This past week I’ve been getting a very steady trickle of Google search hits for my reviews on the Metaframe War books I’ve read so far. It was enough that I decided to investigate and see what was going on. Most of the time when that happens it’s because I’ve pissed somebody off and they’ve cried to their mommy about it and that sends the drones my way. Thankfully, it was nothing like that.
Mommy Drone in Attack Mode!
As you can see in the first picture, my site pops up Fourth in a google search for Metaframe War Review. Most of the hits after that are from various bookstores, etc, much like the Amazon hit shown.
I didn’t show it, but my review for Traitor’s War (book 2) is at Fourteen. So I’ve got 2 frontline eyeballs for anyone curious about the Metaframe War. Of course, in about a week I’ll have sunk to the 100th page and I’m ok with that.
But for right now, I’m basking in my own notoriety and the power that comes from being A Book Reviewer. I am the power behind the throne. Dreams live, or die, at my whim. Hope and Despair live within my gaze and I turn it where I will, much like the Eye of Sauron! Mwhahahahaha!
Yeah, ok, I’m giving myself a Chartreuse Flag for an out of control egotrip. But it was worth it, every single second!
Hopefully you’ve had a good week too? Probably not as good as mine, but that’s ok. Not everyone can be the Mad Chartreuse Emperor of the known Universes after all. But just to show you how much I care, I will actually read any comments that are left and if you’ve been a really good boy/girl, I might even respond. Wowzer, talk about incredibly generous! That way you can tell your grandkids that you actually talked with someone who was on Google. But wait, there’s more!
Oh, no there isn’t.
Have a good Friday and I’ll see you in the comments. Or on your blog. Or on Whatsapp. Or email. Or text. Don’t think that just because I’m ending this post means I’m stopping talking. No sirree bob. There are words to be said. Many, many, many words. Like “extra large bottle of bbq sauce”.
`dragged away by the men in white coats carrying a strait jacket
ps, If you don’t find this amusing, don’t worry. I am amused enough for everyone.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Mary Poppins Comes Back Series: Mary Poppins #2 Author: Pamela Travers Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Middlegrade Fiction Pages: 304 Words: 59K
A couple of teens in our church had done the play/musical Mary Poppins Jr and had to read the original book so they had the full story. I was talking to them and when they mentioned it, that was how I got the idea to read at least the first couple of books. I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Poppins and after their play was done, hunted them down and asked them what they thought of the book. They had a VERY different take on the original and one that I suspect was more about age and experience difference than actual literary evaluation difference. But their comments stayed in my head as I went into the next book and yeah, I see what they meant. I shall expound in a later paragraph.
When I did the Currently Reading & Quote post earlier this month, I said I was looking forward to Mr Banks’ old nanny, Miss Andrew, striking sparks with Mary Poppins. Well, there was a confrontation but there weren’t many sparks, mainly because Mary Poppins so overpowered Miss Andrew that it would have been like asking a log of wood to strike sparks from an axe. Mary Poppins eventually got so fed up with Miss Andrew, that when she found out Miss Andrew kept a singing lark prisoner in a cage, she put Miss Andrew in the cage and had the lark fly all over the sky with it, thus scaring the stuffing out of Miss Andrew.
In this book, it is Jane, the eldest, who has a “bad” day and is naughty, naughty, naughty (in the previous book it was Michael). She ends up inside a magic vase, trapped by an evil “grandfather” who wants new grandchildren and for them to never change. Mary Poppins rescues her but Janes’ takeaway is that it wasn’t really her who was being so naughty, but some other “Jane”. I have noticed this author doesn’t believe in the fallen nature of humanity. Everyone is basically good. Which is so much complete balderdash that you have to be deliberately ignoring the evidence in front of your eyes. Children ARE naughty and bad. They need to be corrected. They need to come to the realization that they are bad in and of themselves and that they will never be “perfect’ on their own. Until a person realizes that, they can never admit that they need Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Ok, so back to my reading. When I was talking with the teens from church, one of their complaints about Mary Poppins was how she gaslit the children and that really annoyed them, hence their dislike of the first book. I had to laugh, because it happens just as much this time, if not more. Jane and Michael will see something, like Mary Poppins coming down at the end of Michael’s kite (how she came back) and when they mention it to her, Mary Poppins acts outraged and like it couldn’t possibly have happened. Being children, they are not so sure of themselves, but the author always has them see some bit of evidence at the end of the chapter so they KNOW they did see what they thought they saw. I found it extremely amusing but I guess from a teenager’s view point I could understand why they wouldn’t like that. Getting older has brought me so many benefits that sometimes I forget and it takes talking to someone who hasn’t gotten to my place yet to remember just how blessed I am.
I also found out there are EIGHT Mary Poppins books. I just have the omnibus collecting the first four. Depending on how the next two go will determine if I try to track down the other four.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
Nothing has been right since Mary Poppins left Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane. One day, when Mrs. Banks sends the children out to the park, Michael flies his kite up into the clouds. Everyone is surprised, when Michael reels his kite in, to find that Mary Poppins is at the end of the string. She takes charge of the children once again (though she’ll only stay “’til the chain of her locket breaks”). This time, Jane and Michael meet the fearsome Miss Andrew, experience an upside-down tea party, and visit a circus in the sky. In the chapter “The New One” a girl, Annabel, is born into the Banks family, and concludes the family of now five children: three daughters and two sons. As in Mary Poppins, Mary leaves at the end (via an enchanted merry-go-round, throwing her locket towards the children as she disappears), but this time with a “return ticket, just in case” she needs to return.
The last couple of posts explained, in simplified terms, the rules of Marvel Champions and the various steps each Hero and Villain went through for each round of the game.
Today, and then next month as well, I’d like to look at how the decks are constructed. This is a necessary bit of knowledge because while the Spiderman and Captain Marvel decks as well as the Rhino Villain Deck, are preconstructed, should you desire to play with any of the other heroes from the box, you will need to construct a deck yourself. This might seem complicated if you’ve never done any sort of deck construction before, but thankfully, the rules walk you through exactly what to do and I’ll be showing the various parts with pictures.
Today, we will just deal with constructing your Hero Deck. In the base set (the big box), there are 5 Heroes to choose from.
Spiderman
Captain Marvel
Iron Man
She-Hulk
Black Panther
I will be choosing Spiderman today and using him and his cards as an example.
Once you choose your Hero Identity, there are a set of cards automatically associated with that Hero. You will see this on cards down in the lower right of the card. On the card below I have boxed in “Spiderman” in yellow with a big yellow arrow pointing to it. The number next to it means there are 15 cards in total associated directly with Spiderman.
Also associated with each Hero are a set of “Nemesis” cards. You will not be using these to construct your Hero deck, but need to keep track of them for when we construct our Villain Deck next time. I have once again boxed it in yellow with a big yellow arrow, hopefully making it easy to see. The numbers once again indicate how many of these cards there are, making it easy to group them together should you ever spill the box or have your cat knock it off the table, or even have your children play along with you.
The next part of the deck is your Aspect. In Marvel Champions, there are four Aspects to choose from:
Justice
Leadership
Aggression
Protection
Once again, there are specific cards associated with each Aspect, making it easy to choose the correct cards. These are found on the lower right of the card, just like the Hero Cards. While a bit blurry, the card below is a “Justice” card.
The Next part of a Hero Deck are the pool of Basic cards. This is group of cards that you can mix and match and add to your deck to bring it up to the requirements of deck building.
Some cards are generic and some are unique. If a card is generic, you can have up to 3 copies of it in your deck. If it is unique, you can only have 1 copy of it. You can tell a card is unique because of the Diamond symbol next to the Title/Name, as pictured below.
The above are all the parts you’ll need to create your personal deck. A Hero deck must have a minimum of 40 cards and a maximum of 50.
One Hero Identity Card (doesn’t count towards the limit)
All of the associated Hero Cards
One of each card from a particular Aspect
Additional cards from the Aspect you have chosen
Additional cards from the Basic card pool
By the time you are done, you will have created a deck of 40 to 50 cards with which to play. Next time we will look at constructing the Villain Deck. And remember folks….
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: A Traitor’s War Series: The Metaframe War #2 Author: Graeme Rodaughan Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 247 Words: 97K
Anton goes through a training montage with his new buddies, Vampire General Armitage continues her machinations and the secret hidden servant of the Red Empire (humans who fight vampires, but don’t care about collateral damage) is conflicted when they find out that the Red Empire has allied with the Vampire Dominion to take down the Order of Thoth (the group Anton kind of belongs to now).
Decent, but with some real issues. The leader of the group that Anton is now in appears to take such a hands off approach to being a leader that all he does is fight and tell others to fight. There was no “strategy” or tactics or anything. He really didn’t display any leadership qualities and his choices could have some really bad consequences, IF the leaders of the Red Empire and the Vampire Dominion weren’t just as clueless as him. It’s definitely the author not having any idea of how to write a leader. For him, the main character should be the leader and that is Anton, except Anton can’t be the leader because he’s too inexperienced and doesn’t know enough. It wasn’t bad writing, but it WAS poor writing. There were also some egregious “he said, she said, he did, she did” kind of scenarios that took me right out of the story.
Now, with all that complaining, I still enjoyed the story. I think the bones are decent. However, as I wrote in the comments in the first book (A Subtle Agency) if Rodaughan hasn’t improve beyond this level by the next book, I’m probably going to dnf the series. These books seem like the quality that you’d find in the Kindle Unlimited program. Indie authors who are trying to improve but aren’t keeping it to themselves when they should be.
I didn’t waste my time but neither did I feel like I had read something exceptional or even pretty good. It was decent and that was it. Sometimes that IS enough and sometimes it just isn’t. I guess I’ll be finding out which it is in the next book.
★★★☆☆
From the Publisher
After the desperate battle on the Boston docks, Anton Slayne finds refuge amongst the vampire hunters of the Order of Thoth. Anton discovers the Order of Thoth harbors a traitor who could get his new friends killed. While a secret alliance between the Red Empire, and rogue vampire general, Chloe Armitage, threatens to do the same. With threats both within and without – will Anton’s new powers be enough to save his friends, or will his circling enemies destroy everyone he loves?
Hang on to your hats folks. After the utter disaster that Dune, Part 2 was, whereby my last remaining shred of interest in modern movies was completely ground into the dust, I decided to look backwards in time, to a completely different country, when story telling actually counted for something.
So back to a beloved anime from 1998. Cardcaptor Sakura is a Magical Girl anime about a girl named Sakura who accidentally releases a bunch of magical cards created by a Magician named Clow. The Guardian of the Cards, who had been sleeping on the job for 30 years, gives Sakura the job of re-capturing the Cards before a prophesied disaster befalls the entire world. Sakura is given magical girl powers by Kero, the Guardian and each Card she captures gives her additional magical powers.
CCS has had quite the storied release here in North America. It was released as a completely butchered tv version where Sakura plays a minor part instead of being the main character. It was subsequently released on dvd, uncut but subtitled only. Finally, it was released on Bluray, uncut and with both dubs and subs. There were other releases as the rights jumped from one company to another, but our interest here is the Uncut DVD release and the Bluray release.
I bought the entire 70 episode series (18 dvds) back in 2005. 18 dvd’s was quite an investment for me back then and I treasured this series. It was light, fluffy, upbeat and so positive that you could pour it on pancakes for breakfast. At the time, I didn’t mind the subtitle only release. This was the only way to watch CCS and so I watched it this way.
Fast forward to now. I was despondent. I was in despair. Movies were anathema to me. I was ready to nuke Hollywood as a whole and damn the civilian casualties. I needed something light, fluffy, upbeat and so positive I could pour it on my waffles for breakfast. CCS immediately sprang to mind. But I have a touch of the snob in me and merely re-watching my old dvd’s was not going to be nearly good enough for me. So I ordered the entire series on bluray. I wanted to do a compare/contrast and see if I had wasted my money on an upgraded version. I’ll be looking into that aspect next month.
This dvd, The Clow, has four episodes on it. They are as follows:
Synopses – Click to Open
1) Sakura and the Mysterious Magic Book” -Sakura Kinomoto, a ten-year-old, experiences dreams involving a peculiar book and Tokyo Tower. After returning home from school, Sakura is drawn to the basement by strange noises. In her father’s library, she discovers the Clow Book, the same book from her dream. She accidentally breaks its seal, unleashing the magical Clow Cards into the world. The cards’ guardian, Cerberus, awakens and appoints Sakura the role of Cardcaptor – to catch and seal the cards using the Clow Wand. They successfully catch the Fly Card, allowing Sakura to fly.
2) Sakura’s Wonderful Friend -Tomoyo meets Cerberus after she discovers Sakura’s secret and becomes involved in Sakura’s quest. Cerberus gets given the nickname “Kero-chan”, which will stick for the rest of the series. The next day, the students find the school’s desks and equipment in large piles. Kero believes it was the work of a Clow Card and forces Sakura to go to school at night where she confronts the Shadow Card. Using Windy, Sakura is able to capture it. Sakura finally accepts her role as a Cardcaptor because of Tomoyo’s support, who begins providing battle costumes for her to wear, as well as filming her endeavors.
3) Sakura’s Heart-Racing First Date -Sakura’s class is on a field trip to the aquarium. During the penguin show, something catches the trainer’s leg and a penguin and pulls them into the water, but they are saved by Sakura’s brother, Toya, who is working part-time there. At school, Tomoyo gives Sakura and Kero mobile phones and on the way home, Sakura bumps into Yukito who invites her on a casual “date” to the aquarium. While they are eating, the Watery Card attempts to drown Sakura. For the first time, Sakura has to formulate a plan to capture a card. Using her wits and an unintentional clue from Yukito, she lures Watery into a freezer to immobilize and capture it.
4) Sakura’s Tiring Sunday -While cleaning the house, Sakura finds two dormant Clow Cards, the Wood and the Rain. But while running an errand for her father, the two cards activate creating a jungle inside the house. Sakura uses Watery to capture the Rain Card and the gentle Wood Card yields on her own. Sakura gets the hard-earned lesson that a card is not fully subdued until she signs her name on it.
When I remembered these as sweet, I wasn’t kidding! I am talking totally saccharine here. By the time I was done with these 4 episodes, I was done for this month. I thoroughly enjoyed these but just like a bag of gum drops, you can only take so many at once.
I realize I blabbed a lot at the beginning and didn’t talk a lot about the specific episodes. I’ll eventually get around to that, but not at this time nor next month. I’ll provide a synopsis in a Details code next time just like this time but am hoping to focus on the differences between the dvd and the bluray releases. After THAT we’ll see if I can be bothered to talk about the episodes themselves. Don’t hold your breath though, I’m not feeling very “talky” when it comes to movies anymore.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Conan of Venarium Series: Conan the Barbarian #19 Author: Harry Turtledove Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 192 Words: 81K
Harry Turtledove is known for his alternate history, especially Roman alternate history. He’s big on the Roman Empire, blah blah blah. He is what I would qualify as an author and not just a writer. Doesn’t mean I read very much of his stuff. But it elevates my expectations of what I’m going to be getting.
And I got it.
Most fans of Conan know about the sack of Venarium. It was the beginning of the saga of Conan. Aquilonians invade Cimmeria and have their way for about two years. Then the various tribes unite and utterly destroy the invaders, from soldiers down to children. There was no mercy and it was a lesson to the Aquilonians to never even come near Cimmeria again.
Conan starts the story as a twelve year old and by the end, is only fourteen or fifteen. He’s pretty much the Conan that we read about in later stories by that point. His parents both die, the young girl he’s in love with has been destroyed, his entire village is gone and he has no ties to Cimmeria any more and he has a mansized grudge against Aquilonia.
This was a very good “origin” story for Conan and I’m happy to have read it. Recommended if you are a fan of Conan.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
An Aquilonian army marches across the border of Bossonia into southern Cimmeria under the command of one Count Stercus. We soon learn that, although an able commander and warrior, Stercus has fallen from favour with King Numedides for his lecherous ways involving adolescents back in Aquilonia. His banishment to the frontier is, apparently, part of his penance.
Word of the invasion passes through Cimmeria as the army continues to press north, building forts each evening where they camp. Eventually Stercus is satisfied with his advance and calls a halt.
The last fort constructed is called Venarium.
We are introduced to a 12-year-old boy named Conan, living with his family in a village called Duthil, located north of Venarium, about a day’s travel by foot. Conan’s family consists of his father, Mordec the blacksmith and his mother, Verina. Conan’s mother has been sick for as long as Conan can remember with tuberculosis.
Duthil is a good sized village, sporting a smith, a miller, a weaver, a tanner and other cottage industry. A number of farmers and herdsmen use Duthil as a hub for commerce and a source of additional labour at harvest. At least 2 homes in Duthil have more than one room.
Word of the invasion soon reaches Duthil. Mordec and Balarg, the two leading Elders, determine how to best continue spreading the word to other villages. We also hear, at this time, that Conan bears more than a passing affection for Balarg’s daughter, Tarla, who is near his age.
Before long, the men of a handful of Clans are gathering to repel the invading Aquilonians. Mordec readies himself to join them. He and Conan come to blows over Conan’s insistence that he is old enough to join in the battle.
The Clans surround the fort and mount a fierce attack but are scattered by a charge of Aquilonian cavalry as they are about to breach the gate. The Cimmerians break and run, many of them being ridden down and killed. A number of men from Duthil survive with various wounds. Mordec, one of the last Cimmerians to leave the battle, is the last villager from Duthil to return home. He and his Clansmen resignedly accept that, for the time being, they must live as conquered subjects of Aquilonia.
A squad of Aquilonian soldiers soon arrives at Duthil commanded by a Captain Treviranus. Mordec translates the Captain’s decrees into Cimmerian. He will treat the Cimmerians fairly but informs them that every Aquilonian harmed by a Cimmerian will result in ten Cimmerians being harmed in return. Treviraus even goes so far as to warn them to ward their youth against the impure interests of Count Stercus, his commander in Venarium. The squad constructs a small walled compound a stone’s throw from the village as a garrison.
Settlers begin arriving shortly thereafter and establish homesteads in the country around Venarium and south to the Bossonian border.
We see Conan grow up under the shackles of his youth, his domestic situation, and the enmity he bears the occupying soldiers and settlers.
The occupation lasts approximately two years.
That summer, two score Cimmerian Clans rise against the invaders and the horde sweeps south, utterly destroying Venarium, driving the last surviving settlers and the remnants of the defeated Aquilonian army ahead of them into Bossonia. A number of Cimmerians cross into Bossonia to teach the Aquilonians a hard lesson about ever considering another invasion. More than one band pushes south through Bossonia, raiding into Gunderland. Conan’s raiding party even pushes far enough south to enter Aquilonia itself, but is wiped out, soon thereafter, to a single man; Conan is the sole survivor.
Continuing south through Aquilonia, intent on travelling to the capital, Tarantia, Conan takes a contract as a teamster, despite never having driven a horse and wagon. He delivers the wagon load of onions, as promised, and then steals the wagon to head south and east toward other Hyborian lands.
This has been a brutal work week. If you’re one of those “Centigrade” people, here’s a link to a handy converter for you: Online Temp Converter
By the end of each work day, I felt like a steam roller had run me over, multiple times. In the 9hrs at work, I would drink about 3/4 gallon of water and about 1/2 gallon of gatorade.
I came home, cooled down and went to bed. I had no energy for much else. And I still have to get through today. Wish me luck!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Remains Series: Galaxy’s Edge #14 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Military SF Pages: 281 Words: 123K
This was exactly the same as the previous book, in that we get one chapter with some of the space opera element and the rest of the book is a Legionnaires military science fiction novel. Not at all what I signed up for. So I’m downgrading my rating because I felt very generous last time. I’m not feeling that way at all any more.
Anspach and Cole made an unspoken compact with the readers in the first series. This was Star War’esque in both it’s tone and story line. That compact has been broken, most thoroughly now, by them in this second series. I wish they had never started this and once I’m done with this series, I’ll be done with them as authors.
Once again, Indie authors disappoint me and let me down. How typical.
★★✬☆☆
From the Publisher
The Legion has landed…
The Republic world of Kima has fallen with shocking speed to the renewed forces of the Mid-Core Rebellion, and General Chhun must lead the rebuilt and enhanced 131st Legion-along with Marines, Dark Ops, Navy, and Kimbrin Resistance-onto the planet to violently check their assault.
But timing is of the essence, and Chhun can’t do it alone. Bear, working undercover, unearths the treachery of a resurgent Nether Ops still working their dark influence from the shadows. Masters has his hands full just staying alive while he evades deadly pursuers. And Keel finds himself swept up in intrigues that may make the planetary takeover of Kima all but insignificant.
The battle is fierce and hard, but VICTORY is always within reach so long as the Legion-remade to its initial purpose-remains to fight.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Life, the Universe and Everything Series: THGttG #3 Author: Douglas Adams Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 126 Words: 53K
This was stupid. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t amusing, it didn’t tell a story. It was simply stupid and Adams completely wasted my time with this utter piece of drivel.
Don’t be like the Chartreuse Emperor and read this book, or you’ll go insane. That’s a DoUbLe BoBa FaCt PrOmIsE!
★★☆☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Arthur Dent is met by his old friend Ford Prefect, who drags him into a space-time eddy, represented by an anachronistic sofa. The two end up at Lord’s Cricket Ground two days before the Earth’s destruction by the Vogons. Shortly after they arrive, a squad of robots land in a spaceship in the middle of the field and attack the assembled crowd, stealing the Ashes before departing. Another spaceship arrives, the Starship Bistromath, helmed by Slartibartfast, who discovers he is too late to stop the theft and requests Arthur and Ford’s help.
As they travel to their next destination, Slartibartfast explains that he is trying to stop the robots from collecting all the components of the Wikkit Gate. Long ago, the peaceful population of the planet of Krikkit, unaware of the rest of the Universe due to a dust cloud that surrounded its solar system, were surprised to find the wreckage of a spacecraft on their planet. Reverse engineering the vessel, they explored past the dust cloud and saw the rest of the Universe, immediately taking a disliking to it and deciding that it must be destroyed. They built a fleet of ships and robots to attack the rest of the Universe in a brutal onslaught known as the Krikkit Wars, but were eventually defeated. Realizing that the Krikkit population would not be satisfied alongside the existence of the rest of the Universe, it was decided to lock the planet in a Slo-Time envelope, to be opened only after the Universe has ended so that the planet can exist alone. The Wikkit Gate, shaped exactly like a wicket used in the sport of cricket, is needed to unlock the envelope. However, one ship carrying a troop of robots from Krikkit avoided being sealed in, and these robots began to search for the pieces of the Gate after they were dispersed about space and time.
Slartibartfast, Arthur, and Ford transport to an airborne party that has lasted numerous generations where another Gate component, the Silver Bail, is to be found, but Arthur finds himself separated from the others and ends up at a Cathedral of Hate created by a being called Agrajag. Agrajag reveals that he has been reincarnated countless times in a wide variety of forms, only to be killed by Arthur in each life; he now plans to kill Arthur in revenge. However, upon learning that Arthur has yet to cause his death at a place called Stavromula Beta, Agrajag realizes that he has pulled Arthur out of his relative timeline too soon and that killing him now would cause a paradox, but attempts to kill Arthur anyway. In his insanity, Agrajag brings the Cathedral down around them. Arthur manages to escape unharmed, partially due to learning how to fly after falling and missing the ground while catching sight of a bag he had lost at a Greek airport years before. After collecting the bag, Arthur inadvertently comes across the flying party and rejoins his friends. Inside, they find Trillian, but they are too late to stop the robots from stealing the Silver Bail. Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Slartibartfast return to the Bistromath and try to head off the robots activating the Wikkit Gate.
Meanwhile, the Krikkit robots steal the last two pieces, the Infinite Improbability Drive core from the spaceship Heart of Gold and a peg leg used by Marvin the Paranoid Android. They capture both Marvin and Zaphod Beeblebrox in the process.
The Bistromath arrives too late to stop the robots from opening the Gate, so its occupants transport to the planet to attempt to negotiate with the Krikkit people. To their surprise, they find that the people seem to lack any desire to continue the war, and are directed to the robot and spaceship facilities in orbit about the planet. With help from Zaphod and Marvin, the group is able to infiltrate the facilities. Trillian deduces that the Krikkiters have been manipulated, reasoning that the people of Krikkit could not simultaneously be smart enough to develop their ultimate weapon—a bomb that could destroy every star in the universe—and also stupid enough not to realize that this weapon would also destroy them.
The characters discover that the true force behind the war has been the supercomputer Hactar. Previously built to serve a war-faring species, Hactar was tasked to build a supernova-bomb that would link the cores of every sun in the Universe together at the press of a button and cause the end of the Universe. Hactar purposely created a dud version of the weapon instead, causing his creators to pulverize him into dust, which thus became the dust cloud around Krikkit. However, Hactar was still able to function, though at a much weaker level. Trillian and Arthur speak to Hactar in a virtual space that he creates for them to explain himself. Hactar reveals that he spent eons creating the spaceship that crashed on Krikkit to inspire their xenophobia and incite them to go to war, also influencing their thoughts. However, when the Slo-Time envelope was activated, his control on the population waned. As he struggles to remain functional, Hactar apologizes to Trillian and Arthur for his actions before they leave for their ship.
With the war over, the group collects the core of the Heart of Gold and the Ashes, the only two components of the Wikkit Gate not destroyed by the robots, and returns Zaphod and Marvin to the Heart of Gold. Returning to Lord’s Cricket Ground only moments after the robots’ attack, Arthur attempts to return the Ashes, but is suddenly inspired to bowl one shot at a wicket that is being defended using a cricket ball in his bag. However, during his run-up, Arthur suddenly realizes that the ball was created and placed in his bag by Hactar and is actually the working version of the cosmic-supernova-bomb, and that the defender of the wicket is one of the Krikkit robots, ready to detonate the bomb once thrown. Arthur trips, misses the ground, and flies over the pitch, allowing him to throw the bomb safely aside and behead the robot with its own bat.
Afterward, the group are taking Arthur to a ‘quiet and idyllic planet’ when they come across a half-mad journalist. Some time earlier, he had been reporting on a court case in which a witness named Prak was inadvertently given an overdose of a truth drug. Prak began to tell all truth, horrifying the involved parties so badly that they abandoned the courtroom and sealed it up with him inside. The group find him still there, hoping to learn from him the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. They are disappointed to find that Prak has told all the truth in existence, but has forgotten it and kept no record. The only information he can provide is that the Ultimate Question and its answer can never both be known about in the same universe. He then attempts to tell Arthur where God’s last message to His creation is, though he dies seemingly before Arthur is able to memorize the location.
Arthur ultimately settles on Krikkit, where he becomes a more skillful flier and learns bird language. He is briefly interrupted by the arrival of an immortal alien who has made it his goal to insult every living creature in the universe, but the alien realizes that he has already done so with Arthur on prehistoric Earth.
