Everyone loves a good laugh. That's probably why Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series is so popular.

It's full of parody and cosmic buffoonery that appeals to both young and old.

Now, 30 years after the book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was first released, part six of three is being released. And a new author — Eoin (pronounced Owen) Colfer— is at its helm.

Adams had always planned to write a sixth Hitchhiker book, and he had started taking notes for it. But when Adams died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 49 in May 2001, many thought that was the end of the series.

That changed, however, when Adams' agent approached Colfer, asking him to complete the series. Colfer came to the project easily, though he was wary at first.

But when Adams' agent explained that they wanted to introduce a new generation of young people to the books and that Adams' widow was agreeable, Colfer happily signed on.

After all, Colfer was a big fan of the books when he was a teenager.

" 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is a real teenager's book because it's full of satirical rebelliousness," said Colfer in an interview from his home in Wexford, Ireland.

"It's against bureaucracy, and it's against politics, and it's against personalities and celebrity, and I think when you're a teenager, you're kind of against everything. So this was a good place for a book for teenagers."

Colfer picked up right where Adams left off — with all the main characters being blown up with the Earth — but he chose not to use Adams' notes. "I didn't think that would be a good idea for me," Colfer said.

"Basically, I was left with kind of a cliffhanger at the end of the fifth book, so I just tried to follow on from there," he said. "My first main challenge was to bring the characters back from the dead, or more accurately to explain how they never were killed in the first place. Once I had solved that challenge, then the plot kind of followed on itself from there."

Still, Colfer had to walk a fine line when writing, using his own voice but staying true to Adams' vision. "You want to make it so when someone reads it they're still in the Hitchhiker world and they're not in a totally different universe," Colfer said. "But at the same time, you want to write with your own voice and not try and imitate Douglas too much.