There’s also some almost traditional fun to be had with the technological aspects of the ship. These seem to be based on the thematic approach adopted by Las Vegas casino hotels – both the Venetian and the Luxor are referenced. There’s some pleasing music from Philip Pope, another frequent collaborator with both Adams and Maggs.Īlthough it is a piece which really cries out for the visual dimension, this audio recording does a fine job in conjuring up the opulence of the starship’s interiors. The rest of the cast have clearly done their homework as far as capturing the extremely dry wit and bathos of the originals. As ever Adams’ scorn for middle management remains intact. In another nod to the past Simon Jones (the original and best Arthur Dent) also pops up as a bent space accountant whose idea it is to destroy the starship as part of a massive insurance fraud scam. As has become the recognised form, the narrated interpolations contain some of the best comic utterances and provide a respite from the rather frantic comedy that goes on around them. This time round it is called “The Encyclopaedia Galactica” and, pleasingly, features the dulcet tones of Jones’ old compadre Michael Palin. Of course, in any Adams related product there has to be a sardonically voiced book – I think it may well be enshrined in law. The production is a great homage to Adams and Jones, capturing the technologically whimsical spirit and clever humour of both authors. It is adapted by Ian Billings and masterminded by Dirk Maggs, who has kept Adams’ flag flying with the audio versions of the later entries to the Hitchhiker’s Guide saga as well as the Dirk Gently books. Jones, also alas no longer with us, did an incredibly good job of aping Adams’ style, as does a newly dramatized audio version of Starship Titanic broadcast on the BBC last weekend and now available via Sounds. So, with five weeks to go before product launch he phoned his friend Terry Jones and asked him to provide the book it made it to the shelves on time. But if you know anything about the author, you will know the one thing that he hated was writing and that he regularly missed/ignored deadlines. As part of the original process a novelised version of the game was supposed to be provided. In just ten seconds, the whole stupendous enterprise is over. How could this have happened? The following morning, while the galaxy's media looks on, the fabulous ship eases away from the construction dock, picks up speed, sways a little, wobbles a bit, veers wildly and, just before it can do untold damage to everything around it, appears to undergo SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure). Before the launch Leovinus is having one last little look round and begins to find that things just aren't right: poor workmanship, cybersystems out of control, robots walking into doors. An Earthling would see the ship as something really, really big, but rather less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy's most renowned architect. At the centre of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launch of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced spaceship ever built - the Starship Titanic. From the minds of Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ) and Terry Jones (Monty Python) comes Starship Titanic, the hilarious novelization of the third-best adventure game of 1999.
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