----
* CrackPairing: [[spoiler:Trillian and Wowbagger.]]
* ContestedSequel: Reception to this story has been all over the place. While it's pretty universally agreed that it's [[OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight not a substitute for an actual Douglas Adams-penned book]], opinions differ wildly on whether or not it's actually a good story in its own right. Some fans like it and are happy that the ''Hitchhiker's'' series got to end on a more positive note than the bleak and depressing ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', others abolutely hate it and consider it an utter travesty and a mockery of Douglas Adams's work, while yet others just think it's SoOkayItsAverage.
* OlderThanTheyThink: This isn't the first ''[[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy]]'' novel that wasn't written by Creator/DouglasAdams. Creator/TerryJones wrote a novelization to ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic'', a spin-off game based on events mentioned in ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything''.
* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: At least a significant portion of the Creator/DouglasAdams fans out there were not at all satisfied with this book. Creator/EoinColfer at least acknowledges this at the start of the book, in a roundabout way not unlike most of Adams' trademark [[SeinfeldianConversation Seinfeldian Side Stories]]: the [[TrilogyCreep five of three results]] given for typing "[[BigBookOfEverything The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]" [[LogicBomb into the book itself]] (which is an analogy for the five stories by Adams) are described as "[[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy -a lengthy article]] [[ArchivePanic accompanied by many hours of]] [[Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1981 video]] and [[Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978 audio files]], [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005 and some dramatic reconstructions]] [[AllStarCast featuring quite well-known actors]]." ''Then'' it lists [[DamnedByFaintPraise a text-only appendix at the bottom of the screen]] (obviously Colfer's entry) "[[SoOkayItsAverage -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.]]" - before admitting "[[SelfDeprecation This is the story of that appendix]]"
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
** Trillian, who came across as a very poor mother in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', thanks to her MarriedToTheJob lifestyle, is much more sympathetic here and spends a lot of the book dealing with her guilt over how she raised Random.
** Random herself, thanks to her LotusEaterMachine experience of serving as Galactic President, transcends her original EmoTeen characterization and now has ambitions of opening Earth up to contact with the rest of the galaxy.
* {{Squick}}: Zaphod's spare neck hole.
* StrangledByTheRedString: [[spoiler:Trillian and Wowbagger]], {{justified|Trope}} by the fact dark space amplifies emotions.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: "Frood" isn't an adjective! Zark is spelled with a lower-case z! [[SarcasmMode Did this guy even read the first five books?]]
----