As this popularly acclaimed, internationally best-selling sequel to THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY opens, the hapless Earthman Arthur Dent has just escaped certain death on the planet Magrathea. He now faces certain death from a Vogon spaceship, unless the ghost of ex-Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox's grandfather can lend a spectral helping hand. As he must, because Zaphod must fulfill a mission he's totally forgotten about--to search for the man who truly rules the universe. Naturally, there's time for everyone to stop for a bite to eat at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe first....In general, these first two books--THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and this volume--are considered to be the definitive books in the HITCHHIKER'S series. Part of the reason why this is so may be because these first two books follow to a significant degree the plotline of the BBC radio series that inspired them, although the events are somewhat rearranged and some additional incidents added. The subsequent books take the story in an entirely new direction, far past the timeline of the radio series.