Humour is especially subjective. “Hitchhiker’s Guide” had plenty of silly fun mixed in with the more trenchant satire and worked for me, but either or both were not for everyone. If Cory and Scalzi feel Newitz came close to striking that balance, I’m more apt to take their word over a random Douglas Adams fanboi’s who thinks the use of the title of his book is somehow sacrosanct.
The core basic plot motif of the struggle between feminists and misogynists shared between “Handmaid’s Tale” and this book, on the other hand, seems pretty self-evident and (given the number of people currently dying at the hands of and the poisoning of public discourse by MRAs, incels, Xtianists, and the like) far from a “juvenile” choice for a theme.
