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September 18, 2008 8:38 AM
by Peter Griffiths
LONDON - Children's author Eoin Colfer is to write a sixth novel in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, seven years after the death of its creator Douglas Adams, Penguin said on Wednesday.
The Irish writer, best known for his Artemis Fowl fairy stories, has the blessing of Adams's widow, Jane Belson, to continue the bestselling science fiction saga.
Called And Another Thing..., the new novel will be published in October 2009. Colfer said he was a big fan of the original books, which started as a BBC radio serial.
"For years I have been finishing this incredible story in
my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real
world," he said in a statement. "It is a gift from the gods.
So, thank you Thor and Odin."
The satirical books tell the story of a hapless Englishman
called Arthur Dent who travels the universe after the Earth is
demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
The saga centers on the search for the answer to "life, the
universe and everything," which after a long wait turns out to
be 42.
Penguin Managing Director Helen Fraser said she hoped
Colfer would attract new readers to the books.
Adams died from a heart attack in California in 2001 at the
age of 49. He had hoped to finish the series with a sixth
novel.
"Five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better
kind of number," he once said.
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