsCreator
* PapaWolf: Arthur tries to be this for Random, although he's naturally too hapless and bumbling to put his impulses into action.
* ParentalMarriageVeto: When your daughter is president of the galaxy, it's pretty hard to stop her marrying any small furry creature she so chooses.
* PlayingBothSides: [[spoiler:Zaphod]] set one up by effectively arming both sides in the human-Vogon conflict, [[spoiler:one with a god and the other with a god-destroying weapon]]. In the end [[spoiler:Thor's faked suicide]] enables them to keep the business of both [[spoiler:(remaining Thor's manager and the Vogons' supplier]]. This may have been unintentional.
* PlotRelevantAgeUp: Random is aged up mentally by spending about a hundred years in a simulation, although she's still physically, hormonally, and more-or-less emotionally a teenager.
* PunnyName
** A Hillman Hunter is a 1960s British car. There is, of course, precedent for ''[=H2G2=]'' characters being named after vintage British cars.
** Also, "Aseed Preflux" sounds like "acid reflux".
** "Constant Mown" is quite a lot like "Constant Moan".
* RubberForeheadAlien: [[spoiler:The alternate universe Fenchurch whom Arthur ''very'' briefly sees at the end.]]
* SecretHandshake: Between Ford and Zaphod, twice. Seemingly based on the strange dance they do in the [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy film]]. Apparently they invented it as children.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Colfer marks the end of the book as "[[InMediasRes The end of one of the middles.]]"]] It's a semi-meaningful gag. [[spoiler:Earlier in the book, when talking about endings, there's a quote that says "there is no such thing as an ending, or a beginning for that matter, everything is middle".]]
* SickeninglySweethearts: [[spoiler:Trillian and Wowbagger realize they've been acting like this even though they don't enjoy it and would rather insult people.]]
* SlapSlapKiss: Or in [[spoiler:Trillian and Wowbagger's]] case -- "Snark Snark Kiss."
* SneakyDeparture: Zaphod stole some hearts and some gold while on Nano and decides a quiet exit would be best, although Ford shows up to see him off.
* SnicketWarningLabel: Stop reading at the TitleDrop.
* SurpriseIncest: Mentioned in one of the Guide Notes.
* ThereIsAnother: [[spoiler: Nano]]
* ThereIsNoSuchThingAsNotability: The Guide apparently follows this rule, considering the fact its articles cover topics such as Vogon buttock pillows, the poor fitness of a particular staff writer who once practiced martial arts that were really all in his head and consequently got cocky and lost a bar fight to writers from another publication, Zaphod's pants-sprayer, reality TV, and various other seemingly useless topics. It seems to return frequently to the shortcomings of a particular staff writer who doesn't tend to check things aside from how much drink is in his glass and how froody things are. And yet the Earth barely merits a mention.
* ThrowTheDogABone: A Mr. [[spoiler:A. Grajag]] is mentioned at the end of the book as having won the lottery, marrying his childhood sweetheart, and having two well-adjusted children.
* TitleDrop: [[spoiler:Fenchurch's only words.]]
* WetSariScene
-->''Arthur lay on his bunk looking up at the sky to where Fenchurch hovered on a cloud wearing the same dark jeans, high boots and sodden T-shirt that she wore when he had first seen her, passed out in the back of her arsehole brother’s car.\\
"Does the T-shirt have to be wet?" asked the computer.\\
"What? Oh, God, no. Sorry, of course not. I am such an idiot."\\
"Just trying to be accurate, I expect. I can portray this Fenchurch person naked, if you’d like."
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Wowbagger. Eventually averted, when he gets cured of his immortality without being killed outright, giving him a chance to spend his short-ish life with Trillian.]]
* WritersSuck: Everyone including the narrator's got it out for Ford in this one.
-->''Ford arrived huffing. He was a writer and unaccustomed to physical exercise.''
* WriteWhoYouKnow: Colfer, who is Irish, creates the first Irish character to appear in the ''Hitchhiker's'' series.
* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler:Arthur. His daughter loves him, he's got a peaceful life, the Vogons have been staved off, and he's briefly reunited with a version of Fenchurch... before he's sucked away in hyperspace and stuck on a beach just as the Vogons are arriving.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: On Wowbagger's ship, Ford decides to give himself blue hair.
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This list shows the last 4 events of 4. Show all.

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