Prostetnic Vogan Jeltz is Not Amused

And I wasn't amused either when I saw this little article: Arthur Dent Hitchhikes Again which states, "Children’s author Eoin Colfer has been commissioned to follow up the adventures of Arthur Dent in a sixth book, entitled And Another Thing..."

Excuse me!?

"[Colfer] said: ‘My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series.'"

Hey, that was my first reaction too. And the article should have ended there. Instead:

"But on reflection I realised that this is a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding on to the spirit of Douglas Adams."

Now, I've never read anything by Colfer, Artemis Fowl or otherwise, so I can't judge the quality of his work. But really, it doesn't matter. He might be a simply fantastic author whose work I would love if I had a chance to read it. But he is NOT Douglas Adams. And he's going to write another Hitchhiker's book. And I'm not happy about that.

Does this ever end well? I can't think of any examples where a new author picked up the works of a deceased one and the resulting books were as good as the originals, although I do know of several cases where the new books were pretty lame. I really don't want to see Adams' legacy tarnished by a lame entry in the HHGttG.