Read about the other entries on the list.Marvin the Paranoid Android (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams)
Only Douglas Adams could come up with a twist on super-intelligence as hilarious as Marvin. Instead of being empowered by his vast troves of programmed knowledge, Marvin is crippled by it. He suffers extreme existential despair and rambles on about the meaninglessness of his life to anyone who will listen. For example, this is how he describes his early life. “The first ten million years were the worst, and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn’t enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.” God, we miss that trademark Adams wit.
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy appears on Charlie Jane Anders's lists of the ten most unbelievable alien races in science fiction, eleven books that every aspiring television writer should read and ten satirical novels that could teach you to survive the future, Saci Lloyd's top ten list of political books for teenagers, Rob Reid's list of 6 favorite books, Esther Inglis-Arkell's list of ten of the best bars in science fiction, Don Calame's top ten list of funny teen boy books, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best instances of invisibility in literature.
--Marshal Zeringue
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